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Why the 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon Is Late to the Party

Following a couple of months that saw Dodge's marketing team having to work just as hard as the company's engineers to keep us on our toes with the help of various teasers for the 2018 Challenger SRT Demon, the bad boy is finally here. And I love every bit of its still-plus-size body. It's just that I can't shake off the feeling that the thing is a bit late.
2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 1 photo
Photo: Dodge
You see, like the Porsche 911 GT3 RS, for instance, the Demon's shine is largely based on borrowing solutions from the racing world and using them on the street. Other recent examples of this include the Dodge Viper ACR, which convinced street drivers that Pikes Peak-level aerodynamics are also okay for the trip to the supermarket.

While the Porker achieves its goal with the help of its front wing air extractors or its carbon fiber pieces, the Demon features drag racing goodies such as a trans brake or a Torque Reserve feature. With all this hardware (and software, for that matter), I can say that, even before getting behind the wheel of the creature, I'm convinced it's damn good in the way it impersonates a drag strip-confined animal.

And whenever a contraption gives me those giggles, the child inside me starts getting agitated and asks something like: "why didn't this come out sooner?"

The adult side of my personality has to agree (I hate being bipolar, it's awesome!) - Dodge has waited for the racecar-gone-street car thing to turn into a trend before coming up with such a development.

Then again, I can cut the Mopar people quite a bit of slack (I wasn't kidding about that bipolar thing. Or was I?). No really, I can. And that's because the Demon is a pioneer for the modern-day muscle car genre. In fact, it's a groundbreaker for production cars altogether and I'm not even talking about its 2.3s 0 to 60 mph time or its 9.65s quarter-mile bravado here.

Back in the day, the Dodge Charger Daytona allowed drivers to temporarily ignore all the banked oval drama and make use of that supersized wing at 0 MPH - girls could sit on it just fine, remember?

Well, once the Demon enters production late in the year, you'll be able to play the role of a hopeless romantic, showing your SO the stars as you pull a wheelie in the first production car that can deliver such a stunt. Make sure that it's past bed time and you might even appear as a romantic with a naughty side.

Come to think of it, bikers have been able to spice up their relationships like this since forever, so what the hell took so long for us four-wheel aficionados to receive such a gift?

If you start counting, you'll notice that it took a decade of market presence for the current generation of the Dodge Challenger to reach the hell-raising form I'm talking about.

And, after all this time, only 3,000 Americans will be fortunate enough to enjoy the charms of this quarter-mile-at-a-time machine.

Sure, you can always turn to the aftermarket side of the industry, which has been taking Challengers and Chargers down the forced induction route for years. Oh, and let's not forget the Nitrous-wielding example populating drag strips. But nothing beats a production vehicle's mix of tire-melting abilities and peace of mind-delivering warranty.

In fact, the Dodge Demon is so good at working its attention magnet magic that, for example, Hennessey Performance has come up with two developments that act as potential alternatives for it.

At first, the Lone Star State developer introduced the Exorcist, building a small-scale marketing campaign for a 1,000-pony Chevrolet Camaro ZL1.

And, just as the Demon was swiping muscle fans off their feet on the NY Auto Show floor, Hennessey hit us with a dyno video of a Dodge Charger Hellcat that has been dialed all the way to (you've guessed it) a thousand horses.

In my apples-to-oranges book, such custom realm machines, which are hugely enticing when viewed in isolation, will end up playing the "next best thing" role in relationship to the Demon. And when a production vehicle has such charisma, you know it has turned into a cult car before it even set wheel on the road.
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About the author: Andrei Tutu
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In his quest to bring you the most impressive automotive creations, Andrei relies on learning as a superpower. There's quite a bit of room in the garage that is this aficionado's heart, so factory-condition classics and widebody contraptions with turbos poking through the hood can peacefully coexist.
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