Rob, I assume that you know how the magazines work. They work much like the media does. Quite often they come up with an idea that they want to promote and then the set up some sort of "test" to prove their preconceived theory. If a magazine wanted to show a Challenger Hellcat beating a Tesla in the quarter mile, they could easily do it, just as they can show a Tesla beating a Challenger Hellcat. And yes, I have seen that video that you posted quite some time ago and saw it for what it was, it was, "Gee guys, let's go out and show an electric powered Tesla beating a gasoline engined car with 707 hp."


FYI

Hellcat Challenger Stomps Tesla in Quarter Mile Rematch - Torque News

Hellcat Challenger Stomps Tesla in Quarter Mile Rematch
The 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat driver who took a beating from a new Tesla Model S P85D a few months back has gotten his rematch and this time, the 707 horsepower muscle car handed the world’s quickest EV a proper beating.
Back in January, the internet exploded with talk of an electric Tesla P95D beating the tar out of a new Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat. The EV world insisted that the video showing a well driven Tesla beating a very poorly driven Challenger was proof positive that the electric performance car world had finally taken the lead on the combustion engine segment. However, anyone who knows anything about the performance world could watch that video and see that it wasn’t the Tesla beating the Hellcat – it was the Tesla driver beating the Hellcat driver.
Fortunately, the owner and driver of that Sublime Green Hellcat Challenger was determined to defend the muscle car world, so he spent weeks practicing at the drag strip and we bought a better set of tires. As a result, he was able to get his 707 horsepower Dodge Challenger into the expected 10 second range. Upon getting the experience needed to turn in a respectable quarter mile time, the Hellcat owner put out the call for a rematch and that rematch happened, with another video showing the two high horsepower beats going head to head.

I have been around on the forum a while, as you have and there is a constant flow of people who have bought an XK8 and then come on here hoping to find a way to turn it into a stoplight monster and, as those of us who have been around a while know, there is just no way to do that, short of changing out the engine or some other such extreme measure. In my case, my best friend had a 2001 XK8 when it was new, and back then, it was a relatively quick car in comparison to what else was being produced. His daily driver was a Chrysler 300 with the Hemi and it was at least as quick if not quicker 0-60 than the Jag was. Before I bought mine, I knew that it was a mid six seconds to 60 car and that there are tons of cars being produced these days that are much quicker than that and I am way past that stoplight drag racer stage of my life so the XK8 suites me fine, as I fell in love with the first one that I saw, being the follow up to the XKE that I drooled over as a kid.

 

For me with the interesting part is that with the Tesla;that to drive it quick you just have to hit the peddle. For any of the gas powered high performance cars you really have to know what you are doing to launch it. You get excited and you get embarrassed, badly. Think about it the Hellcat beats the Tesla, its a fricken stock sedan so what. But the Tesla beating the Hellcat especially if the driver screws up you're the laughing stock of social media. My rule is if I see a P85D I pretend they aren't there or just smile and wave no upside to running the car.


Most of the folks that do the bracket racing in cars like the Hellcat or the Tesla aren't experienced and you really need to be experienced with a high performance gas car. Sitting there burning is tame against taking one into a wall or blowing the engine because you got so excited you forgot to shift (fortunately rev limiters help a lot on this last but I've seen some scary runs when folks turn off traction control and go crazy, hell I had the viper sideways on an on-ramp with traction control on a few months ago).


The Jaguar F-Type is actually pretty decent off the line too without a lot of work. The power does you no good if you can't hook up and remember the Tesla is on relatively narrow street tires showcasing how good the electronics. Trust me just try insane mode, nothing takes off like a Tesla short of a dragster. But as I said I'm with you, for the money, the Hellcat is one hell of a ride (though I'd sure as hell put bigger tires on the back).


On the XK8 I had two XK-Es when I was younger and missed those cars, the XKR was kind of taking me back to those days. The second XK-E was a highly modified car with side draft Webbers and a racing cam. Damn near broke me it was so expensive to maintain (would snap spokes on the wheels regularly if I jumped on it). The XK8/R is all of the fun with a fraction of the pain though I'm still tempted to run down a Series III flood XK-E on salvage and put the body on an XKR (this was done in Europe and it basically was a modern XK-E). Something for the future.


Anyway peace, I like the Hellcat too, and for performance I'd buy it over the Tesla. A ton of fun for the price. By the way there is a fully tricked out XKR up on E-Bay at the moment (2000) I posted it in another thread. Guy took it about as far as you can go down the performance path, much farther than my own car. It's worth checking out.


https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...%2432k-142953/


This brings up the other nice thing about the older XKs, you can still work on them. The newer cars are just a bit scary to do more than pulley changes and tunes. We can still go a bit crazy with our cars if we want.