That a car like the Dodge Challenger Demon exists in any context is fairly incredible, but it's all the more remarkable when you consider where the US automotive industry was just a few short years ago. Government bailouts across the board, fun off the agenda and a seemingly bleak future for all involved.
Now with a few years of relative stability behind them, the muscle car scene is thriving again. Chevrolet will sell you a Camaro with 650hp and a stick, Ford makes a Mustang that revs past eight and, not content with a 707hp supercharged Challenger, Dodge now makes an 840hp supercharged Challenger. That does wheelies. And nine-second quarter-miles. Marvellous!
There's not really a lot else left to say about the Demon, is there? It encapsulates the confidence coursing through the American car industry at the moment, the belief that people want what they make and so there's absolutely cause to build it. It would seem like drag racing has lost none of its appeal in the States either!
For Pic Of The Week there was all manner of incredible photos available of the Demo brooding on the drag strip. But it had to be the wheelie pic, didn't it? Here's a road legal car, one able to go about its everyday business like other vehicles, that's also capable of lifting its wheels nearly three feet in the air through accelerative force. What a car!