Top speed. We talk about it. We look at specs. We rarely test it. Most owners buy a fast car and never really ask how fast it actually goes. Then there is the Dodge owner in Georgia who decided to find out the hard way. Over the holiday weekend, police clocked this driver at 100-miles-per-hour plus.
Specifically? 172 mph.
That is just eight mph under the Durango SRT Hellcat’s advertised limit of 180 mph. No that’s not km/h. Definitely not a typo either.
The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office shared the stop as a warning for Memorial Day safety. Standard spiel: buckle up. Put the phone away. Don’t drive drunk. But nobody cares about the slogans right now. The number sticks. 172 mph in a vehicle meant to carry three rows of screaming teenagers is absurd. Even wilder? They did it on public roads without turning anyone else into a physics problem.
It is hard to grasp what kind of machine pulls this off.
The Durango isn’t a stripped-out track toy. It’s a family hauler. Room for seven. Enough space to fit that expensive flat-screen TV from Costco. And sitting under the hood is a supercharged 6.2L V8 making 710 horses. Heavy though. We’re talking roughly 5,800 lbs. A three-ton brick moving faster than most jets land.
Think about the reaction time. Or lack thereof.
The Sheriff said at these speeds, you cross a football field before your brain processes a blink. Math checks out. 252 feet per second means a standard field disappears in 1.2 seconds. Barely enough time to realize traffic stopped while you barrel toward them.
Why do we build cars like this that are legally allowed on streets meant for 65 mph? 🚗💨
At 172 mph… barely enough time to process that traffic ahead.
