{"id":53877,"date":"2021-08-05T12:02:19","date_gmt":"2021-08-05T16:02:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/?p=53877"},"modified":"2024-03-25T11:21:07","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T15:21:07","slug":"late-to-the-party-but-first-to-the-finish-kevin-helmick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/gallery\/2021\/08\/late-to-the-party-but-first-to-the-finish-kevin-helmick.html","title":{"rendered":"Late to the Party, but First to the Finish: Kevin Helmick"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For those who are not aware, there are only a few SRT\u00ae<\/sup> Hellcats\nthat run the quarter-mile in under 8 seconds. We\u2019re talking about actual\nproduction cars with no major modifications to the production Hellcat engine. One is\nthe long-time leader, Leon Epling, with his car \u201c007\u201d. We\nhave covered the Epling family and their journey to “World\u2019s Fastest Hellcat”<\/a>\nmany times on the site. It turns out there was a certain fella lurking in the\ndark waiting to come and shake him down. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kevin Helmick, the lurker, got into the “Game of Cat Thrones” a little bit later than most of us. As a young man, in a decade we won\u2019t mention, Kevin was heavily into hot rods and racing. However, he was forced to put his race passion on the back burner due to his choice to become a career military man. As all of you know, you can take the man out of the hot rod, but you can\u2019t take the hot rod out of the man. Residing in New Bern, North Carolina, where he runs his own defense contracting business, Kevin wasn\u2019t really paying much attention to the latest domestic hot rod world and hadn\u2019t in many years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Two<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Fast-forward to 2018 and a simple conversation set a new stage for Kevin. Keep in mind: this is three years after the SRT Hellcat was released. The Epling gang was already running 8s in their SRT Hellcat with several others on their heels and there were plenty of SRT Hellcats running low 9s. Kevin\u2019s son, Tanner, had just started Naval Academy. Tanner approached his father, I must assume somewhat jokingly, and said, \u201cSince you don\u2019t have to pay for college, maybe you can help me get a new car.\u201d I picture Tanner sort of shrugging his shoulders with a slight wince with anticipation of possibly being smacked in the back of the head for asking something so absurd. I\u2019m happy to report that no slaps across the back of the head happened and with that, the father\/son duo headed down to the local Dodge dealership and started browsing the inventory of Dodge Challenger Scat Pack and R\/T models. An all-black, somewhat-meaner-looking Challenger tucked away in the corner caught Kevin\u2019s eye. It was an unsold 2016 Challenger SRT Hellcat with a 6-speed manual transmission. Tanner explained to his father that this car was an SRT Hellcat, and much more expensive and out of their price range.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Two<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Kevin called the Mrs., \u201cWell we have a problem. I bought\nTanner a car.\u201d Obviously, not aware of what the boys were getting into, his wife\nasks, \u201cSo what exactly is the problem with that?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have to go buy one for me, as well.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As luck would have it, Kevin was able to find another 2016 Black Challenger SRT Hellcat, but this time with an automatic transmission and instantly fell in love. The HEMI\u00ae<\/sup> fever struck and Kevin immediately decided to get back into racing. At that moment he knew he wanted to build the fastest SRT Hellcat in the world. This would be no easy task being over 3 years behind the curve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dodge<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Kevin started calling fabricators around the region asking anyone who would listen to hack up his brand-new SRT Hellcat. He was ready to build a racecar. Most of us don\u2019t and can\u2019t go buy a brand-new $60- to $80-thousand-dollar car with hopes to hack it to pieces right away. Kevin was surprised by how many people turned him down, refusing to \u201cdestroy\u201d a brand-new hot rod. His search led him to a local fabricator named Jason Brazzel of Brazzel Peformance Fabrication. The conversation went much better this time as Kevin heard exactly what he needed to hear from a fabricator. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kevin: \u201cI have a brand-new Hellcat, I need someone to chop it up and build a custom chassis and get rid of some weight, is that a problem?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jason: \u201cProblem? I\u2019ll chop up anything.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kevin: \u201cYou\u2019re hired!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Drag<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Kevin decided to get familiar with the car for a bit, racing it in more of a streetcar-build as most of the community does. Running your typical bolt-on parts such as smaller supercharger pulley, injectors, alternate fuels, exhaust work, etc. His goal was to get into the 9s with minimal bolt-ons and that goal proved to be no problem. In January 2019, after racing roughly a year in this modest bolt-on setup, Kevin decided the time had come to really get started on making his car a full-blown racecar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dodge<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Kevin outfitted the shop at his house with all the tools and equipment Brazzel needed to build the car how Kevin wanted. The team custom built an all-new rear and front chassis and outfitted the car with a full, certified cage, and pulled out as much weight and extras that they could in order to reduce weight. The goal was to build the chassis to be able to handle more power than they would likely ever make. With the new chassis and cage meeting safety regulations and all the extra weight being removed, they were able to drop about 400 lbs. off the car. <\/p>\n\n\n\n