Fresh Dodge Demon Is the Fastest Production Car in the World, Can Even Pop a Wheelie
by Paul A. Eisenstein
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The news came in a letter from the National Hot Rod Association. A prototype of the fresh Dodge Demon had set an all-time dragstrip record, hitting one hundred forty at the end of the quarter mile in just 9.65 seconds. Oh, and the NHRA added, it was banning the fresh muscle car from production before the very first model officially spinned off the production line.
“That was the highlight of my twenty five years in the business,” said Tim Kuniskis, the head of passenger cars for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles in North America, as a crowd of journalists and muscle car fans descended on the stage after the formal debut of the fresh Dodge Demon in Fresh York Tuesday night.
After a two-month teaser campaign that drew millions of views on social media, there was a palpable pressure at Pier 94, along the Hudson Sea waterfront where the Challenger-based Demon made its debut.
And, as the lights dimmed, fireworks popped and the ungodly coupe burst out of its “cage,” the crowd wasn’t disappointed, the Demon launching into a smoky burnout that photographers struggled to go after.
The World’s Most Powerful V-8 Can Even Pop a Wheelie
The numbers are, fairly simply, astounding. The supercharged 6.2-liter V-8 will make anywhere from eight hundred eight to eight hundred forty horsepower, and seven hundred seventeen to eight hundred eight pound-feet of torque, depending on which package a customer orders.
That’s enough to launch the Demon from zero to sixty in a mere Two.Trio seconds, making it not only the most powerful V-8 ever to roll out of a factory but also the fastest production car in the world. Period.
Foot plane to the floor a driver will practice 1.Trio Gs of force throwing them back into the car’s sport seat — and in the fastest version there will be only one seat, for the driver, tho’ as this four-wheeled brute is street legal, buyers can opt for a passenger seat and even a backseat if they want to haul around family and friends in high-speed splendor.
Indeed, one of the most amazing things about the Demon is the fact that it is entirely street legal. It meets federal emissions standards and has a real factory warranty.
“We desired to be the best at the most,” said Kuniskis, noting that the Demon has even been certified by the Guinness Book of World Records as the only production car capable of performing a wheelie.
The Demon starts out with the same Challenger coupe as the already extraordinaire Dodge Challenger Hellcat that seemed hard to imagine when, two years ago, it screeched onto the scene making seven hundred seven hp. Dodge officials calmly hinted there was room to squeeze even more power out of that engine. But getting there and keeping it legal — and reliable — turned out to be more of a challenge than they might have very first expected.
“This is a entire fresh engine,” explained Kuniskis. Well, not entirely so, but close enough.
The supercharger is fatter, there’s a fresh Chill Air system that actually hijacks the standard air conditioning system to cool intake air by as much as forty five degrees on a hot day, cooler, denser air translating into significantly better spectacle.
Virtually every element of the Demon has been hardened, from the crankshaft and pistons to the driveline and axles. There’s some sophisticated electronics controlling the entire system to make sure as much power reaches the pavement as possible. Smoky tires make fine photos but they lose races.
Speaking of tires, those black donuts often don’t get the respect they deserve, but they may be the real key to ensuring the Four,200-pound Demon produces on the promise of that massive drivetrain. They’re as big as anything put on a production car, the wheels measuring eighteen by eleven inches and the tires a gooey 315/40R15 Nitto design, the first-ever street-legal cheaters — just brief of utter track slicks.
Pretty Affordable Price Tag
As if it didn’t have enough on its engineering plate, Dodge even had to make sure buyers would be able to insure the fresh Demon, lining up exotic and classic car specialist Hagerty Insurance as the official backer.
While Dodge officials won’t discuss the cost of the project, they admit it wasn’t cheap. They also exposed that they ran the project as a skunkworks program, hoping corporate beancounters wouldn’t kill it.
They’re not going to make the development costs back on sales. According to Kuniskis, the target is just a limited run of Three,300 of these ultimate muscle cars, three hundred for Canada and the rest targeted for American buyers.
Pricing hasn’t been determined, tho’ the “intention” is to keep the figure below $100,000.” By comparison, exotic cars making anywhere near the Demon’s spectacle numbers can surge into the multi-million dollar range.
“It’s not about selling lots of cars,” said Kuniski. “It’s about getting every Dodge holder and possible customer to look at this and want to be part of the Dodge brand.”
That shouldn’t be difficult considering the attention the fresh Dodge Demon is already getting.