When the 2023 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170 was introduced last month, one of the key details of the limited edition, 1,025-horsepower muscle car was that it ran an NHRA-certified 8.91 quarter mile time. That makes it the quickest production road car sold in the U.S. market, beating the Tesla Model S Plaid by a healthy margin. However, at the time of the debut, Dodge did not provide a timeslip of the record run, and even though it was witnessed and certified by an NHRA official, some people won’t believe that claim without seeing a timeslip.
Well, here is the timeslip for the 8.91 record run turned in by the 2023 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170, provided by one of our contacts within the brand.
As you can see, the record run was made at South Georgia Motorsports Park on December 2, 2022, at 10:12am. We were initially told that on the day of the record run, the density altitude was around -1,200 feet, and in doing some research, we have found that when the team got to the track that morning, the DA was around -1,200 feet. However, based on air density information online, the actual DA at 10:12am at SGMP on December 2nd was only around -308 feet (44 degrees F). At 11am, it had risen to +90 DA and 48 degrees. That is markedly better air than when Dodge ran their record numbers with the 2018 SRT Demon.
As for the run itself, we can see that Dodge engineer Jim Wilder sat at the line for a bit after the light turned green, making sure that he and the Challenger SRT Demon 170 were properly prepared to make a perfect pass – leading to a very slow reaction time of 1.970, but that has no impact on the elapsed time. Some people aren’t aware that reaction time does not factor into the E.T., so we wanted to point that out.
Once the Demon 170 got moving, Wilder piloted the newest Dodge Challenger to the 60-foot mark in just 1.244 seconds on the Mickey Thompson ET Street E drag radials, reaching the 330-foot beam in 3.665 seconds. The 8th mile trip only took the 1,025-horsepower Challenger 5.677 seconds with a speed of 121.77 miles per hour and Jim Wilder stopped the quarter mile timer with a world record setting 8.912 at 151.17 miles per hour.
I can only wonder how much of this tech can be used in the new Hurricane family of engines, including the hybrid variants. It’s crazy to think that tech like this could be part of the next generation of Direct Connection Stage Kits along with tuning, and other supporting “factory backed” emissions compliant upgrades.
Thinking outside the box for a minute, alot of the media has been focused on EVs and the new Inline-6 Hurricane 3.0L duo, which are due replace the Hemi 5.7L and Hemi 6.4L, but there is another drivetrain setup that hasn’t been talked about and has been truly overlooked when it comes to performance and that is the 2.0L 4XE system found in certain Jeep models. People have been all over the replacements for the Hemi V8s but no one has talked about the replacement for the Pentastar 3.6L in the Challenger, Charger and Durango and with the 2.0L 4XE being placed in the Grand Cherokee, It would seem that it is possible that it could fit in the new Charger on the STLA Large platform. With 375hp and 470tq, the little hybrid actually performance close to 392-level performance in the Wrangler. To me, that makes me wonder what would something like that do in a entry performance level Charger/Challenger/Stealth crossover? With the battery packs placed low, it would definitely have a low center of gravity and with less weight over the nose, it would definitely make the car decently balanced. Now, before anyone looks at me like I’m crazy, let’s look at some of what Dodge is doing across the board with performance for a second. On the electric side, the 4XE powertrain has a 400V system in it. Now, I’m no EV guru so I don’t know how similar this EV system is to the 400V system in the Concept Charger Daytona but I do know that they have tuning software to get more hp/torque out of them with the stage kits. On the ICE side of things, Dodge is pushing out insane horsepower numbers and coming up with Emissions compliant stage kits to offer their customer performance options without having to fully go aftermarket. Direct Connection also has several “Mopar authorized” aftermarket options in their new catalog. The Dodge brand is also doing some crazy tuning with their new Demon to make it run on different types of fuel to make it have the power it does along with dumping alot of money into the 6.2L so it can handle that type of power. What is to say that Direct Connection couldn’t make stage kits for this 2.0L Hybrid powertrain that would take some of the pages from what Mopar’s Stage kits were for the SRT4 Neons and keep them “emissions compliant” and offer some insane performance products for the next-gen performance cars for every trim level (unlike what they do now with the current muscle cars)? I might be a bit crazy but just thinking of a next gen Charger GT with a Direct Connection Stage 3 Kit and a performance package that rekindles a bit of what the SRT4 ACR once was would be pretty awesome, especially with some Jailbreak love that runs the entire span of the Charger lineup. Just think, a 2.0L Hybrid powertrain with the same race-spec technology and hardware that the Demon has from the rotating assembly to the valvetrain assembly with factory backed, dealer installed performance add-ons. A car like that with that kind of horsepower that can crack of shifts like an AMG CLA45S, have AWD, possibly sound good and is emissions friendly as an optioned out entry level car would sell like hotcakes. And that would be on the GT level so even if Dodge decided to keep a base SXT level under that, you still have an affordable performance hybrid that could be optioned out to the fullest and be a whole lot of fun and it leaves room for the brand to do the same types of things with the 3.0 S/O and 3.0 H/O and whatever other levels of performance they want to make. Just a thought.