Dodge has become well known for building amazing vehicles just stuffed full of neddies. The 8 liter Dodge Viper took the performance world by storm 20 years ago. Having driven one, it was just an amazing car which you steered with the right foot, not the steering wheel.
However, 20 years later Dodge came out with the Dodge Challenger Hellcat with 700 horses under the bonnet. We had just managed to get our heads around that when at the NY Auto Show last April Dodge comes out with the Challenger SRT Demon, with 840 BHP and boasting of being the fastest production car ever built, claiming an unheard of 9.65 second quarter-mile time at 225 kph through the traps.
To do those numbers, the Demon has 1.8 G launch forces and is speed limited to 270 kph. It will do well over 300 kph if you could let it go.
The Hellcat was modified with 25 major component upgrades including a larger supercharger (2.7 liters vs. 2.4 liters) and a higher redline (6,500 rpm vs. 6,200 rpm).
To produce 840 horsepower, Demon was outfitted with high-flow fuel injectors (that’s 101 pounds per square-inch – or 27 percent more than the 707 horse Hellcat’s 80 PSI). At full power, Demon is drinking 1.36 gallons per minute of high-octane unleaded gasoline – or nearly the same amount of liquid (two gallons per minute) that comes out of your shower head.
So powerful was the Demon’s supercharged V-8 that only a NASCAR-rated dynamometer could hold it for testing.
Demon is the first-ever production car to lift its front wheels – the result of a 2,576-pound weight transfer at launch to the rear which carries the fronts for a Guinness World Record wheelie of 35 inches long.
On 91 octane pump petrol, the Demon produces 808 horsepower and 717 pound-feet of torque. Add the available engine controller (found in the $1 Demon crate full of drag goodies) – calibrated for 100 plus, unleaded, high octane fuel – and you get the full 840 horse/770 torque numbers.
The Demon wears 12.6 inch- Nitto drag racing tires on all four corners (for optimum quarter-mile performance, Dodge recommends replacing the fronts with skinny “rollers” – also in the crate – for lower roll-resistance). An IndyCar’s race tires measure 10 inches wide in front and 14 inches in the rear.
To save 113 pounds of weight, the front and rear passenger seats were removed (they can be optioned back for $1 each).!!!!
For all its steroid-pumped power, the US$86,090 Demon still comes with Fiat-Chrysler’s standard five year/60,000 mile limited powertrain coverage.
Dodge will make 3,000 Demons for the U.S. and 300 for Canada. Deliveries begin later this year. And yes, the standard Dodge warranty goes with the car.
In answer to the question of ‘why’, it can only be ‘because we can’. I loved the Viper, but this Demon is at another level altogether. You would need a running account with B-Quik for tyres every week.
