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After weeks and weeks of video, teasers, and enigmatic numerical easter eggs, the Dodge SRT Demon was finally unveiled, ahead of the New York International Auto Show. And the figures Dodge were able to squeeze out of the new drag strip terror are staggering.
Admittedly, a lot of people were hoping we would see a four-digit horsepower figure — those people were left disappointed. That’s not to say the actual figure of 840 horsepower (that’s 8-4-0) that Dodge claim the Demon puts out is a complete waste of everybody’s time. It’s really what the Demon does with all that power — plus 770 lb-ft of torque (that’s 7-7-0) — that sends jaws to the floor. Like hitting just under 2 Gs in acceleration off the line while lifting the front wheels nearly three feet off the ground.
Dodge isn’t trying to compete with Ford’s GT350 or Chevy’s Camaro ZL1. This much Dodge made clear when Dodge’s Tim Kuniskis said the following: “We wanted to build a car for the NHRA, not the PTA.” So it’s a different kind of track car, the type that only prefers quarter-mile strips.
Speaking of quarter miles, the Demon is capable of devouring those in 9.65 seconds at 140 mph, which forced the NHRA to “officially ban” the Demon from any production-car-based competition, because it’s “too damn fast,” as Dodge put it. It’ll also do 0-60 in 2.3 seconds and 0-100 in 5.1 seconds and is the first production car that’ll do a wheelie from a standing start. That is pretty damn fast.
The Hellcat blew us away by sheer horsepower alone, and now the Demon is here to make us rethink what a production car can do at the drag strip. While amazing, and, I’m sure, incredible to experience firsthand, something tells me Dodge has just made the last great American muscle car. It’s all power and fantastic noise, but its talent is limited to 9.65 seconds over 1,320 feet. What next?
But, just to be clear, that doesn’t mean I’m not looking forward to putting all these figures to the test — or converting the rear tires into plumes of smoke.
