This Dodge Demon owner got his 840 HP beast down the quarter-mile in a record-setting 9.97 seconds but it’s nowhere near what Dodge says it can do.
A big selling point of the Dodge Demon was them toting that it was banned by the NHRA Drag racing authority for being too fast down the quarter mile with its 9.65-second pass at 140 MPH. The only problem is that no owner has even gotten close to that time, until now, kind of. According to Dodge Hellcat owner and Hellcat.org member Hellcat Dan on his post earlier last week (Jan. 27, 2018) a Dodge Demon owner went down the quarter mile in 9.97 seconds at 136 MPH, the first Demon owner to break into the 10s. Quite an accomplishment for any drag racer, but as mentioned, long ways away from what Dodge says it can do.
Running 9.97 seconds does technically mean that the next time this Demon owner runs down the quarter mile at an NHRA event, since he ran faster than 9.99 seconds, he’ll have to equip his Demon with an NHRA-spec roll cage not to mention the cost for a license, proper racing gear, and a HANS safety device.
It’s a bit disingenuous for Dodge to advertise it that way with such a lofty claim, but then again, Dodge has been frank that they don’t expect the average Demon owner to even get into the 9s in the first place. According to an interview with NHRA VP of operations Glen Gray
“If you came out here for a Wednesday night test and tune running pump gas,” Gray says, referencing the popular weekly event at to Lucas Oil Raceway near his office in Indianapolis, “and you didn’t push it, you’re not going to run below 10 seconds.”
Additionally, The Fast Lane Car put out a nice little video showing just what goes into making the Dodge Demon even remotely capable of running 9.65 seconds and it’s super detail oriented. For example, Dodge hires a special track prep professional, a professional with 12 years under his belt, to get the traction conditions just right for an official Dodge Demon run. Watch the video for yourself and you’ll see just how unlikely any Dodge Demon owner will get to this level of preparedness.
But as the age-old internet adage goes, “Challenge accepted.” That 9.97-second run will slowly get chopped down with major jumps by owners as they figure out a tried and true process of getting the most out of their Demons.
