Mopar’s hellish creation, the just-spawned 2018 Dodge Demon, currently holds the record as world’s fastest production car. How long will it last? With stiff competition brewing in Ford’s and Chevy’s factories, can Mopar keep the title?
source: dodge.com
By the numbers, it looks like the Demon will be tough to beat. It retains much of the Challenger’s factory looks at a glance, though Mopar cooked up some creative solutions to the problems the Demon’s crazy numbers caused. Up front, careful viewers can spy the two inner headlights have been replaced with air scoops. On top, the car boasts the record-setting largest factory hood scoop found on a production vehicle. It only gets wilder from there.
The Powerplant: The 2018 Dodge Demon’s classic 6.2L Hemi got some forged upgrades to pump out a mind-boggling 840 HP and 770 lb-ft of torque on 100 octane race fuel. Helping put out those biblical numbers is a 2.7L blower (up from the Hellcat’s 2.4L), a forged crankshaft, new connecting rods, new pistons, new camshaft and new valvetrain. This was all taken from the Hellcat’s motor and built up to take the extra abuse. Boost ranges from 11.6 PSI to 14.5 PSI at wide-open throttle. This all sounds simple at face value but the stuff that lets an 840-hp drag car stay legal on the street like a daily driver is pretty innovative.
Making the Demon Feasible: Building a 9-second car that’s also a street-legal ride with moderately comfortable features was no small feat. Mopar’s engineers tackled many of the power-vs-street issues by essentially building two cars in one: From the factory, the Demon actually “only” puts out 808 HP on 93-octane fuel. What’s included, though, are a few technology pieces and a crate full of goodies. Skinny front drag tires and massive, barely-legal Nitto NT05R drag radials make the Demon work at the track. The kicker is the two extra Nittos that come on the front of the car from the factory, providing some measure of all-wheel traction on the street. The logic is at the track, one will replace the front Nittos with skinnies, run a few passes, then replace them and drive off. Pretty nifty.
In the cabin, the innovation continues: An “HO” (high-output) switch instantly tunes and re-maps the engine’s ECU to work on 100-octane fuel, modifying air/fuel parameters, shift parameters (no manual transmission is available), throttle position and response, and a bunch of other metrics to make the car explode off the line – from 0 to 60 in 2.1 seconds, to be exact. The Demon even includes a transbrake, a function normally reserved for track-only trailer queens, making the whole thing launch like a true drag machine when the tree hits green.
Street vs. Strip: Mopar continues to hammer home the idea that the 2018 Dodge Demon is a true street car with crazy power figures by way of its rather humorous options. The Demon comes from the factory stripped of the front passenger and rear seats, but they can be added back in for a symbolic $1 each. This lets buyers decide just how dedicated they want their Demon to be – track forever, or unbeatable weekend warrior?
With all these features and figures in mind, the 2018 Dodge Demon barely meets the requirements of “street production car”, but it still qualifies nonetheless. Only time will tell if Ford and Chevy can go back to their drawing boards to exorcise the Demon.
