Yahoo Autos Dodge Demon 170 revealed: 1,025 horsepower and packing a parachute
Many of the absolute best cars on the planet were born from passionate groups of people. People willing to put in extra work to make something really special. And that's exactly how the Dodge Challenger Demon 170 came about. As Tim Kuniskis, the head of Dodge, explained, the Demon 170 was a somewhat secret side project that really got its start in the parking lot of the SRT building. The pandemic was in full force, so it was the safest way to get people together to talk about the plan. About 40 people came, all to potentially be recruited for this project, which was going to be additional work on top of existing projects. But it was to build the ultimate Dodge Challenger. When it was time to opt in or out, every single person hopped on board. And a couple of years later, they've created the car you see here, a Challenger that can make 1,025 horsepower and 945 pound-feet of torque.
Yes, it's a four-figure Challenger, at least when it's running on E85 ethanol. And that's where it gets its 170 designation — that's the proof number for E85's ethanol content. That's not to say it's slow when running on pump gas. Run it on premium (91 or 93 octane), and it makes 900 horsepower and 810 pound-feet of torque, which is still more than the original Challenger Demon.
To hit these numbers, Dodge literally broke some eggs (engines) to make the Demon 170 omelet. The stories about blown test engines were not a publicity stunt, they really were breaking engines trying to hit their target numbers, and that led to more and more and more of the Demon powertrain being replaced and upgraded. With the engine itself, it has a new 3.0-liter supercharger and pulley, a new throttle body, bigger fuel injectors, stronger cylinder head studs, new pistons, rods, crank bearings, fluid damper and billet main caps. The transmission has a new transmission brake, the driveshaft is stronger, the differential is stronger (by 50%), and the rear halfshafts and CV joints are new.
The suspension has been retuned, too, particularly to handle the new, standard Mickey Thompson ET Street R street legal drag tires developed just for the Demon 170. They're the same 315-mm width at the rear, but are so soft and sticky, that Dodge stiffened up the suspension so that less of the energy from the engine was lost just shifting weight up and back for traction. But don't worry, the Demon 170 can still pull the front wheels off the pavement with a good launch.
Dodge isn't including a set of skinny wheels for the front, opting instead for 245-mm wide front tires. Dodge did remove the front wide fenders to save a bit of a weight. And speaking of weight reduction, Dodge will be offering optional two-piece wheels with aluminum centers and carbon fiber rims for ultra-low unsprung and rotational weight — they shed about 32 pounds versus the standard wheels. Additionally, the Demon 170 has two-piece slotted brake rotors with Brembo four-piston calipers at the front, and one-piece slotted rotors at the back, again with Brembo four-piston calipers. And while it's not performance related, the Demon 170 gets unique badging all around, plus a nifty "Alcohol Injected" word mark ahead of the hood scoop.
There are a couple trick features to make it easier to run and launch the Demon 170, too. It doesn't require a separate ECU to be installed to unlock all the power. Plus, there are sensors and automatic computer adjustments to make sure that if you get a tank of ethanol with low ethanol content, the car will adjust settings to make sure it doesn't blow up. Furthermore, there's a torque limiter that can be manually adjusted. The reason for this is if you're racing on a surface that isn't quite ideal, you can limit torque early on for better launches with the reduced traction.
