In order for Dodge to build a muscle car capable of hitting 60 mph (96 km/h) in as little as 2.3 seconds, they first had to define what the purpose of this car would be.
In short, it’s straight line acceleration and literally nothing else. Sure, it’s not as if the Hellcat could also double as a track car, but if you are planning on going to the track, you best leave your Demon home.
Now that we got that out of the way, let’s talk 1/4 mile times. Dodge say that this possessed Challenger is able to hit the mark in 9.65 seconds, thanks not only to its 840 HP supercharged V8 engine, but also its street-legal Nitto drag radials.
You’ll have a better understanding for how it’s able to do what it does after watching this latest Engineering Explained video – which also touches on Dodge’s claim of 1.8 g’s during launch.
At the end, we get a peak at what a Demon vs Model S P100D drag race might look like, and the math suggest that the Challenger would claim victory, despite the Tesla being quicker in the 0 to 30 mph (48 km/h) range.