2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon: 5 Reasons To Be Excited About It

The 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon will be breaking out of hell in a few days. The evil creature will wreak havoc at the 2017 New York International Auto Show soon.

In a couple of days from now, Dodge will be taking the wraps of the 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon at the 2017 NY Auto Show. The manufacturer has been haunting enthusiasts around the world with teaser images and videos of this hellhound of a muscle car for the past few months.

The wrath-driven creature from hell will manifest in its true form in a matter of days. Before that happens, we decided to list out what makes the SRT Demon one of the most-exciting cars to watch out for this year.

The Fate of the Furious Connection

Vin Diesel and Universal Pictures’ marketing team have to be thanked for letting this one out of the box. The Dodge Challenger SRT Demon popped up in a set video shared by Diesel on Facebook, which showed the actor giving a lengthy speech of appreciation to the filming crew in Atlanta. Two SRT Demons can be seen in the background, mounted on some kind of rig, probably undergoing close-up shot filming for the movie’s opening chase scene.

In addition to all that, Universal released the opening chase clip with focus on the wrecking ball action set piece. The behind-the-scenes footage clearly shows the Demon logo on the fenders of the Challengers involved in the chase sequence.

Drag Me to Hell In A 10-Second Car

The teaser images and videos released by Dodge confirmed that the SRT Demon is wider than the standard Challenger and the SRT Hellcat. With flaring wheel arches and wider wheels shod with massive tires, the Dodge Challenger SRT Demon made its plans clear. It was going to be a drag-racing-focused speedster. The mean machine also holds claim to the title of the first factory production car fitted with drag radial tires – 315/40R18 Nitto NT05Rs at the front and rear. That’s also the widest set of front tires on a production car.

The Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat comes with a 707 hp, 650 lb-ft, 6.2-liter Hemi V8 and it can do 0-60mph in 3.6 seconds. The Hellcat can also cover the quarter mile distance in around 11 seconds and that too despite tipping the scales at around 2 tonnes. The SRT Demon, with its 6.2-liter supercharged Hemi V8 engine and rear-wheel-drive system is certainly going to be more powerful and generously torque-endowed than the Hellcat. Our bets are on the 750 hp to 800 hp bracket. Which can only mean one thing – it’s going to be faster and quicker.

Covering the quarter mile in 10 seconds is something which the SRT Demon will be capable of doing with its hands tied, with its own tail. And it has an advanced Drag Mode for lightning quick launches from the start line to lend a hand. Not to mention, the higher stall speed torque converter and new rear axle gears which are instrumental in bringing forth higher launch force than a Challenger Hellcat.

Increased airflow intake has been a key focus in the Demon’s development. The “Air Grabber”, which is the largest cold air intake hood ever installed on a production car takes care of a part of that job. A large air box provides the former with able assistance. And did we mention that the SRT Demon uses the air conditioning system to cool the air which the engine is about to breathe in? Well, it does that too and it’s supposed to work wonders when it comes to burning the fuel.

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The Demon Crate

It sounds more like a box which is kept in the boot of their Chevrolet Impala by Supernatural’s Sam and Dean Winchester. But the Demon Crate is filled with components (18 of them) which will help the customer to set up their SRT Demon as per their preferences. The whole point of the Dodge Challenger SRT Demon is to be a scalable and flexible platform for each customer to create his or her own ultimate “Street/Strip” muscle car. The purpose of the Demon Crate is to help the customer get started with that.

Along with an aluminum floor jack, a torque wrench, and a cordless impact driver, the Demon Crate will have a pair of skinny tires too. These “runners” which are meant for the drag strip aren’t street-legal. The point must be to drive to the drag strip in the street-legal drag tires and swap them out with the skinny ones on reaching the strip. The crate looks great too and would be a spectacular addition to your garage. We don’t mind having it in our living room.

Seat for One

The Dodge Challenger SRT Demon is meant for only one person – the driver. No, we didn’t mean it metaphorically. It’s quite literal. The Demon has one seat for the driver and that’s it. There isn’t a rear bench or a side passenger seat. Everyone but the driver has to sit this one out. Again, literally.

The Weight-Loss and Weight-Gain Drill

The makers of the Dodge Challenger SRT Demon threw out a lot of stuff to save weight by around 200 pounds. The seats, spare tire and a lot more had to be removed in the desperate attempt to cut pounds. The brake units have smaller discs and the anti-roll bar was replaced with a narrower one. Inside, there is no entertainment system or a radio and there are just two tiny speakers for the warning chimes. There isn’t any sound deadening too. Nor does the boot have any trim. That’s a hell lot of scrapping to save weight. But then they went about adding stuff like the wheel arches, bigger wheels and chunkier tires. So we end up with a car which still weighs close to 2 tonnes – 3956 pounds to be exact.

Burn Your Fuel of Choice

The Dodge Challenger SRT Demon is the first production car which can run on both 100-octance race fuel and 91-octane gas station fuel. You’ll have to install a couple of components including a powertrain control module and a switch bank before making that choice though. No worries there, as all the components are in the Demon Crate, ready for installation.

We’d like to add how much we enjoyed the teaser video campaign that Dodge put together for the SRT Demon. It was one stellar piece of marketing work which was instantly lapped up by fans around the world. Be it the hidden Easter Eggs or the cryptic messages and clues, each teaser video stood out as a well-conceived and meticulously-executed piece. And all of them leading up to the final piece which will be the launch of the 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon at the 2017 NY Auto Show. Watch all the teaser videos below or drop by at the Dodge SRT Demon microsite for more content.

Next: Demon Killer: Hennessey 1000 Hp THE EXORCIST Camaro ZL1

We’ll be lining another comprehensive piece on the Dodge Challenger SRT Demon once it is launched at the 2017 New York International Auto Show.