No doubt, the biggest news this year from the former Pentastar group has been the release of the Hellcats into the wild. The 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat is on its way to the dealerships, while a release date for the Charger SRT Hellcat is simply stated as “early next year”. While we expected to see the Hellcats sitting pretty in the Dodge booth, we did see a few more toys that every grownup would want to play with.

A new Viper with an interesting paint scheme was on display, but we didn’t catch a glimpse of the new Viper ACR that we saw at the SEMA Show. Also on hand were a few other models of interest, namely the Scat Pack Charger in B5 blue brightening up the stage, a couple of 392 Hemi Challengers, and the Dart GTS concept, looking pretty mean for a FWD car.

One display hidden in the back, however, was a grownup toy if we ever saw one: a pair of full size Mopars sitting before multiple screens. It was a full size video game, complete with motorized articulation to simulate the real feeling you’d get from braking, accelerating, and hard cornering. Even the vibration from the engine revving felt pretty realistic.

We saw a familiar face in the crowd as we were leaving, and stopped to have a word with Ralph Gilles, President and CEO of  Chrysler’s Motorsports Division. We shared our recent experience with the SRT Hellcat, which he uses as a daily driver, and has done a few crowd-pleasing burnouts with. Gilles said, “It’s really a remarkable car, I love it. I can easily get 22 miles per gallon without breaking a sweat, and that’s at 70.”

We’ll have our own little documentary of our week-long relationship with the Hellcat Challenger coming up, so be sure to check back. Meanwhile, enjoy some eye candy from the LA Auto Show and Dodge.