The Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170 – Cause For Celebration or a Sign of What’s Coming?
The final entry in the Dodge “Last Call” arsenal debuted last night at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and what an entry into the seven special edition “Last Call” vehicles between the Challenger and Charger models.
Delivered by helicopter, the Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170 packs 1,025 horsepower of blown, Gen III HEMI and runs on ethanol (E85). Just over 10 minutes after the car touched down, the Challenger rolled into the waterbox.
Less than a minute later, the scoreboards flashed 8.91 at 151 mph, and Dodge confirmed that on a prepped surface with a good driver, the production models will run these numbers as well. Dodge will build 3000 for US distribution.
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Of course the internet was abuzz about the news, and while some celebrated the first production 8-second muscle car’s arrival, some brought up the elephant in the room: is this the first shoe to drop signaling the end of the modern muscle car era?
As it was first reported in November of 2021, Dodge CEO Tim Kuniskis reported the popular “Hellcat” supercharged driveline would be phased out by the end of 2023, and in August of 2022, news dropped the 2023 model year Challenger and Charger models would be the final ones.
The electric Charger Daytona was revealed in August 2022, and as of now Dodge doesn’t have another known replacement for the Challenger and Charger.
Now, to be fair to Dodge, they aren’t alone in ramping up their EV arsenal. It’s been reported that Chevrolet will produced the Camaro through the 2024 model year, and then it will be replaced by an electric sedan, as General Motors is said to be moving to an all-electric line-up by the year 2035.
Ford has a longer-range plan for the Mustang, as the current S550-chassis Mustang that debuted in 2015 will phase out in favor of the new S650 Mustang this year.
But reports say that S650-chassis will cease in 2030, with no replacement. And with the electric Mustang Mach-E already in the marketplace, is the writing on the wall for Ford as well?
So, what does this mean for the performance and car enthusiast market? I’m not exactly sure, since there’s still millions of used cars and trucks to get into, modify and enjoy.
But without factory support in marketing new versions of the popular cars, does it signal the peak? When the big three axe their respective models, do we at that moment start to go downhill?
At this point, it’s too early to say what could happen. But after watching more than 60 late-model HEMI-powered Dodge vehicles participate at the NMCA opener this past weekend, all of them 2005 and later, it is a bit concerning knowing that there are no new models with a V8 planned at the current time from Dodge.
Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of JoAnna Iacobelli and Sick the Magazine.