Dodge has unleashed the Demon. The Fiat Chrysler brand is laying claim to the fastest production car in the U.S.
The Demon Challenger is a 840-horsepower 770 pound-feet of torque monster. It can go from zero to 60 (97 kilometres per hour) in 2.3 seconds. The street-legal Demon also can hit 140 mph while running a quarter mile in 9.65 seconds, about two seconds faster than a typical muscle car.
Dodge turned up the juice on the Challenger SRT Hellcat’s 707 hp 6.2-liter supercharged engine. It updated more than half of its parts and added a laundry list of production-first and high tech features.
Instead of a simple cold air intake, the Demon cools things down by routing refrigerant from its air conditioner system through a chilling unit that helps drop the temperature of the ambient air by up to 45 degrees before the supercharger stuffs it into the cylinder.
The Demon gets a dedicated High Octane mode to take advantage of 100+ octane unleaded race gas. Power is delivered to the rear wheels through an 8-speed automatic transmission that’s been re-engineered to handle the torque, a stronger drive shaft, and a beefed-up rear axle.
Spotting a Demon on the street is likely to be a rare treat. Only 3,000 examples are planned for the US (and 300 examples earmarked for Canada). Deliveries start this fall at an ultra rock bottom MSRP of $85,000.