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ramp #69

Dodge Challenger SRT Demon: The Girl and the Devil

Against all odds: how someone unexpectedly found himself riding shotgun in one of the most brutal muscle cars of all time.

  • Text
    Kurt Molzer
  • Photos
    Steffen Jahn

Was he dreaming? How was this even possible? A Dodge -Challenger SRT Demon – the monster itself, raw and as rare as gold in a trickle of water – at a gas station in Germany?! You could only buy those in the U.S. or in Canada, after signing a disclaimer confirming you were aware of the Demon’s (un)holy nature and would not hold the company responsible in case something went wrong (assuming you’d even be in a condition to do so after your inevitable trip to the ER).

He rolled up in his Saab 900 convertible and stopped at the pump behind the SRT Demon – SRT standing for Street and Racing Technology. The tamer of the devil, apparently, was inside paying. Or maybe he was done already and just marking his territory. Wouldn’t have been surprising. In any case, our protagonist made up his mind to ask the guy how on earth he’d gotten his hands on that car – and anything else he could find out.

If the Hulk didn’t just throw cars but drove them too, the Demon would be his.

He got out and walked around to take a closer look. What a beast. Does the word anti-aesthetic exist? If the Hulk didn’t just throw cars but drove them too, the Demon would be his. The not-exactly-tiny Saab looked like a Matchbox toy beside it.

As a long-time subscriber of a British car magazine, he knew this Challenger inside out. “Terminator on Wheels” had been the headline of the feature back then – and he thought that nailed it perfectly. The 2017 SRT Demon was (before the even wilder Demon 170 five years later) the penultimate fireworks display from Auburn Hills before the glorious HEMI V8 – hero of countless quarter-mile duels and a true piece of Yankee heritage – was finally laid to rest and replaced by a stream-lined electric future. An electric Dodge! Yes, friends, nothing is sacred anymore. A once-impregnable bastion of rebellion has fallen. Dodge – one of the meanest icons of the muscle-car era (just think Charger!) – will at least keep a straight-six alongside the battery version. Cute, in a way.

1/5

Dodge Challenger SRT Demon

  • Engine
    supercharged V8
  • Displacement
    6,166 cc
  • Power
    852 hp (626 kW) at 6,300 rpm
  • Torque
    1,044 Nm at 4,500 rpmn
  • Weight
    1,941 kg
  • 0 – 100 km / h
    2,4 s
  • Top speed
    335 km/h

Hmm. What was taking the guy so long?

Time to study the massive air intake on the hood and recall the nearly obscene performance stats of that 6.2-liter supercharged engine: 852 horsepower. 1,044 newton-meters of torque. Zero to 60 miles per hour (96.5 km/h) in 2.3 seconds! The occupants are pressed into their seats with 1.8 g – almost twice the force of gravity, or in other words, double their own body weight. They record similar values at Cape Canaveral during a rocket launch. The Dodge does the quarter-mile ( ... )

→ Read these and other stories exclusively in the ramp #69 ”More Than Machines“,

Kurt Molzer

Kurt Molzer

Freelance Author & Columnist
Kurt Molzer was born and raised in Vienna and worked for years as chief editor for Bild, Penthouse and Bunte. From 2000 he was a writer for GQ magazine, where he had a monthly column. His debut novel "Kurt's Stories" was published in 2006. Now he writes for ramp (again). And he has to drive fast cars for it - although he had actually already sworn them off.
Dodge Challenger SRT Demon: The Girl and the Devil

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