Dodge’s vaunted L platform went out with a bang in 2023, ending its nearly two-decade production run of Chargers, Challengers, 300s, and Magnums with the quickest and fastest full production, road-going domestic vehicle, the Demon 170.
The 1,025 horsepower 2023 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170, the Dodge brand’s seventh and final “Last Call” special-edition model, was unveiled on March 20, 2023, at the Dodge Last Call Powered by Roadkill Nights Vegas performance festival at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Built on the LD platform, in use since 2011, the Demon 170 boasts 1,025 horsepower from its 6.2-liter supercharged HEMI, and with other features like a purpose-built racing suspension, aluminum wheels with Mickey Thompson ET Street R drag radials, numerous deletes for weight reduction (including the rear seat), and a 3.09 rear axle ratio, the production car right off the lot is capable of running 8.91 at over 151 mph in real conditions. That performance usurps the all-electric Tesla Model S Plaid, which carries a nearly identical horsepower output, at 1,020. The Plaid was the previous standard-bearer for full production (as in readily available) domestic cars, producing a 1/4-mile time of 9.23 seconds at 155 mph.
The Demon is no doubt quicker, but is it the better car, or a better buy? Well, that’s all a matter of perspective.
The Plaid, until the first of September, came with an MSRP of $109,880, but received a significant price decrease of $18,500, to a new sticker of $91,390. The Demon 170, meanwhile, carries a price tag of $96,666 (before any dealer markups). The Plaid, for its part, has a range of 396 miles, and carries with it no cost for oil changes, oil filters, pulleys and belts, or the like. The Demon’s thirsty HEMI gulps E85 at a rate of 10 mpg in the city and 17 on the highway (13 mpg combined estimated) from its 18.5 gallon tank, netting you 314.5 miles of range at the long end.
This is where perspective comes in.
The Plaid is, no doubt, the better value for an as-stock car. Not only does it cost less, but you get all the plush comforts of a production four-door sedan, including the missing rear seat from the Demon 170. If an incredibly fast car at the best value is your goal — and you’re open to the concept of an electric vehicle, charging, and al that comes with it — the Plaid likely comes out on top.
The 2023 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170 delivers 1,025 total horsepower at 6,500 rpm and 945 Ib.-ft. of torque at 4,200 rpm.
But we’re car guys, and while the Plaid is indeed a cool car that even the most staunch of internal combustion engine connoisseurs have toyed with and purchased for their sheer performance capability, the Demon 170 is no doubt the muscle car to end all muscle cars. It’s quicker, it produces more than a whine, it has all the masculine tendencies of a fossil-fuel-burning engine and transmission — it’s a racecar in sheep’s clothing. If a weekend toy for you and the wife is the goal, the Demon 170 has no real equal (you could buy, say, a Corvette, but it won’t print an 8-second time slip). If you need performance and the ability to travel and haul the kids and groceries, the Plaid wins out. Need to satisfy your craving for acceleration and the sound of a growling HEMI and draw side-eye from climate activist Greta Thunberg? Demon 170.
The additional beauty of the Demon 170 is its ease of modification; with third-party tuning and other minor changes, there is solid potential to go mid eights or quicker without losing much, if any, of its road behaviors. Owners have already surpassed Dodge’s production mark of 8.91, and there’s more to come, to be sure. The Tesla, on the other hand, is a bit more as-is in the powertrain department. The car has been 8.90s in mostly stock form, and various owners have stripped their Plaid’s down to little more than a driver’s seat, and even removed body panels to reduce weight, only netting them bests in the low 8.70s. Advantage Dodge.
No matter the decision, both Tesla and Dodge have set the bar impressively high for volume production cars, establishing capabilities once thought inconceivable for a car you can acquire direct from a dealer with a warranty. The Demon 170, for its part swooped in and stole the Plaid’s thunder at the bell, with marks that — given environmental factors driving us toward the demise of productions V8’s — may not be equaled again by an internal combustion engine-powered vehicle.