Dodge set out to build a Challenger that beat its own 707-horsepower Hellcat and back it up with more onboard technology than any SRT before it. The Demon’s New York Auto Show debut delivered both: an 840-horsepower Hemi and drag-strip-specific tech most manufacturers reserve for actual race cars. It’s proof that fast and sophisticated don’t have to be mutually exclusive in Detroit.
Posts Tagged: Dodge
This 1968 lineup photo puts three very different Dodges side by side: the lightweight Dart GTS, the full-size Coronet R/T, and the radically styled Charger R/T. Each one represented a different bet on what muscle car buyers wanted that year, light weight and agility, big-block brute force, or head-turning design. The Coronet R/T’s Hemi option was built in numbers so small that survivors are among the rarest Mopars around today. Which one would you have driven off the lot in 1968?
Rumors chasing the Dodge Challenger SRT Demon”s horsepower figure climbed past 900 before SRT”s engineers ever finished their own testing. When the official SAE-certified number finally landed, it told a different story — one backed by an NHRA-certified quarter-mile run instead of internet speculation. Here is what the real number turned out to be, and why it did not need any exaggeration to make history.
This triple black 1971 Dodge Challenger R/T carries the paperwork of Mr. Norm’s Grand-Spaulding Dodge, the Chicago dealership famous for building factory Hemi muscle cars regular buyers could special-order off the showroom floor. Under the hood sits a 425-horsepower 426 Hemi, built in the final model year before compression ratios and horsepower ratings changed for good. Mopar fans in the comments call it a dream car outright. Watch to see why documentation matters as much as horsepower on a car like this.
The SRT Demon captured headlines with 840 horsepower and a waiting list that filled overnight, but Dodge had quietly been selling something nearly as ferocious for years before the Demon ever existed. The Challenger SRT Hellcat skips the race fuel, the stripped interior, and the six-figure markups while still delivering 707 horsepower you can drive to work. Read on to find out why buyers chasing supercharged Hemi drama might already have the better deal.
A 383-cubic-inch engine putting down almost exactly 383 horsepower is the kind of coincidence that doesn’t happen often enough for anyone to plan around it — but that’s exactly what this blue 1968 Dodge Charger did on the dyno at a Mopar show in Avondale, Arizona. Three pulls, real numbers, and an exhaust note commenters called worth hearing all the way to redline.
Behind the muscle cars rolling through the South East Moparty Picnic is a Hollywood footnote almost nobody knows — the 1971 Hemi ‘Cuda convertible Don Johnson drove in Nash Bridges wasn’t really a ’71 at all, because Plymouth only ever built eleven or twelve of the real thing. Here’s how three modified 1970 convertibles became one of TV’s most famous muscle cars, and why Mopar loyalists still argue about it today.
The first car ever to wear the Dodge Charger name was built to introduce America to the 426 Hemi, but the engine slated for it got pulled at the last minute to save a race team’s season. What actually powered this showcar for years was a secret hiding in plain sight. Decades later, a full restoration finally gave it the Hemi it was always supposed to have, and turned it into a seven-figure piece of Mopar history.
Nick’s Garage pulled a rare 1970 Dodge Challenger T/A Six Pack out of nine years of storage and waited until after closing to attempt the first start alone. A 340ci engine that’s sat that long can seize, hydro-lock, or simply refuse to catch — and the only way to know is to turn the key. Watch to see which way it goes.
When Fiat Chrysler finally attached a price tag to the Durango SRT, the 475-horsepower, 12.9-second-quarter-mile three-row SUV suddenly looked less like an expensive halo vehicle and more like a genuine bargain. Executive Tim Kuniskis called it America’s fastest SUV, and the numbers backed up the claim in ways few family haulers had ever matched. Read on to find out exactly what the sticker included, and how Dodge justified putting Hellcat-adjacent performance into a school-run vehicle.
Rear-wheel drive and snow have never gotten along, and every muscle car owner has learned to accept that. Dodge decided the Challenger didn’t have to follow that rule and built the segment’s first factory all-wheel-drive system instead. Here’s how the AWD Challenger GT actually decides when to send power to all four corners, and why it’s still a real muscle car underneath.
A custom shop barely a year and a half old rolled four vehicles onto the SEMA 2016 floor, including a Plymouth ‘Cuda wearing a full carbon-fiber body built from parts customers could actually buy. That wasn’t the only rule getting rewritten that year — Dodge introduced the first all-wheel-drive American muscle car, and one shop found a way to add twin turbochargers on top of an already-supercharged Hellcat engine. Read on to find out how far builders were willing to push the muscle car formula.
Before a single Demon rolled off the line, FCA Powertrain engineers set themselves an internal goal that sounded impossible in 2015: a 9-second quarter mile with the front wheels lifting off the ground. Dodge revived a forgotten badge last used on a 1970s compact to carry that mission, and eventually delivered on every part of the promise. Read on to find out how close the finished Demon actually came to that original engineering target.
For five years the Shelby GT500 nameplate sat dormant while rivals kept shipping ever-more-powerful factory monsters. Then camouflaged prototypes started turning up at Virginia International Raceway wearing a roll cage and a leaked oil spec sheet that hinted at serious horsepower. Read on to find out what those spy photos gave away, and how the finished car compared to the speculation.
This 1978 Dodge D150 Warlock traded work-truck practicality for gold pinstripes, real oak bed rails, and bucket seats, part of Dodge’s factory-customized ‘Adult Toys’ lineup aimed at buyers who wanted a pickup with attitude. Few of these survive in good condition today. Read on to find out what made the Warlock different from every other truck on the lot.
