Although it’s designed for drag racing, the equipment necessary to operate there is not included. This doesn’t make any sense to many people.
The Challenger was launched by Dodge just a few weeks back. There has been a lot of coverage. This news will be headline material if the car is 840 horsepower and has all sorts of features that allow it to run a quarter-mile in less than 10 seconds. Although it has the potential for being polarizing, the media has remained more focused on the facts.
This will change once people have the chance to drive the Demon. Automotive News decided to not wait. AN posted an editorial yesterday calling for the Demon’s removal from the road.
Automotive News. However, as hurtful as the editorial was towards the Demon is, it has sparked a firestorm frenzy in their comments section in support Dodge’s street-legal drag racing car. Although we will not be able to drive the Demon, we are going to reserve judgment on it until then. There is plenty of room for discussion.
The Demon is indeed powerful and can be deadly in any hands. A vintage Volkswagen Beetle with 40 horsepower can be dangerous if it runs headfirst into a crowd. The Demon was not banned by the NHRA because it is too fast. It was banned because it does not have the safety equipment necessary to race at this level. This opens up the possibility of questioning its safety.
It does meet all federal requirements for street-legal, street-driven cars. It is similar to the Challegner Hellcat with 707 horsepower, the 808 horsepower Hennessey Shelby Mustang GT350 and the 1,500-horsepower Bugatti Chriron.
We understand what Automotive News has to say here. Although the Demon was supposed to be a drag-strip car, Dodge offered it in a form that would render it unfit for use in the exact application for which it was designed. This means that Demon owners will race on the streets, which is illegal and dangerous regardless of whether they have a muscle car or a three-cylinder hatchback.
It’s easy to see how Dodge could have jumped from smart marketing to reckless action. But the question is still there. Dodge should have provided the safety equipment, and the Demon was relegated to competition-use only like the Cobra Jet Mustang or the COPO Camaro. Or was the manufacturer just a little crazy and insanely cool, keeping the Demon street legal but not track-legal?