The Power of Mods Compels You: Tuned Challenger Hellcat Beats Demon at the Strip

Dodge says that you can cover a quarter-mile in just 9.65 seconds with the Demon and its available 840 hp, which you can access on 100 octane fuel or higher—otherwise, it’s “just” 808 hp (819 PS). You will, however, also require the so-called “Demon Crate,” which holds a control module and high-speed tires. This, by the way, is the first production car to perform a wheelie during launch, channeling 770 lb-ft (1,044 Nm) of torque to its grippy rear wheels while pulling 1.8 G’s of force.

Compared to a regular Challenger SRT Hellcat, the Demon is lighter by 215 lbs (98 kg), coming in at a sweet 435 hp per ton (on 100-octane or higher) in terms of its power-to-weight ratio. Here are some more numbers that are meant to delight: 0-30 mph (48 kph) in just one second, 0-60 (97 kph) in 2.3 seconds, and 0-100 mph (161 kph) in 5.1 seconds.

So then, for a Demon to lose to a tuned Hellcat, the latter’s mods must be pretty spectacular, right? Yes and no. This Demon (the yellow car) clearly underperformed during the race, as it ran the quarter-mile in 11.35 seconds. The driver didn’t even warm up the tires beforehand, and who knows if the car was prepped to go as quickly as it can to begin with.

The Hellcat meanwhile did the standing quarter in 10.34 seconds, which is a very good time. A stock Hellcat needs roughly 11 seconds, while the Hellcat Widebody can do it in 10.96 seconds, so these mods, whatever they were, came in handy.