One of Stellantis' most prized possessions, Dodge is undergoing a major overhaul of its business attitude. For example, the 'father of the Hellcat' is retiring just as the company is pursuing a new EV lifestyle.
Tim Kuniskis, the current Dodge CEO and the supporter of all things Hellcat, including the Demon 170 swansong, is stepping down from leading Dodge and Ram Trucks as of June 1, and that change is just in time for the electric revolution. More precisely, the American brand is set to introduce the 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona all-electric 'muscle car' later this year along with the Charger Sixpack models equipped with the 3.0-liter Hurricane inline-six twin-turbo engines from 2025.
They all come to signal the new lease of life given to the eighth generation Charger that returns to a two-door fastback coupe body style alongside the modern four-door sedan format – and they're supposed to clear our memory of the long line of L-bodied Challenger and Charger models equipped with the mighty Hemi V8, including the Hellcat versions.
No worries, if you don't want to forget them, there's still a pool of supporters – including at the local quarter-mile dragstrip. More precisely, the videographer behind the Wheels Plus channel on YouTube is a big fan of The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and he witnessed something double-Mopar going on with a pair of Hellcats.
In fact, one of them present at The Strip was a Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat, while the other was a Dodge Challenger SRT Demon (not the 170 version, though). We suspect that both had ample modifications under the cool liveries, though, so we prepared for something cool and fast. Well, these modern muscle cars didn't disappoint – or at least they didn't do it too much.
More precisely, the green Charger's driver probably knew that the black Demon wasn't something to be trifled with – given its open hood to let more air sip into the red-dressed V8. As such, after the traditional burnout and the careful line-up for the start procedure, the Charger's driver acted a bit hot-brained and hit the red light on the Christmas tree.
Indeed, it was minus 1.3 versus 2.46 in terms of reaction times – and even that wasn't enough because the Demon would still have won the race, hence the 8.69 versus 9.10s elapsed times. The mauling, by the way, was due to a higher trap speed – the Challenger passed the finish with over 161 mph while the Charger only managed 151 mph. Well, better luck next time, maybe. Also, we don't recommend that Charger go up against the Demon 170 because that one is also seriously quick and unwilling to take any quarter-mile dragstrip prisoners – or so we heard!
Aurel has aimed high all his life (literally, at 16 he was flying gliders all by himself) so in 2006 he switched careers and got hired as a writer at his favorite magazine. Since then, his work has been published both by print and online outlets, most recently right here, on autoevolution. Full profile
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