Burnout contests have been around since the dawn of the muslcecar era. And there are two ingredients that make for a successful, winning contestant: horsepower, and sheer lunacy. You see, in order to win said contest, you have to best everyone else. That means you have to lay down more rubber, put up more smoke, and not give two sihts about it.

Our friend Todd Abrams runs A&C Performance, a local (to us) Viper performance shop. Quite a few months ago, we took Todd out in the 2015 Dodge Challenger Hellcat and let him get a taste of the performance aspect of this supercharged 8th wonder of the world, and Todd loved it.

So it was not much of a surprise that this horsepower junkie next door, who’s had his own share of impressive vehicles, decided to indulge in the Hellcatness of 707+ horsepower recently. And in true gearhead DGAS fashion, Todd decided to enter his Hellcat into a burnout contest that you see above, posted to Facebook by Brett Sciuto. He told us, “Well, I had to,” and that pretty much said it all.

Now, you might say that winning the contest isn’t really winning because it ends up costing you a few things, and in this case it cost Todd a couple of new tires at a few hundred dollars, his inner fender liners (which subsequently melted and had to be removed), and that lingering smell of burnt rubber that still surrounds the car like a bad aura on a crooked palm reader in a seedy back alley. But Todd says, “It’s all good, I don’t care. I decided to enter the contest and that’s how it goes.”

So what does Todd have planned for his Hellcat? With this victory that undoubtedly makes him the latest Facebook video star for his fifteen minutes of fame, he already has bigger, wider tires on order and we hear a little tuning to the 6.2 liter Hemi is in order, as well.

We know the Hellcat is capable of more power, and knowing Todd he’s going to dig in there and he’s going to find it. He definitely takes the term “Light ’em up!” to heart, and limped away with some nasty Hellcat burns, much to the delight of the cheering crowd. That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you win a burnout contest. Sort of.