Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170 Drags RWD Roush Ford 'Lightning Bolt' and Eats It

It has been a long journey getting there. Months ago, the company announced the end of the road was near for the L-bodied Dodge Charger sedan and Challenger coupe as the 2023 model year would be the final one for the current generations and also for the mighty Hemi V8s. Of course, they quickly envisioned some collectibles – no less than seven 'Last Call' special editions, including the 1,025-hp Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170.

Now, though, we are waiting to see what Dodge has in store for the upcoming 2025 Charger, which has reverted to its traditional two-door fastback coupe body style and will adopt the novel EV lifestyle in Daytona SRT form. There's also some ICE power rumored under the hood – Stellantis will probably give Dodge access to the 3.0-liter Hurricane inline-six turbo mills with 420 hp and 540 hp on tap.

While we wait, though, let's remember the Challenger era, too. For example, Herman Young and his desire to make the Demonology channel one of the best for Mopar fans has led to many mind-boggling feats since he first bought, tuned, supercharged, and raced the original SRT Demon. In the meantime, he has gone through a different Last Call scenario and also discovered, salvaged, and rebuilt an LX Charger as a veritable track monster.

However, the moment we have all been waiting for has arrived – the gentle giant is now in possession of his personal Demon 170. The unit finally dropped by his garage about three weeks ago, which gave him enough time to stage a quick dyno comparison with a 2018 Demon. The results were fantastic – crank horsepower was 3% higher than according to the official ratings, at 1,057 hp on E85. Still, Herman also likes to call out the bad things when he sees them, so he even made a video about three reasons why he thinks the Demon 170 is disappointing.

Alas, now it's time to start racing – while it's still stock. During a visit at Xtreme Raceway Park (aka The Next Level in Drag Racing) in Ferris, Texas, Herman came across a friend and mentor, Rod Heltzel, who was also out to test his brand-new quarter-mile dragstrip ride, a Ford F-150 XL dubbed 'Lightning Bolt' in an obvious ICE-powered innuendo to the official all-electric F-150 Lightning. This one is Roush-supercharged, so it has more than 700 horsepower on tap.

Obviously, that still doesn't make it a proper contender for a Demon 170, but at this point, we're not picky anymore because we don't know how many of these monsters will get to race instead of freezing in a container or garage waiting for prices to rise. As such, Herman's Dodge ate the supercharged truck alive, and it also didn't help that Rod spun off the line – but we're promised a rematch as soon as the latter gets acquainted better with his truck.

Next up, hopefully, Young's relentless pursuit of the next-best racer will get him in the vicinity of a hypercar or one of those mind-blowing EVs – the Tesla Cybertruck Cyberbeast, Model S Plaid, or a Lucid Air Sapphire. Any of those brawls would be much more fitting for the Demon 170 and truly a race to remember across time.