Well, we’ve covered the platform, driveline, mods and suspension. Let’s talk consistency since that’s what all of us are after, right?

FACT 5:

The Dodge Challenger SRT^® Demon came packed with loads of new and groundbreaking technology and gizmos. Factory Line Lock, factory TransBrake^™, factory “killer chiller” and After-Run Cool Down mode are a few of the gadgets that were heavily promoted about the car. There is one problem. In reality, they didn’t make the car any faster at the track. OK OK OK, hold on, don’t get wound up. What all these little guys DID do for the car was make it insanely more consistent. I will be the first to admit I’m not a professional racecar driver, and even after a year, I still probably haven’t spent as much time on the track as the engineers did developing the car. But from my experience, none of those features make the car any faster on the track. After trying them in all different ways and combinations, I found that with or without them, there did not seem to be a big difference in record-setting attempts. Meaning, the car still performed well without using the TransBrake or Line Lock. However, that doesn’t mean that they are not helpful. Let’s talk about the Line Lock. You see, the Line Lock allows you to lock the front brakes while not engaging the rear brakes so that you can do a burnout. This stops you from heating up and wearing out your rear brakes. Definitely a handy tool, but even more handy than that, on the screen, it shows a revolution counter. It tracks how many times the tires have rotated, right there, right in front of your face. You now have an accurate means to measure how “long” your burnout is. This allows you to do the same burnout, every single time. Granted, the amount of rotations you will need varies from tire to tire and track to track. When you do discover the ideal burnout given the conditions, you can duplicate it perfectly each time. This allows you to have a consistent tire temp, thus leading to a consistent launch. The same goes for the TransBrake. While I get great overall ET times without it, my times are not as consistent. The TransBrake allows you to launch at the same RPM every time you launch. Meaning, once you figure out the ideal RPM for the track/tire/condition, you can duplicate it. This again leads to being extremely consistent on every single run, allowing you to duplicate your runs each time. These features really come in handy for the bracket racers out there. I’m really amazed by how consistent the SRT Demon is. You have to be really, really bad to be inconsistent in the SRT Demon.

 

All of that being said, it is safe to say that the 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon did not disappoint on or off the track. It is one of the most consistent cars you could ever hope for on the drag strip. Dodge spit out some pretty impressive specs up front that left a lot of people wondering how well it would pan out in the real world. The car is raw and brutal, unlike anything you can buy off a dealer lot and drive on the street. Everything from the marketing to the launch, from the ownership experience to the performance is something very special. Sadly, most people won’t get the opportunity to dig that deep to find all of that out. But I am sure any SRT Demon owner would agree the SRT Demon truly is a one of a kind; a wicked, bad ass machine and I can’t thank the wild and crazy geniuses who built this thing enough for making it a reality.