When Rob Daughaday, owner of Lucky 13 Tattoo in Mooresville, North Carolina, bought a brand-new 2016 Dodge Challenger R/T Scat Pack in December of 2015, he wasn’t planning on setting any records. In fact, he wasn’t even planning on racing the car at all. He just wanted a fun-to-drive muscle car with the 392-cubic-inch HEMI^® engine and the 6-speed manual transmission. However, while hanging out with friends at the drag strip one night, he decided to make a pass down the quarter-mile and as he puts it, “it spiraled out of control from there.”

Six years later, Daughaday’s Dodge was the first Challenger Scat Pack to run an 8-second quarter-mile, but it was no easy task. Today, we take a look at how he went from running 12s to running 8s.

Starting in the 12s

When Rob Daughaday first started racing his Dodge Challenger R/T Scat Pack, it was more or less stock, with the exception of some aftermarket rear wheels wrapped in drag slicks. Getting traction with 485 horsepower and a 6-speed manual can be tricky, but a good set of tires makes a world of difference. In 2018, he went racing with the Modern Street HEMI Shootout series in the 12.50 index class and he had fair success, but he also ran into a fair number of problems with the 6-speed manual transmission. After rebuilding the stock manual transmission five times during that first season of racing, Daughaday switched from the standard 6-speed to an Andrew’s A431 4-speed transmission (similar to what is used in NASCAR) that improved durability and performance, helping the stock-powered Scat Pack Challenger to get down into the 12s.

The next issue that Daughaday ran into was the rear differential, which he rebuilt four times over the course of four racing events. Once again hoping to improve durability and performance, Daughaday decided to “back-half” the car, removing the stock differential to make room for a Dana 60 and a ladder bar setup. He also added a nitrous oxide system to the engine and with this combination of the bottled 392, the 4-speed and the Dana 60, he got down into the low 11s, allowing him to run in the MSHS 11.50 index class.

While he had come a long way from his stock times, Daughaday wanted to go quicker than 11s with his Dodge Challenger. He began assembling the components to transform this nitrous-fed, manually shifted car into a supercharged beast with an automatic gearbox in the fall of 2019 and a year later, the current drivetrain was installed in this Scat Pack Challenger.

The Big Build

Today, Rob Daughaday’s Dodge Challenger R/T Scat Pack is powered by a 378-cubic-inch Gen III HEMI engine with a BGE block, a Demon crankshaft, Carillo connecting rods, CP pistons that yield a 10:1 compression ratio, hand-ported 6.4-liter BGE cylinder heads with Inconel valves, Manton valvetrain components and – most importantly – a ProCharger F1A94 supercharger. Helping to keep this engine well-fed with VP Race Fuels X85 is an Aeromotive Trifekta in-tank fuel pump system and ID1800 fuel injectors, while a Stage 2 FI Interchiller system works to keep intake air temperatures low. Finally, a G1Pro air/water intake manifold fitted with an Applied Nitrous Technologies fogger system adds the extra power needed to get this Challenger Scat Pack into the 8s. The whole system was tuned by Mass Acceleration Motorsports.

For those wondering, when dyno tested without the nitrous oxide, this Challenger made just shy of 1,100 horsepower at the rear wheels at 7,600 rpm. While we don’t know how much extra power the bottle system adds, we know that on boost alone, this car makes well over a thousand wheel horsepower.

All of that power is sent toward the rear wheels by means of a TH400 transmission with a manual valve body and a transbrake, allowing this car to leave the line at high RPM. This transmission was built by Jon Sipple of Sipple Speed and Performance – one of the top transmission builders in the modern Mopar_® world and a close friend of Rob Daughaday. Sipple has built the transmission of most of the quickest modern Dodge racecars, and while he is best known in the community for his work on the ZF transmissions that come in the Challenger and Charger, he clearly knows how to build a solid TH400 as well. Sipple also helped wrench on other aspects of the car alongside Daughaday, providing far more technical support along the way beyond the transmission build.

Finally, in addition to the ladder bar system and Dana 60 mentioned above, this Dodge Challenger features QA1 double adjustable rear shocks in the factory locations. Up front, he runs factory Challenger SXT (V6 model) struts and springs, which allow for great weight transfer on a hard launch.

Putting the power to the ground is a set of 15×10-inch Billet Specialties Comp5 double beadlock wheels wrapped in 29.5×10.5 Hoosier slicks. Up front, a set of Billet Specialties Streetlife skinnies measuring 17×4.5 inches with 28×5 Mickey Thompson S/R fronts keep the car pointed in the proper direction.

Near-Stock Appearance

While the drivetrain and suspension systems of this Dodge Challenger R/T Scat Pack have been heavily modified to run in the 8s, the car looks more or less stock, inside and out.

On the outside,  Daughaday has added an SRT^® Hellcat-style hood for the extra clearance over the intake manifold, along with swapping the Scat Pack splitter with a smaller unit from a Challenger SXT. The Scat Pack splitter adds more downforce at speed than is needed on the drag strip, while the SXT version provides less drag with just a touch of downforce. The only other changes from stock are the wheels, tires and the addition of a few decals here and there.

On the inside, this Dodge Challenger Scat Pack has the stock dashboard, door panels, carpeting and rear seats. The standard driver’s seat was replaced with a Kirkey racing seat for safety’s sake and the standard passenger’s seat was removed to make room for a RAM mount that holds the laptop that Daughaday uses for datalogging during his track time. The only other additions to the interior are for safety, including an 8.50-certified roll cage, a 6-point driver’s harness and a window net. With Daughaday in the driver’s seat, this Challenger weighs 4,430 pounds when it hits the track.

Ultimately, Rob Daughaday’s goal was to get his Dodge Challenger R/T Scat Pack into the 8s. When he did so, he was unaware that he was the first Scat Pack owner/driver to get into the 8-second range. Rob ran an 8.939 at 156.93 miles per hour, making his Challenger the first and only Scat Pack car to run in the 8s, but he isn’t done yet. He is still sorting the car out with the current build, so with more tuning and more seat time, there is no question that this Scat Pack Challenger will get further into the 8-second range.