The SRT Demon Will Send You To Hell

Well Dodge finally did it.  As if the Hellcat wasn’t crazy enough they revealed the Dodge SRT Demon.  A Dodge Challenger with an 840hp supercharged 6.2-liter Hemi putting out 770 pounds-feet of torque.   They are desperately trying to market this as a big time first, like it’s never been done ever.  Well technically that’s not true.  Ford makes the Cobra Jet Mustang and Chevrolet makes the COPO Camaro.  Both are serious drag strip ready cars you can buy from the dealer and  they will smoke the SRT Demon.  The biggest difference here is that Ford and Chevy aren’t stupid enough to release those cars as street legal vehicles.  Dodge is bragging how the NHRA banned the SRT Demon from competition but frankly I’m shocked that the NHRA has shown more concern than Dodge in the safety of drivers.

The Cobra Jet & COPO are strictly for track use only and that’s a wise decision.  A car that does the quarter mile in 9 seconds (Dodge claims 9.65 sec with the Demon) is not something the average Joe has any idea how to drive.  Generally 9 second cars are built by people that obsess over cars and are experienced behind the wheel.  Frankly I find it really negligent that Dodge is willing to put these in the hands of anyone that can write the check.  Also how will these ever get insured?  There is a rumor that Hagerty Insurance has partnered with Dodge to offer insurance for customers because they expect other companies to decline coverage.

I drive a 2014 Shelby Cobra with 662hp and it is a handful on the street.  Car mechanics that have driven it have said, “My god that thing is insane. How do you drive that?” It is nothing compared to the SRT Demon.  Dodge is flashing the Demon around like a monkey with a gun.

Below is the Demon video but also videos of the Cobra Jet and Copo from last year.  Which seems meaner to you?

The New 2018 Dodge What??

UPDATE: Did Dodge take down the teaser video??

So Dodge put out a teaser video for a new Challenger model.  The Dodge Challenger SRT Demon?  Huh? But the Dodge Demon and the Dodge Challenger are separate cars?? It’s like calling a car Dodge Charger Challenger SRT R/T Demon Duster Hellcat Ram.  So from the extremely lame video it shows presumably a Hellcat drinking racing fuel and becoming a Demon?

I'm sorry Dodge but you lost me.  Are you saying it will be a track only car since it's drinking racing fuel?  Are you saying this is a Dodge racing car you'll be using in race events?  I can't imagine you're saying it's a model above the Hellcat because nobody needed 707 hp so why would they need even more??

1971 Dodge Demon

To be clear the Dodge Demon came out in 1971 and was originally like a faster version of the Dart so it was kind of a Dart Demon much like the Duster was a variant of the Valiant which is why 1970 Dusters say Valiant and Duster on them.  In no way was the Demon any relation to the Challenger.  The Demon was what they called an A-body car and Challenger was an E-body car.  I own a Duster 340 and I admit the Demon is a cooler variant but frankly they are the same cars.

However as we've seen in the past Dodge has no respect for it's heritage and will slap any logo on anything which is how we end up with a Caravan R/T.  So the fact that they screw their names up even more doesn't surprise me.  What does surprise me is that they feel they need a more powerful car over the Hellcat.  I guess the Hellcat was the biggest buzz they've had in awhile and want to repeat it but who know's what they heck it's gonna be.  Hellcat is supposed to be the code name for the engine so maybe they are saying a new hot engine to replace the Hellcat? As you can see below the logo is clearly a variation of the Hellcat logo.

The coolest thing that could happen with this (but won't) would be if they somehow dropped the Hellcat engine into one of the new Darts and called it a Demon.  That would follow heritage at least but would be an insane monster car.