RE: 840hp Dodge Challenger SRT Demon revealed

[AW111]

powerstroke said:

I looked at his garage !!!sorry but I wouldn't take him too seriously ... most are powered by a Buick rejecta good engine the yanks never made work properly !!!

!!! FTFY! !!

I think it was the only American engine that was developed into an F1 championship winner (Repco-Brabham) - by an Australian!

[alex_123_fra]

Blackpuddin said:

US firms are now building the kind of cars that enthusiasts would want to build for themselves, using the aftermarket. With cars like this GM is going down the same road of freezing out the aftermarket that Land Rover has (perhaps rather too publicly) announced they are going down to get rid of the Kahns of this world. Not saying that's a bad thing as obviously it's creating a golden age right now but it may have negative ramifications for the aftermarket.

Edited by Blackpuddin on Saturday 15th April 13:42

Hugely excited by American cars at the moment. They have something for everyone. The ZL1 (and even Camaro SS) are very impressive pieces of kit. I drove an SS recently and was astounded at the uplift (compared to what I had seen in American cars between 2000-2005ish) in interior, general build quality and handling of the thing. Makes pretty much every M3 (and M4) I've driven feel dreary and boring. The ATS-V chassis is a masterpiece. Sure, there isn't great visibility out of it but I didn't care. Such an exciting car. I can only imagine how astonishingly good the ZL1 would be. Ford on the other hand coming up with the Shelby GT350 (awesome sound) and hopefully soon with a new GT500.

Or, if you don't care about corners much, go down the charger/challenger hellcat route. The demon is a bit of drag special which won't be as good an allrounder but I applaud the balls required to produce this, with a warranty. Have driven a hellcat too and again, the excitement you get from the sheer power of the thing is unmatched by any Porsche, Audi, BMW I've driven.

[powerstroke]

alex_123_fra said:

Blackpuddin said:

US firms are now building the kind of cars that enthusiasts would want to build for themselves, using the aftermarket. With cars like this GM is going down the same road of freezing out the aftermarket that Land Rover has (perhaps rather too publicly) announced they are going down to get rid of the Kahns of this world. Not saying that's a bad thing as obviously it's creating a golden age right now but it may have negative ramifications for the aftermarket.

Edited by Blackpuddin on Saturday 15th April 13:42

Hugely excited by American cars at the moment. They have something for everyone. The ZL1 (and even Camaro SS) are very impressive pieces of kit. I drove an SS recently and was astounded at the uplift (compared to what I had seen in American cars between 2000-2005ish) in interior, general build quality and handling of the thing. Makes pretty much every M3 (and M4) I've driven feel dreary and boring. The ATS-V chassis is a masterpiece. Sure, there isn't great visibility out of it but I didn't care. Such an exciting car. I can only imagine how astonishingly good the ZL1 would be. Ford on the other hand coming up with the Shelby GT350 (awesome sound) and hopefully soon with a new GT500.

Or, if you don't care about corners much, go down the charger/challenger hellcat route. The demon is a bit of drag special which won't be as good an allrounder but I applaud the balls required to produce this, with a warranty. Have driven a hellcat too and again, the excitement you get from the sheer power of the thing is unmatched by any Porsche, Audi, BMW I've driven.

Ive had a fair few yanks over the years , always been fun and had fun with them , not sure as daily drivers but we have japanese or euro ste for that , Reaction to them is fun from the bet that doesn't do many to the gallon and it won't go round corners , to nice car mate and lots of questions but hate and jelousy like you sometime get with high end euro stuff is rare
and other owners tend to be great and helpful..

[WCZ]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZJVaNiXKVg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1s9FG-dOl6E

really not anywhere near as fast as expected with insane traction issues too

as said in the youtube comments, a one trick pony that can't perform its trick and would you pay £160k for an import?

https://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/...

[irocfan]

So in other words to get the best from the performance you've got to learn how to drive it properly. Huh, shocker - who'd have thought

[anonymous-user]

WCZ said:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZJVaNiXKVg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1s9FG-dOl6E

really not anywhere near as fast as expected with insane traction issues too

as said in the youtube comments, a one trick pony that can't perform its trick and would you pay £160k for an import?

https://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/...

The sales pitch for the Demon was always going to result in bad press when the car's tested on the road. In basic terms, the suspension setup and tyre choice was designed for a prepped track. Now you could argue that it makes the car even more pointless because of that. Bear in mind though that a prepped track has often been the undoing of many supercars which end up lunching rear end and transmission parts from the start line traction that the car's not designed for.

It's different horses for different courses. In its natural habitat (a prepped drag strip), the Demon would be useful (as proven by the ET slips). On a road, most 600+bhp supercars would be better setup to deal with the lack of traction. In a rolling start race, the Demon is unarmed, it gets its ET from hooking hard at the hit and gaining traction off the line.

[WCZ]

irocfan said:

So in other words to get the best from the performance you've got to learn how to drive it properly. Huh, shocker - who'd have thought

some of the guys driving the demon in these videos own 8 second cars and know how to drive

[WCZ]

NFC 85 Vette said:

The sales pitch for the Demon was always going to result in bad press when the car's tested on the road. In basic terms, the suspension setup and tyre choice was designed for a prepped track. Now you could argue that it makes the car even more pointless because of that. Bear in mind though that a prepped track has often been the undoing of many supercars which end up lunching rear end and transmission parts from the start line traction that the car's not designed for.

It's different horses for different courses. In its natural habitat (a prepped drag strip), the Demon would be useful (as proven by the ET slips). On a road, most 600+bhp supercars would be better setup to deal with the lack of traction. In a rolling start race, the Demon is unarmed, it gets its ET from hooking hard at the hit and gaining traction off the line.

good point, i'm just really surprised (as many others are - the consensus seems to be it's a failure) at just how bad it is on the road

[shakotan]

WCZ said:

NFC 85 Vette said:

The sales pitch for the Demon was always going to result in bad press when the car's tested on the road. In basic terms, the suspension setup and tyre choice was designed for a prepped track. Now you could argue that it makes the car even more pointless because of that. Bear in mind though that a prepped track has often been the undoing of many supercars which end up lunching rear end and transmission parts from the start line traction that the car's not designed for.

It's different horses for different courses. In its natural habitat (a prepped drag strip), the Demon would be useful (as proven by the ET slips). On a road, most 600+bhp supercars would be better setup to deal with the lack of traction. In a rolling start race, the Demon is unarmed, it gets its ET from hooking hard at the hit and gaining traction off the line.

good point, i'm just really surprised (as many others are - the consensus seems to be it's a failure) at just how bad it is on the road

"Car designed specifically to be an out of the box drag car which can be driven on the street, is not as good on the street as it is in drag mode" shocker...

[WCZ]

shakotan said:

"Car designed specifically to be an out of the box drag car which can be driven on the street, is not as good on the street as it is in drag mode" shocker...

it's unusable on the street, there's videos of c63's beating them etc
look at 1320 videos channel of street racing, people in america drag 1300bhp drag racer cars on the roads and don't seem to have many issues?

[anonymous-user]

WCZ said:

it's unusable on the street, there's videos of c63's beating them etc
look at 1320 videos channel of street racing, people in america drag 1300bhp drag racer cars on the roads and don't seem to have many issues?

The difference between pro street cars over there, and here centres around chassis setup, rather than horsepower. If you look at the Street Eliminator cars that race in the UK, the higher end cars produce around 3000bhp, run street legal tyres, forecourt petrol, are taxed, MoT'd and run full exhaust systems and no wheelie bars. They aren't designed to be raced on the street though. The age old argument of what makes a street legal car is something the UK and USA differ on. You can get away with a lot in the US, including running slicks on a 'street' car.

In the sport of drag racing, one of the toughest things you can attempt to do is get a car with a decent amount of power to hook-up on road legal tyres, at a kerb weight akin to a road car (so not a 2300lbs featherweight). If the street outlaws boys and girls didn't use slicks, it would closer replicate what racing street cars is about.

Back to the Demon though; there's no argument that it's a one trick pony, but I don't believe it ever tried to be sold as anything else. Again though, if you took both cars to a track, a C63, 720S, you name it - the Demon would slaughter them. They're just designed for different conditions.

[TiMopar]

Dave Dudek's Hemi Road Runner into the 9's on 7inch wide cross-plys;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sK5Z0VH_cEQ

[WCZ]

NFC 85 Vette said:

Back to the Demon though; there's no argument that it's a one trick pony, but I don't believe it ever tried to be sold as anything else. Again though, if you took both cars to a track, a C63, 720S, you name it - the Demon would slaughter them. They're just designed for different conditions.

here's the demon on race fuel with full slicks on a drag strip not only getting absolutely murdered by the 720s but losing to a 570 too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHiNnKUtVjk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjbB-dvwYbY

[anonymous-user]

WCZ said:

here's the demon on race fuel with full slicks on a drag strip not only getting absolutely murdered by the 720s but losing to a 570 too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHiNnKUtVjk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjbB-dvwYbY

That's good, but it's well documented that the Demon will run as quick as 9.65/140+ with all the demon crate bits on board. I understand that some videos of McLarens beating it makes it look as if it's a hopeless turd of a car, but it's not an accurate reflection of the cars ability. Perhaps we could be critical of the car because it might lack repeat ability of running those ET's with ease every single time, but track and weather conditions play an important role when you're trying to put that much horsepower down, and the condition of your lane relative to your opponent can influence things; on this point though, we're particularly fortunate in the UK that the variance in lanes is next to nothing so makes little difference.

I'd like to see a 720S go up against a Demon, at a national event prepped track, rather than a RWYB.

[amgmcqueen]

Production has now ceased on the limited edition Demon.


One of the most awesome looking production cars ever. Some dealers now have them up for sale at $215,000! Anyone on pistonheads buy one...?