- The Dodge has the quicker quarter-mile time on paper, but Hagerty couldn’t get close to matching it.
- Whereas the Dodge sends over 1,000 hp through the rear wheels, the Lucid has all-wheel drive.
On paper, the Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170 is the quickest road-legal production car ever born in the U.S., capable of launching down the quarter-mile in just 8.91 seconds at 151.17 mph (243 km/h). However, getting anywhere close to that figure is extremely difficult, as Jason Cammisa recently discovered.
For the latest episode of Cammisa’s drag racing series on Hagerty, he pitted the Demon 170 against the most powerful car currently built in America, the tri-motor Lucid Air Sapphire. It too is capable of dipping below the 10-second mark on a drag strip but can do so with ease and repeatedly. The same cannot be said about the Dodge.
Read: Rare Dodge Demon 170 Wrecked In Canadian Crash
The brilliant comparison starts at the straight of Willow Springs Raceway. On this unprepped surface, without any of the sticky VHT you’ll find at a drag strip, the Dodge can’t put its 1,025 hp and 945 lb-ft (1,281 Nm) down to the pavement effectively, despite having Mickey Thompson ET Street R drag radial tires. By the time the Dodge started to gain some traction, the Lucid was already halfway down the track, finishing 396 feet ahead of the Demon 170. The Lucid clocked a best time of 9.2 seconds at 158 mph (254 km/h) compared to the Dodge’s relatively pedestrian 11.2 seconds at 139 mph (227 km/h).
Evidently, Demon 170 owners shouldn’t attempt to race a Lucid Air Sapphire on the street. But what about at a drag racing facility?
To answer that question, Hagerty brought the duo to Famoso Dragstrip and performed 14 runs between the Dodge and the Lucid. All the races were performed with fresh VHT on the surface, helping to maximize traction for both cars. It wasn’t enough to help the Dodge. While Cammisa, behind the wheel of the Air Sapphire, clocked multiple 9.0-second runs, the best time mustered up by the Demon 170 was 9.721 seconds at 143.72 mph (231 km/h), and that was with Tom Bailey behind the wheel, a proficient drag racer who owns a 3,000 hp Chevy Camaro.
The result isn’t a huge surprise, as the Lucid benefits from more power with 1,243 horses and 1,430 lb-ft (1,939 Nm), while also driving all four of its wheels. However, it’s surprising just how far off the Demon 170 is off Dodge’s 8.9-second claim, and it suggests that getting anywhere close to that time requires nothing less than perfect conditions.