An Indiegogo campaign claims that for $325 you can possibly drive a Dodge Demon down a dragstrip by December 2018.
Dubbed the Dodge Demon Experience, one man is attempting to use crowd funding to get people to buy him a free Dodge Demon. For a minimum donation of $325, you have the opportunity to make a pass in a Dodge Demon at a drag strip, time and location to be determined. According to the campaign that officially launched earlier yesterday (Apr. 25, 2017), because Dodge plans to only make 3,330 units of this 840 HP drag strip special, the Dodge Demon Experience aims to bring the Dodge Demon to the average Joe for a chance to experience this neck breaking performance for themselves.
All in all, there are 6 perks available for you to choose from.
- $325 gets you one run in a Dodge Demon at a drag strip as well as a commemorative case with pictures and video of your experience. In addition, your name will be added to the paint scheme that supposedly Gas Monkey Garage will paint.
- $55 DDE Hoodie
- $30 Coffee Tumbler
- $30 T-shirt (Mens and Womens)
- $25 Hat (Normal and distressed)
- $15 Keychain
The IndieGoGo Campaign’s founder has given himself one-month to raise more than $1,000,000. Pricing hasn’t been released for the 2017 Dodge Demon but estimates put this limited run Challenger to cost under $100,000. The other $900,000 will be used to rent out the various drag strips, keep the Dodge Demon in tip-top shape with consumables and maintenance such as tires, gas and oil changes, video and camera equipment to film and document those who take up the campaign starter on his $325 offer, making the perks, and unforeseen expenses like a motor blowing or catastrophic failure of other unplanned parts breaking.
The IndieGoGo Campaign does admit there will be challenges and risks involved with such a project but there are a couple of problems, in our opinion, that make this challenge almost a non-starter. First, there’s the vagueness of the terms. Since the campaign starter set a flexible goal, that means any money raiseds can be claimed regardless of the goal being met. Let’s say $50,000 is raised with numerous people shelling out $325 for the highest perk, will the campaign starter make an effort to foot the bill for the rest of the Dodge Demon and still deliver on his promise of a drag strip pull and commemorative box for his backers?
Then there’s the logistics of it all. Let’s say that this project was indeed fully funded with all 3,300 backers for the highest perk. The scheduling nightmare that would take place to get 3,300 people to commit to a dragstrip and specific time to get in their run would be almost impossible to put together in a reasonable time frame. 19 months from now when this $325 perk does kick in, how long will someone have to wait in order to get their run in?
Finally, there are the overhead costs of maintaining the car and getting it to each specified dragstrip in one piece. Let’s say you’re able to schedule one run a week at a drag stip for five years, you’re looking at 12 runs a week for the next 260 weeks. Will the Dodge Demon be in tip-top shape for that long without requiring some major maintenance even though you’ve budgeted a sizeable chunk of money to cover these costs? And will the IndieGoGo organizer personally see that the car makes it to each event until everyone gets their run in?
There are so many variables that question the legitimacy of this campaign. These variables should be taken into account if you plan to donate. Just know that anything you donate, the organizer has a legal right to have without giving you any benefit.
