HELL SLED

DODGE MAKES ANOTHER DEAL WITH THE DEVIL, THIS TIME FOR 1,025 HP

- ERIC TINGWALL

The Hellcat era is ending the same way it began back in 2015: with an obscene amount of horsepower, a devil-may-care attitude, and almost complete indifference toward handling. The 2023 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170—the last of Dodge’s Last Call combustion muscle cars—is a 1,025-hp street-legal drag racer that rolls out of the factory with the claimed ability to rip off a 1.66-second 0–60 time and an 8.91-second quarter mile at 151.2 mph on a prepped dragstrip.

If those numbers hold up, the Demon 170 will be among the quickest production cars ever built, at any price. Its competition, as far as straight-line performance is concerned, amounts to the $111,630 Tesla Model S Plaid and a handful of supercars and hypercars, all of which channel their thrust to the ground through four wheels. Those cars make the Demon look like a bargain propelled by black magic. It starts at $100,361 (a cheeky $96,666 before destination and gas-guzzler tax) and dispatches its 945 lb-ft of torque through only the rear tires.

Dodge CEO Tim Kuniskis is adamant this new car isn’t simply a modified Challenger Hellcat or an upgraded version of the 2018 Challenger SRT Demon. To make the point, he holds up a camshaft and says, “This is what’s left of the Demon engine.” He’s exaggerating, of course, but Dodge engineers replaced more components than they originally planned on just to keep the engines from self-destructing. The list includes new pistons, connecting rods, crankshaft, crank bearings, and billet main caps. To cope with the immense pressure in the combustion chambers, the cylinder-head bolts are replaced with studs.