The 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon produces 840 horsepower on 100-octane fuel, but only after buyers install the factory Demon Crate PCM upgrade, without it, the car is capped at 808 hp. A pre-loaded boost system called Torque Reserve helped it run a 9.65-second quarter mile at 140 mph, quick enough that the NHRA banned it from sanctioned competition altogether. It remains one of the only production cars with a factory warranty that a racing body refused to let compete.
You have to get the timing just right. Executing the perfect drag racing launch is a delicate dance; klutz up the steps, and you’re in for embarrassment.
Buckled in to a 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis, I’m not gunning for a world record. I’m just trying not to humiliate myself on my first day at a drag strip. Demon launch procedure feels like it came from a NASA handbook, a series of instructions to be performed in exacting succession. I tap the touchscreen to engage Line Lock, mash the brake pedal, and hold the steering wheel button to lock the front wheels. Next, goose the accelerator, lighting up the rear tires in a ten-second burnout before releasing the button and easing into the staging lights.
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NHRA officials looked at this car and decided it couldn’t be allowed to race. Not because it broke a rule exactly, but because it was too fast, too consistently, for a production car with a factory warranty. Dodge built it anyway, made the passenger seat optional, and shipped it to dealers with a warning that it needed a specific fuel additive to unlock its full potential. Order the wrong grade of gas and you’d only get most of the power. Order the right one, flip the right switch, and something changes under the hood that most owners will never fully understand.
Banned Before It Ever Raced
The Challenger SRT Demon produces 840 horsepower and 770 lb-ft of torque when fed 100-octane fuel through its supercharged 6.2-liter HEMI V-8, dropping to a still-absurd 808 hp on 91-octane pump gas. That extra power required a one dollar Demon Crate option containing a reprogrammed powertrain control module and a dashboard-mounted switch, without which the car simply won’t access its full output. The NHRA banned the Demon from competition entirely, citing performance capabilities that exceeded what its safety rules were built to handle, an almost unheard-of distinction for a car sold with a factory warranty.
The Trick That Lifts the Front Wheels
Getting all 840 horsepower to the pavement instead of into a wheelie relies on Torque Reserve, a system that closes the supercharger bypass valve once engine speed hits 950 rpm, effectively pre-loading boost before the driver even leaves the line. Combined with a launch-control system called TransBrake, the Demon can complete the quarter mile in 9.65 seconds at 140 mph, a number that made it the quickest production car in the world at its debut, muscle car or otherwise.
A First Drive Unlike Any Other Muscle Car Review
Reviewers who got early seat time in the Demon consistently noted that the driving experience bore almost no resemblance to a standard Challenger, from the way the car squatted and loaded its rear tires before launch to the violence of the initial hit once Torque Reserve released. It was less a quick car in the traditional muscle car sense and more a purpose-built drag racing tool that happened to come with air conditioning and a warranty.
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