Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170 is a 1,000PS goodbye

Getting the Challenger into four figure power outputs hasn’t been easy, with well-publicised developmental delays. Indeed, it’s not just been a case of shortening the supercharger belt. Everything in the 6.2-litre supercharged hemi has been tickled, bar the cam running through the centre of the engine. There’s a high-flow fuel rail good for a 164 gallon-per-hour supply, more Dodge says, than the average US shower head. 

The supercharger now gets the special ‘SRT Power Chiller’, which uses the air conditioning for cooling. Obviously E85 fuel is needed for the full 1,030PS but pump E10 will still allow it to make a healthy 900PS, for slightly less potent, slightly slower, cheaper daily running.

Now, conventional rear-drive cars regularly turn this much power into a lot of tyre smoke and not a lot of initial acceleration. To combat this and being a drag racer for the road, the Challenger Demon 170 features Mickey Thompson ET Street R drag tyres wrapping the carbon wheels, in combination with fettled (softened) rear suspension.

On a prepped surface with the tyres at the right pressure and temperature, all that twist will send the nose skyward, with 60mph arriving in a difficult-to-believe 1.66 seconds. No, that’s not a typo. At the quarter, it’ll be doing 151mph, having covered it in just 8.91 seconds. In other words, the Demon 170 is positively Toretto spec.

It’s so fast that to legally compete in competitive drag racing in the US, it’ll need a parachute mounting system and harness bar. Happily both are optional on, what we’ll say again, is a production road car.

As the head of the Challenger family, the Demon 170 won’t be cheap, at least relative to other challengers on the lot. Relative to other 1,000PS cars? It’s a bargain, at $96,666 (£79,000), though buyers of such a special vehicle in America can expect to pay a healthy cut to the dealers supplying these monsters.

Not that they’ll be that rare, given Dodge intends to sell 3,300 of them. Original Demon owners from 2018 who order a 170 will be able to match the vin to their existing car, too – a nice touch. As last hurrahs go then, this is pretty epic. It’s about as loud and proud as they get and we love to see it. God bless America.