Hennessey has had just about enough of being a regular, everyday, normal tuning company, and CEO John Hennessey, ever the Texas Power Ranger, decided to go Special. World, say ‘Hi!’ to the Hennessey Special Operations branch. In true Lone Star fashion, the go-fast cowboys shoot the good news first and answer questions later, so we’re in for one Hell of a treat: a Dodge Demon 1700 with two turbos and 1,700 horsepower.
There’s nothing like a good ol’ burnout to keep Hell from freezing over (although that would be the ultimate punishment for the BEV sin). So, it doesn’t come as much of a surprise that John Hennessey has bought himself a Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170.
Wow! What a fast car for… what I paid for this thing? 145 grand. We got the carbon wheels and a few other options, and this thing is a fast hoot, and it's fast. Bring on the fast Teslas. (editor’s note: three of the four fasts in the quote from John Hennessey were, in fact, from a slightly more R-rated spectrum of the jargon of excitement).
Right. Being the man who makes fast things even faster, it was only a matter of time before the Texan tuner would do what everyone secretly (or openly) dreamt about: working his company’s magic into the ultimate 'Fast as Hell' Last Call Challenger. He even dedicated a team for this job – Hennessey Special Operations (HSO) – and the radical transformation will bear its signature as the branch's first project.
Photo: YouTube/Hennessey Performance
The chosen one is Demon 170 no. 0025 (John Hennessey’s personal car, the one he’s test-thrashing in the video below), which will be treated with a pair of turbos. In return, the Dodge will honor the upgrade with 1,700 hp (1.724 PS) because the standard version’s 1,025-hp (1,039 PS) output almost screams ‘big, lush daily driver.’ Frankly, they should just call it Dodge Satan – it’s easier than ‘Hennessey Demon 1700 Twin-Turbo.’
The details aren’t abundant for now, but Hennessey says that only 12 cars will benefit from this HSO uprating that consists of a replacement motor and transmission (and probably a driveshaft, too). The original parts will be wrapped, packed, and placed in storage, ready for reinstalment.
The Hennessey-possessed Demon 170 will get a custom-built engine with a pair of precision 7576 turbos instead of the supercharged HEMI installed by Dodge’s SRT gang. The projected output is about 70% over the stock top figures, and the goals are high(er) – or low, depending on your perspective: 7.90 seconds for the standing quarter, with a trap speed between 175 and 180 mph (282 – 290 kph).
Photo: YouTube/Hennessey Performance
EVs, you’d better (last) call the Pope’s exorcist before all Hell breaks loose. Better yet, get His Sanctity in person, because that would be around one second quicker than the ‘regular’ Demon 170 and some 25 mph (40 kph) faster than the car’s current 151-mph (243 kph) quarter-mile personal best. According to the Texan tuner, a small batch ('a dozen') of the hell-bent Last Call Challengers will make a pact with Hennessey Special Operations and get the Demon 1700 Twin-Turbo superpowers. The rest of the 3,300 units slotted for assembly will just have to make ends meet with what they have.
After nearly two decades in news television, Răzvan turned to a different medium. He’s been a field journalist, a TV producer, and a seafarer but found that he feels right at home among petrolheads. Full profile
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