This 1968 Dodge Charger Will Make You Forget All About the Last Call Demon 170

It’s the 2023 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170 we’re talking about, of course, the quickest and fastest car of its kind presently on the market in stock form. The machine, shown as the seventh and final iteration of the Last Call line, also marks the end model year for the legendary Challenger and Charger as we know them today.

To properly mark the occasion, Dodge fit under the hood a HEMI engine so powerful that, for the first time, is capable of generating 1,025 horsepower as it exits the factory doors. It allows the car an acceleration time to 60 mph of just 1.66 seconds, something not many other vehicles out there can brag about.

Dodge will open the order books for the 2023 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170 on March 26 and plans to close them on May 15. Just 3,300 units of the thing will be made, and each will sell starting from $96,666. These details make it obvious not everyone will be able to afford it, and of those who can not all will end up as owners of one of the last Challengers that will ever walk this Earth.

Luckily, even if these two models will soon stop being made new, the custom market is overflowing with incredible builds based on much earlier versions of them, so it’s unlikely we’ll see the Dodge muscle cars disappear into oblivion anytime soon. In fact, some of these projects are so incredible they even make the Last Call models fade into the distance.

Like this here two-door Charger, for instance. A lot pricier than the Demon 170, and probably capable of significantly less horsepower, it still is a worthwhile alternative to anything the Stellantis brand rolls out these days. And definitely something that will make you forget all about the Demon 170. At least for a while.

The muscle car is a 1968 model year, making it part of the second generation of the Charger breed. Not a very successful model back in its day, it became one of the pillars of the American custom car industry closer to our time.

The Charger was put together in this form, a “professional nut-and-bolt build,” by an Arizona-based custom garage called SS and AFX. The crew describes itself as a builder of “accurate reproductions of the 1965 altered wheelbase A/FX and 1968 Hemi S/S Darts and Cudas” and we can clearly see why.

Back in 1968, this car model was equipped with the usual engines of the era, ranging from the 318ci V8 and going as high as the 426ci Hemi. It’s unclear what engine this particular car originally had on, but we do know what’s hiding under the pinned hood now.

That would be another HEMI of Indy provenance, stroked to a displacement of 528ci and running Edelbrock heads and a Holley 4-barrel carburetor. The engine is tied to a five-speed manual transmission and a Dana 60 rear axle, but we’re not told how much power the unit develops in this application and configuration.

Visually, the Charger was kept as close as possible to its original self. The bright shade of orange we’re so used to seeing on such cars is spread all over the car’s body panels, offset by a charcoal and gold tail stripe at the rear and the black nose of the car at the front, wearing the Charger R/T lettering on the grille.

The gold on the car’s rear end is there to make the visual connection with the bronze Budnik Muroc wheels fitted on all four corners, sized 18 and 19 inches and wrapped in Bridgestone Potenza tires. Behind the wheels sit Wilwood disc brakes to provide stopping power.

The interior of the Charger is a deep, contrasting black all over, from the vinyl seats with three-point shoulder belts to the carpets on the floor. The dashboard is still the original one, wearing the native, but rebuilt gauges. Other, smaller, AutoMeter accessory gauges have been added, as was an Alpine audio system as a touch of modernity.

The rebuilt 1968 Dodge Charger can be found over in Charlotte, North Carolina. A local dealer there called RK Motors is tasked with selling it, and the asking price for this incredible piece of American automotive history is $149,900.

That is clearly way above the price of the last Dodge muscle car to ever be made, but a suitable alternative, at least until the Demon 170 (and all the other six Last Calls) becomes a classic itself.