One thousand and twenty-five horsepower on E85 from the manufacturing facility. Zero to 60 in 1.66 seconds, and greater than 2 g at launch. 1 / 4-mile time of 8.91 seconds at 151.17 mph. Skinny tires up entrance and steamrollers within the again. An infinite 3.0-liter supercharger, the biggest ever fitted to a manufacturing automobile. A $96,666 base value. These are simply among the numbers that make up the Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170 – the ultimate Challenger after 15 years available on the market. There actually isn’t any higher technique to say farewell to Dodge’s infamous coupe.
Try a full gallery of Demon 170 images proper right here!
The Challenger Demon 170’s quarter-mile time is so quick, the automobile is banned by the NHRA as a result of it doesn’t have a parachute or a roll cage, objects required for any automobile that runs the quarter-mile in lower than 9 seconds. Don’t fear, although. Dodge will promote you a chute for the Demon 170 by means of its Direct Connection in-house efficiency components catalog.
To be truthful, that quarter-mile time goes to be robust to attain. As with the 2018 Demon, you’re going to wish a prepped drag strip floor and loads of ability to get essentially the most out of the Demon 170. However should you nail it, you’ll have the ability to get each entrance wheels within the air.
How the Challenger Demon 170 Got here to Be
The Demon 170 traces its origins again to a parking zone exterior of SRT’s headquarters in Detroit, Michigan. Workers held a socially-distanced gathering there in the course of the top of the COVID-19 pandemic to determine what to do concerning the Challenger. The 2018 Demon was constructed with the intention of being the ultimate, final Challenger, primarily based on the platform that had been in steady manufacturing since 2008. However the Challenger stored promoting, and Dodge CEO Tim Kuniskis says the mixture of the pandemic and FCA’s merger with PSA to kind Stellantis gave the Challenger just a few extra years to reside. The automaker even put aside a special-project price range to ship the massive coupe out with a bang.
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The automobile that resulted from this parking-lot brainstorm follows in Stellantis’s lengthy line of what Kuniskis referred to as “batshit loopy” Challengers at a media preview unveiling the Demon 170. SRT has somewhat little bit of a “let’s do our personal factor” mantra, as Kuniskis places it. That’s how Dodge ended up promoting greater than 80,000 Hellcats.
You could keep in mind the marginally odd “Final Name” teasers Dodge revealed on YouTube in February that includes a leprechaun. We lastly know what the leprechaun is all about. The Challenger Demon 170 is known as for the E85 gas that makes its 1,025 horsepower potential — ethanol, 170-proof. At a media preview, Kuniskis described the Challenger Demon 170 as being loads like a leprechaun for 3 necessary causes: “It’s quick, it drinks on a regular basis, and should you catch it, you get its pot of gold.” Kuniskis additionally stated the leprechaun idea got here to him in a dream. That rocks.
The Challenger Demon 170 Engine and Drivetrain
It takes loads to make a automobile as heavy because the Challenger Demon 170 get from 0-60 in simply 1.66 seconds, as Dodge claims. (That quantity is achieved with a one-foot rollout, however Dodge says with out rollout the 0-60 time continues to be underneath 2 seconds.) To make all that occur, Dodge created a supercharged 6.2-liter V8 engine that may pump out 1,025 horsepower at 6,500 rpm and 945 lb-ft of torque at 4,200 rpm when operating on E85 — or 900 horsepower and 810 lb-ft of torque on E10 pump fuel — and beefed up the remainder of the drivetrain to take care of it. Dodge says the one engine part shared with lesser supercharged fashions is the camshaft.
Up prime, an infinite 3.0-liter supercharger (larger than the Demon’s 2.8-liter blower) pushes 40 p.c extra enhance than the one within the 797-hp Hellcat Redeye — 21.3 psi at most. The engine has new pistons, rods, and cylinder head studs. Dodge says the Demon 170’s most cylinder stress is 2,500 psi – 50 p.c larger than a Redeye.
Whereas the Demon 170 prefers to run on E85, the automobile can run on any mixture of ethanol. Dodge says the Demon 170 continually screens its gas, analyzing the ethanol content material and tailoring the gas supply and spark timing to take most benefit of no matter ethanol is current. At any focus above 65 p.c ethanol, the ECU offers you the total 1,025 hp.
It gained’t come as a shock to study that the gas mileage goes to be brutal. We don’t have actual figures but, however Kuniskis referred to as it “horrible,” explaining that the injectors within the Demon 170 can stream 164 gallons per hour at wide-open throttle. However you’ll by no means have the ability to do this, as a result of at WOT the Demon 170 empties its total 18.5-gallon fuel tank in simply 5 minutes.
The remainder of the driveline is equally bulked-up. Kuniskis says the brand new driveshaft is 30 p.c stronger than the 2018 Demon’s, and the differential is a whopping 50 p.c stronger. Not every thing is all new, although. Dodge says the entrance suspension of the automobile is carried over from the common Demon. The Demon 170 is about 25 kilos heavier than its 2018 sibling, although the 170 is 157 kilos lighter than a Challenger Hellcat Redeye Widebody — however provided that you go for essentially the most hardcore setup, with no passenger seats, no trunk lining, and a downgraded audio system.
The Demon 170 additionally will get a revised model of the trans brake – referred to as TransBrake 2.0 – from the 2018 Demon for hard-hitting drag strip launches. If you understand what you’re doing, you possibly can change the torque output in every gear, individually, to maximise your grip as your roar down the quarter-mile. In case you do this proper, you’ll have the ability to push the fuel pedal right down to the ground and rocket off with out shedding traction or adjusting throttle.
There’s just one key for the Demon 170: The purple one. No dialed-back black key on this man. You’re getting all the facility on a regular basis.
The Wheels and Tires
Though the Demon 170 is a pair dozen kilos heavier than the common Demon, Kuniskis says the load achieve could be even larger if it wasn’t for just a few kilos saved within the wheels and tires. Non-compulsory carbon-fiber wheels made by Lacks Enterprises shave just a few kilos of unsprung weight.
Whichever wheels you select, they’ll come wrapped in DOT-approved Mickey Thompson ET Avenue R drag radials — supplied right here on a manufacturing facility manufacturing automobile for the primary time ever, with a rubber compound customized tailor-made to the Demon 170.
These tires imply enterprise. They’re good for laying down lap instances, however not a lot else. Up entrance, you’ll discover skinny 245/55R-18s on 18-by-8-inch wheels, and on the again you’ve received monstrous 315/50R-17s on 17-by-11-inch wheels. Not like the final Demon, with this new tire setup, there’s no want to vary the entrance wheels out for skinnies to put down a greater drag time.
The rear wheels are an inch smaller in diameter to extend sidewall top to assist with the “wrinkle impact,” Dodge stated, the place the rear tires deform on a tough launch and put extra rubber in touch with the monitor.
The Demon 170 on the Exterior
Some weight financial savings additionally come from the Demon 170’s altered bodywork. The very first thing you discover about this automobile is that the Widebody fender flares are solely on the again.
The rear flares, coupled with the extraordinarily staggered wheel-and-tire setup, provides the automobile an actual dragster look. The big Air-Grabber hood scoop comes straight from the 2018 Demon.
Alongside the hood is an etching that reads “Alcohol Injected.” Dodge says the Demon 170 is obtainable in 14 totally different coloration choices. The Demon badge on the entrance fenders has been reworked, now that includes a “170″ neck tattoo (that is the time period Dodge used to explain it) and yellow eyes that pay homage to the automobile’s thirst for corn-derived ethanol.
Getting Your Arms on a Challenger Demon 170
Challenger SRT Demon 170 pricing begins at a devilish $96,666, an insane cut price for a automobile with Bugatti horsepower. Dodge hasn’t launched possibility pricing simply but on the Challenger 170, however I can promise you that even when you choose each single possibility, this would be the most cost-effective 1,000-hp automobile you should purchase.
Proper now, Dodge plans to construct 3,000 Demon 170s for the U.S. and an additional 300 for Canada. That will put Demon 170 manufacturing proper in step with the unique Demon — however Kuniskis says that’s extra of a hope than a objective. Manufacturing is slated to start in July, and ends for good on December 31, 2023, so nonetheless many have been constructed by then, that’s it.
Fortunate Demon 170 patrons won’t get a Demon Crate like Dodge supplied in 2018. There’s no want, since all the necessary efficiency components are already put in. As a substitute, they’ll get some alcohol-themed trinkets like a Demon 170 decanter with matching tumblers and shot glasses with the proprietor’s title and the automobile’s VIN etched into them.
Lastly, identical to the unique Demon, anybody who buys a Demon 170 must signal and notarize a letter stating that they perceive how wild this automobile is — should you crash and die as a result of it rained somewhat bit, it isn’t Dodge’s fault.
The subsequent muscle automobile from Dodge is going to be an EV. It seems to be very promising, but it surely’s going to have a tough job following up what this Challenger has performed for the Dodge model over the previous decade and a half. It’s the tip of the highway for this technology of Challenger, and as at all times, Dodge refuses to let it go quietly into the night time.
Ordering books for the 2023 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170 open on March twenty seventh at DodgeGarage.com, and shut on Might fifteenth. Dodge says it would give first precedence to sellers who decide to promoting the Demon 170 at MSRP.
