 |
A Demon spinning its tires looks like ordinary internet content until you understand what is happening underneath. This was the first production car with a TransBrake, the first delivered from the factory on drag radials, and the first with an air conditioning system repurposed to chill its own intake air. The burnout was not showing off, it was a required procedure. Read on for what made the 840-horsepower Challenger genuinely unprecedented.
Months before Dodge officially unveiled the Challenger SRT Demon, fans spotted silver, flare-fendered Challengers in an early trailer for The Fate of the Furious, with Vin Diesel appearing in a behind-the-scenes clip alongside one. The car backed up the hype: a supercharged 6.2-liter Hemi V8 making 840 horsepower and 770 lb-ft of torque, good for a 2.3-second 0-60 run. It’s one of the most dramatic factory-to-Hollywood crossovers in modern muscle car history.
The Fast Lane Car set out to verify Dodge’s claim that the 2018 Challenger Demon was the world’s fastest-accelerating production car — and watched it run the quarter mile in 9.65 seconds, bone stock. Getting there required a factory transbrake, adjustable launch control, and a supercharged Hemi V8 pushing well past 800 horsepower. Commenters call it the last true American muscle car for a reason. Watch the full run and hear that supercharger whine for yourself.
Ahead of its New York Auto Show debut, rumors swirled that the Dodge Challenger SRT Demon would ship with just a driver’s seat and nothing else. The rumor turned out to be true, and it was only the beginning of a weight-loss campaign that stripped carpeting, sound-deadening, and even the power steering wheel controls in pursuit of one specific record. Read on to find out exactly how far Dodge went, and what buyers could still get back.
Dodge’s engineers found a strange use for the Demon’s air conditioning system – one that has nothing to do with keeping the cabin cool and everything to do with chasing quarter-mile elapsed times. Jason Fenske breaks down the SRT Power Chiller and After-Run Chiller in exact numbers, down to the degrees Fahrenheit they shave off intake air. It’s the kind of detail hiding in plain sight on a factory spec sheet.