Dodge's aging third-gen Challenger series came to an abrupt end last December when the last one rolled off the line. But fret not, muscle car enthusiasts, as unlike the Chevy Camaro, which remains dead and buried, the Ford Mustang rival from the Stellantis brand is only a few hours away from debuting in its all-new attire, presumably with EV power.
But while Dodge is prepping the debut of the all-new Charger muscle car, owners of the previous generation keep enjoying theirs and putting them through their paces with every chance they get. Case in point, let's put our hands together for the Challenger SRT Demon, as one copy was filmed doing what it does best.
Sitting in the red corner, the cat out of hell boasts up to 840 horsepower (852 ps/627 kW) in its top form and 770 pound-feet (1,044 Nm) of torque. The 6.2L supercharged V8 power unit rockets it to 60 miles per hour (97 kph) in just 2.3 seconds. As for the quarter-mile, it is dealt with in a blistering nine seconds. Handling all that thrust is tricky, hence why we've seen the Demon lose against less powerful machines in a head-to-head battle.
Should you want more performance from a stock Challenger, then you will have to get a Demon 170. This model uses a tuned version of the same lump, with new internals and peripherals, and has 1,025 hp (1,040 ps/765 kW) on tap and 945 pound-foot (1,281 Nm). The acceleration drops to a neck-snapping 1.66 seconds in this case, and it can run the quarter-mile in 8.91 seconds with a 151.17 mph (243.28 kph) exit speed.
Photo: Screenshot Youtube | DragRacingAndCarStuff
Its ad-hoc challenger on that day was none other than the Ford Mustang. This S550 started life in the GT configuration, apparently, packing a 5.0-liter naturally aspirated V8 engine. The mill, however, has received some serious modifications, and the video uploader uses the word turbo to describe it. As a result, it is probably about as punchy as the said Demon, and judging how fast it is down the 1/4-mile, few cars can beat it into submission.
The battle was recorded at the Houston Raceway Park in Texas, supposedly during the TX2K22 event, and the video you are about to watch shows another battle between one bad-to-the-bone Ford Mustang and a very fast Nissan GT-R.
So, do you think a turbocharged pony car from the Dearborn company is bad enough to teach the awesome Dodge Challenger SRT Demon a lesson about quick takeoffs? Or is the latter simply too punchy to be afraid of it? We won't ruin the outcome, but we will tell you this: the result will likely surprise you. You know what to do next, right?
After a series of unfortunate events put an end to Cristian's dream of entering a custom built & tuned old-school Dacia into a rally competition, he moved on to drive press cars and write for a living. He's worked for several automotive online journals and now he's back at autoevolution after his first tour in the mid-2000s. Full profile
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