The 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon promises to be at least 200 pounds lighter than the current Hellcat when it debuts at the 2017 New York International Auto Show.
While Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’ first teaser video introduced the resurrected nameplate, the latest shows the Demon driving onto a scale and shedding weight from various areas of the vehicle.
The video is the second in a 12-video series, which are to be periodically released in the lead-up to the Demon’s April reveal.
According to FCA, the change in curb weight comes from lighter wheels, steering, suspension, brakes, interior construction and other components.
Even with the 200-pound weight loss, the SRT Demon would still tip the scales at around 4,200-plus lbs — at least 400 pounds heavier than the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 and Ford’s Shelby GT350. Still, the drop in weight alone should invigorate the Dodge enough to make an incremental difference in acceleration numbers.
As this is only the second video in the series, it only shows one aspect of the upcoming model. The Demon will likely see its power output rise above the Hellcat’s 707 horsepower, thanks to various performance modifications, but we will have to wait to learn more.
[Image: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles]
I like this video much more than the ridiculous intro video.
To borrow a phrase from The Don. With Demon, America will win again. Believe me.
Oh, where oh where, art thou, BTSR?? Seriously…more than 707 HP? How many 0-60 runs does a guy have to do to be satisfied with such power?
All of them
I agree. This is pure ridiculousness. It’s already a portly beast with weak brakes and questionable handling.
700hp in a Ferrari or AMG sounds mean. 700+ and rising in a Challenger sounds like a mess.
The Challenger is both a Fiat and a Mercedes-Benz simultaneously, so your belief that somehow a Ferrari or AMG with the same power would make more sense reveals you to be easily duped by marketing.
A base model Challenger has weak brakes…the Hellcat does not.
I’m definitely biased, but because it’s an INFORMED bias I’m going to call BS on your assertion about the brakes.
Unless you have subjective experience in the Hellcat as well as its competitors, or can cite a volume of reliable test reviews that indicate brake issues, I’m going to dump your opinion into the same bucket I throw those from Alex Jones and Bill Mahar.
That’s the first time I’ve heard a Hellcat has weak brakes.
I’m looking at an instrumented test…154 feet from 70-0 is weak?
You might get that stopping distance a hard braking or two, but brake fade on a 2 ton beast is real.
The Hellcat has even bigger Brembo brakes than the Viper does, although admittedly you can get the carbon ceramic matrix brake package on the Viper.
Jack drove a Hellcat on a track for an article here a while back and didn’t have anything bad to say about the Brembo setup on that car, or the 6.4L SRT cars either. If memory serves, the only brakes he said were inadequate for track duty were the base brakes found on the V6 and 5.7L vehicles.
Spoken like someone who has never been in one (a hellcat). They handle fine. No not Porsche great, but they can go around corners and stop successfully.
So it will still be 1,000 lbs overweight instead of 1,200 lbs overweight.
In otherwords – it’s gonna have a dad-bod.
Dad bod for old-guy car. Seems reasonable.
The power is unusable except at the dragstrip, while the weight will affect every single turn and stop the car makes. I’d rather have a plain old Mustang GT.
Yeah I would enjoy a Hemi Challenger but not because I think it is the correct alternative to a Mustang or a Camaro. I would buy it because it is the last personal luxury coupe from the artists formerly known as the Big 3.
A Grand Tourer in every sense.
“In otherwords – it’s gonna have a dad-bod.”
More like an offensive-lineman bod, I’d say.
How are you going to make a modern full size two door sedan weigh less than 4000 lbs?
By not making it full-size. Why would you want a two-door car to be full-size? If you’re going to put up with that much size and weight, get a real sedan with real back doors and a roomy back seat.
I don’t harp nearly as much on the Charger’s weight as on the Challenger’s.
Also… the soon-to-be-departed Chevy SS is quite full-size and is under 4000 lbs., although not by much. Actual weigh-ins have been between 3960 and 3975 lbs.
I want a full size coupe. I wanted it badly enough that I put down my money and bought one. I love it.
Same here – I love my Challenger.
And to the naysayers, according to everything I’ve found, the V6 car comes in a hair under 4,000 lbs. For a modern car with all the amenities and safety equipment, that’s not too bad.
“Why would you want a two-door car to be full-size?”
For bad-a$$ness. It’s not like they don’t make the Charger and 300 for the sedan-lovers.
A few of the mega-bucks makers do a full-size coupe, why not let the plebs in on the fun?
I don’t like the megabucks full-size coupes either. Too much size for no benefit.
The benefit is vanity.
The Challenger really isn’t *that* big. I gained a few inches of lengthwise leeway in my garage when I kicked my ’96 Thunderbird out to make room for the 2010 R/T that I had. The Thunderbird weighed about 3800 lbs versus the 2010 at something like 4050 on an unattended DOT truck-check scale, which didn’t strike me as unreasonable considering 20″ wheels vs. the T-bird’s 15″‘s, a decade and a half of safety advancements (ABS, ESC, side airbags, et cetera) and a powertrain built for 376 HP instead of the T-bird’s 205. The 2015 R/T might be a little heavier but it feels smaller and more nimble than the 2010 thanks to the Super Track Pack on top of incremental suspension improvements.
2016 Challenger: Length 198 in.
That happens to be exactly the same as my LS460.
That’s absolutely enormous for a coupe.
“2016 Challenger: Length 198 in.
“That happens to be exactly the same as my LS460.”
I had to look that up for myself. Holy hell!
Never having owned something meaningfully smaller than that, I’m compelled to disagree that 198″ is anything like ‘enormous’ @dal20402. (I grew up in a household where one of the smallest roadworthy vehicles belonging to the family was my Mustang-based ’73 Cougar at 200″ long.)
Plus don’t forget the dad-bod driving it.
“The video is the second in a 12-video series, which are to be periodically released in the lead-up to the Demon’s April reveal.”
Jesus, I think I’ll wait for the full length movie. I’m already sick of hearing about this car.
4200 lbs… that’s basically Lotus territory.
Give Lotus a few more years. They’ll get there.
From the video it appears the weight reduction was accomplished with the use of transparent body panels?
It also steadily loses weight as it drives, by nearly a pound of fuel for each mile it travels.
In memory of BTSR:
HELLCAT!!!!!!
Pour one out.
I’m surprised that FCA hasn’t made and aluminum block replacement for the Hemi V8. It’s a high volume engine also used in the Ram 1500, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Dodge Charger, and Chrysler 300. That’s lots of weight reduction for the engineering effort.
They should have, but for FCA if its not Alfa its not worth spending money on. A lighter hemi would help with CAFE and might convince me to buy one.
I just appreciate the “Race Gas” button. I’m fine with this on that basis alone.
Maybe it has a secret Smokey Yunick fuel tank hidden in there somewhere.
Any word if a Charger version of this will exist or not?
I don’t get it… My 2002 LS430 had a listed curb weight of 3995, and that was a huge car. Admittedly, it was missing a lot of the bloat required in today’s cars, but it still had eight or 10 airbags, full power everything, a little V8 and all sorts of safety stuff. It had nearly no aluminum in the structure, all steel. The hood and the trunk were aluminum, but that is probably less than 100lbs of overall savings. The engine was all aluminum too, but so are the Camaro and the mustang’s. There were parts of that car that were seriously overbuilt, the lower control arm bushings looked like they belonged in a truck. The suspension was mostly forged and cast aluminum, the brakes were radial mounted and monobloc. Lexus didn’t cut corners, wood, leather and thick shag everywhere, not a hard plastic anywhere. The undercarriage was lined with felt to absorb noise.
I just don’t get where all the extra weight comes from in a 3800lbs coupe, or the 4200lbs coupe like the Challenger.
American makers weren’t good at making them lighter. I realize the Hemi fans will scream BLASPHEMY when you bring up the fact the LX platform is older than GM Zeta (which ends all global production this year) and comes from an era when Detroit made them heavier and with worse space utilization than the competition.
Of the big three, Ford was the best. At this point I would say GM and Ford have caught up with Asia when it comes to weight. FCA has a different strategy. The Chrysler 200 and Dodge Dart are weightless now!
Also, the Charger/Challenger are BIG cars.
“The Chrysler 200 and Dodge Dart are weightless now!”
Brilliant strategy?
“I don’t get it… My 2002 LS430 had a listed curb weight of 3995, and that was a huge car. ”
Might surprise you to know a Challenger is a huge car too…in fact, it’s almost exactly as long as your old Lexus.
That Lexus also had an aluminum engine, while the Challenger’s Hemi is iron-block. I also wonder how much high-strength steel you’d find in a Lexus as a weight saver versus a Dodge.
Lots of little things, but the weight similarity probably makes some sense.
And the Challenger’s huge size does pay some dividends…it has a nice back seat and a pretty decent trunk.
Damn, I’ve never really inspected one up close, but just a cursory glance at dimms puts both vehicles at nearly identical overall lengths. So much wasted space in the Challenger.
I hope no one is truly at a loss as to why FCA is failing.
It’s not because of the Challenger. It sells just fine considering the basic car was introduced in 2008.
put a jack under the front driver’s side and raise the car 8-10 inches. betcha the LS430 is sitting twisted.
Of course, the same excercise with the Fattiefattie2x4 challenger requires a 4 ton jack, and a break for pie. and the same twisted result, but marginally less so.
200 pounds, back of the envelope if you can get the traction that should be good for about .15 to .20 in the 1/4 mile – right? (assuming all things equal DA adjustment)
4200 pounds for a “lightweight” performance sport coupe? One can get a crew cab pickup at 4560 (F150XL w/ 2.7 eb) so I’m thinking maybe they could do a little bit better.
Nah, get the V8 and Super cab, the way god intended muscle cars.
OK, so 30 extra pounds. The heaviest is the 3.5 EcoBoost
Here’s your latest Hollywood reboot: Smokey and the Bandit 4:20. Burt Reynolds, in an SRT Demon, will run blocker for a Jeep Trailhawk in an effort to drive from Atlanta to Denver, pick up 250 lbs of legal weed, and run it back to Atlanta in less than 36 hours. Snoop Dogg as Cletus Snow, Kevin James as Buford T. Justice. Coming soon to a theater near you!
I’d watch that… on Netflix.