Dodge’s Last Hemi V-8 Challenger Will Challenge for Fastest Production Car in the World
It’s taken a while, but Dodge is finally ready to say goodbye to gas-powered muscle.
The Detroit giant unveiled its final “Last Call” muscle car on Monday night, the Challenger SRT Demon 170. The monstrously powerful coupé will be the brand’s last model to feature the beloved Hemi V-8 engine before it starts putting fully electric drivetrains in its muscle cars.
More from Robb Report
Thieves Stole 6 Dodge Challenger Hellcats From a Kentucky Dealership in Under 60 Seconds
Car of the Week: This 1970 Pontiac GTO Judge Makes a Strong Case for Old-School Muscle
Listen: The New Dodge Daytona EV's 'Exhaust' Sounds Better Than Your Gas-Guzzler
The “Last Call” series, which launched last fall, is Dodge’s attempt to make sure the internal-combustion Challenger and Charger receive a proper send-off. If the automaker is serious about the Demon 170 being its final car to feature a Hemi V-8—never say never when money is involved—then the engine is going out with a bang. Thanks to a number of performance upgrades, the brand says the exclusive variant is the quickest, fastest and most powerful muscle car in the world.
With the exception of its satin black hood, roof and deck lid, the Demon 170 looks like any other Challenger SRT Hellcat at a glance. Pop open the hood, though, and the differences are impossible to miss. Dodge has completely reworked the supercharged 6.2-liter Hemi V-8—and blew up seven mills in the process, according to Car and Driver—equipping it with upgraded parts like high-strength steel bolts, billet steel main caps and a larger 3.0-liter supercharger from the Hellephant C170 crate engine. Its valvetrain and spark blogs have also been modified so that it can run on high-level E85 gas.
You’ll actually need to fill up with the flex fuel if you want to get the most out of the Demon 170. Running on E85, the muscle car’s engine, which is mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission, can pump out a hair-raising 1,025 horses and 945 ft lbs of twist. Performance doesn’t take too much of a hit if you’re using standard gas, though. You’ll still have access to 900 hp and 810 ft lbs of torque.
When the muscle car is running at peak power, Dodge claims the Demon 170 will be able to rocket from zero-to-60 in a bonkers 1.66 seconds. If true, that would instantly make it the world’s fastest production car, and about .13 seconds faster than the current record holder, the all-electric Pininfarina Battista. No top speed was mentioned, but Dodge said it’ll reach 151.17 mph while running the quarter-mile in an NHRA-certified 8.91 seconds. It’s practically a dragster, which might explain why its stripped-down racing-style interior only comes with a driver seat (there’s an option to add more). Despite this, the car is street-legal.
“To celebrate the end of the Hemi muscle-car era, we pulled off all the governors to reach a new level, a new benchmark of ‘factory-crazy’ production car performance,” Dodge CEO Tim Kuniskis said in a statement. “In 2015, Dodge shocked the world with the 707 horsepower Hellcat. Then, in 2018, we did it with the 840 horsepower Demon, and now we are doing it again with the 1,025 horsepower Demon 170, the world’s first sustainable-energy, eight-second, factory-production, street-legal muscle car.”
Dodge plans to build just 3,000 examples of its final Hemi-powered muscle car. The Demon 170 will go into production this July and will start at $96,666 (or $100,361 when you include the destination fee and gas-guzzler tax). There are a lot of options to choose from, including extra seats and carbon-fiber wheels, so don’t be surprised if the final price moves further north.
Best of Robb Report
The 2024 Chevy C8 Corvette: Everything We Know About the Powerful Mid-Engine Beast
The 15 Best Travel Trailers for Camping and Road-Tripping Adventures
Sign up for Robb Report's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
