Dodge unveils its last-ever gas-powered muscle car
Topics: US News, Climate Change, Cars, Environment, Technology
Tom Wood
Featured Image Credit: Dodge
Topics: US News, Climate Change, Cars, Environment, Technology
Dodge has unveiled the last-ever high-powered muscle car it will bring out, marking the end of an era of speed.
The iconic American car manufacturer has clearly seen the environmental iceberg and decided to act, but before it takes the final curtain call, it's planning one final performance that will be louder and faster than any of the others before it.
Here's a video showing the new beast in action:
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The 2023 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170 is going to be – according to its makers – the fastest production car made.
The figures are pretty impressive.
According to Stellantis, a company formed through a transatlantic merger between the US-based Fiat Chrysler and French PSA Peugeot, the car will reach 60 miles per hour in a staggering 1.66 seconds.
That’s scary quick.
It’s a fitting swansong for one of the iconic images of American motoring, the huge muscle car rumbling along at great speed and volume.
However, they’re also gas-guzzlers, and there’s a need to keep up with the times.
At the end of the year, Stellantis will have stopped making the petrol-powered versions of the Dodge Challenger and the Charger, as well as the sedan Chrysler 3000.
This is a reaction to some pretty strict government rules on fuel economy, as well as a general trend towards electric vehicles in an attempt to allay the effects of climate change.
The Canadian factory where those three cars are made has been adapted to make electric cars, with that work set to start next year.
Whether they’ll be similar to the models on offer these days isn’t known, but they did release a concept for an electric Charger last year.
Obviously, this is a time of looking towards the future and a changing world, but also tinged with a bit of sadness.
Dodge brand CEO Tim Kuniskis said: “It's the end of an era, for sure.
"Electric products, they're very fast.
“Muscle cars, one of the primary ingredients is to be a fast accelerating car.
“So I've automatically got the power.
“Now I've just got to figure out ways to bring all the other elements in of the excitement of the driving experience."
The new Challenger Demon will put down 1,025 horsepower out of a 6.2 litre V-8 engine – supercharged, of course.
It’ll also produce 945 pound-feet of torque, which led to the company having to reinforce the rear drive shaft and differential with metals from the aerospace industry.
Stellantis claims this car will do a quarter mile in 8.91 seconds, hitting a speed of over 151 miles per hour.
However, it’ll only do 13 miles per gallon in city driving and 21 miles on the highway.
That’s unlikely to concern the kind of audience they’re looking at, though.
"After all these years, we owed it as much to them as to ourselves to celebrate this end, and give them something that produces a lot of pride in the brand that they love," Kuniskis added.
While they’ve added some racing elements such as tires to the Demon 170, they’ll also release a more street-friendly version, and it’ll cost $96,666 to buy – see what they’ve done there?
You’ll have to buy front and back passenger seats separately, though they’re only charging $1 for them – a clever piece of marketing.
Additional extras include a better sound system, sunroof, and some leather upholstery.
They’re only intending to make 3,300 of these cars, and that total number might even be smaller because of the limited production time and potential for parts shortages.