10
2
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles has begun shipping the first 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demons to dealers, the automaker says.
The limited-production, 6.2-liter Hemi V-8 engine delivers 840 horsepower. Dodge is touting the mega-muscle car as the industry’s first street-legal production drag car. The National Hot Rod Association has certified it as the world’s fastest quarter-mile production vehicle.
But it has drawn its critics. Automotive News, the leading trade publication covering the auto industry, called for banning the Demon from the street in an editorial last April.
The car "is so inherently dangerous to the common safety of motorists that its registration as a road-worthy automobile should be banned," it wrote, citing its "barely legal" tires and massive acceleration.
During tests the Demon covered a quarter-mile in 9.65 seconds at 140 miles per hour, and it accelerates from zero to 60 mph in 2.3 seconds.