Describe the Dodge Challenger SRT Demon to anyone who doesn’t already know what it is, and they?ll likely ask how such a vehicle could possibly be offered for public consumption. It?s set up primarily for drag racing, produces 808 horsepower on premium gas and 840 horses on 100 octane, and comes with a seat only for the driver. Sold to the same litigious American public that fosters warning labels on everything from bean sprouts to pool toys, the Demon seems like a rolling lawsuit-in-waiting. So how on Earth did Fiat Chrysler’s SRT performance group convince the company’s top brass to build the car" And once it did, how was it able to keep key program details a total secret?even possibly from some of those same bosses?until the Demon’s public debut"
A Straight-Line Project Takes a Left Turn
The first Demon seeds were sown in 2015, when SRT pitched a street-legal drag racer based on the Challenger?the ADR, for American Drag Racer?to the FCA product-planning committee. According to SRT head Tim Kuniskis, that group and CEO Sergio Marchionne deemed the initial project objectives ?crazy.? We should point out that the project’s objectives were far less insane than the Demon’s eventual performance capability. Dodge simply had hoped the ADR would be a roughly 10-second muscle car, a ?Hellcat Plus.?

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It wasn’t going to get the guy next door driving a Camry to go, ?Holy shit, is that a Demon"?

?SRT’s Tim K...