When Car and Driver gives a vehicle a 9 out of 10 and doesn’t want to compare it to its competition because there’s no point, it’s just too fast, you know that car is doing something right. The 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon is the meanest dragstrip-ready car to come off the assembly line in decades.

Now it’s true, the original numbers for the Demon are 808 horsepower and 717 lb-ft of torque. That is unless you sprung for the Demon Crate Package that lets you unleash the true power of the 6.2-liter Hemi for $1 extra. And I’m not sure there is a bonehead in the world that wouldn’t spring for that package.

Track Ready Highlights
The interior comes with rear seat delete and passenger seat delete to save weight. There are also a lot of weight-saving techniques throughout the car that Dodge implicates or deletes to make the car lighter. The Demon 8-speed automatic transmission comes standard with a trans brake specially designed to launch as hard as you can from a dead stop. Also, helping out on launch are adjustable dampers that transfer weight at take-off to give you better traction. With all that upgraded launch goodness, traction is not hard to come by with the super sticky tires that are included on the Demon. A line lock is also included to help get a perfect and consistent take-off every time.

Super sticky tires or not, Dodge makes no qualms about it, this car was built for the drag strip and not for curvey roads or wet surfaces. The Demon is still fully able to be titled and driven on the street. Local car shows or cruise nights would be a fun place to drive the drag car, but nasty weather and high-speed corners are not what this thing was built for.

Dodge Challenger Demon Interior As mentioned above, the rear seats and passenger seats will be deleted for weight-saving drag racing purposes, but they can also be added back in. A few bolts and you can have a drag car for passenger fun. As far as entertainment goes, don’t expect much from the audio system, you’re supposed to listen to the mufflers. Everything else that comes standard on a Challenger will be included on the interior of the Demon except heated and ventilated seats and possibly tilt and telescoping steering wheel (all depending on how the Demon was ordered).

When this Dodge Challenger Demon is set up correctly, it will surely pull the wheels off the ground for a wheelie at the race track. It also utilizes all the up-to-date technology that someone would need to not just make some very fast passes at the race track, but also stay consistent enough to win some big money and trophies.

There may be some very powerful Mustang and Camaro alternatives out there, but none of them hold a candle to the Challenger Demon in a drag race, at least not ones you can legally title and drive on the street. Unfortunately, to see the Demon’s 6.2-liter supercharged engine at its full potential, you do have to use 100-plus-octane race fuel. It’s not super hard to find, but it’s not cheap to fill your gas tank with.