We were wrong. The 2018 Challenger Demon that Dodge has been teasing for weeks now will not, as we previously speculated, be all-wheel drive. Instead, it will most definitely be rear-wheel drive, as Dodge’s latest teaser video (embedded at the bottom of this post) clearly shows. It’s the latest reveal in a series of information drops; we most recently learned that it’ll have only one seat.
The new video depicts a helmeted figure unlatching a large crate and pulling out an aluminum floor jack, a torque wrench, and a cordless impact driver before standing over a disorganized array of all three along with a tire gauge, the jack’s removable handle, and—the really key bits—a pair of skinny wheels and tires.
Dodge earlier confirmed that the car will be delivered on four ultrawide Nitto drag radials. That fact, plus our speculation on the meaning of a cryptic license plate shown in one photo, had us thinking AWD. But this latest clip indicates that the Nittos on the front might be simply spares for the rear axle once, you know, you roast the ones back there into oblivion. It’s also possible the skinny tires that owners might use, called “runners” in the drag-racing world, may not be DOT approved; therefore, the additional pair of drag radials could be fitted to allow the car to be legally driven on public roads. Once an owner reaches a drag strip, they can crack open the Demon-branded toolbox and swap out those front meats.
How one gets the sizable box to the drag strip is another question. We never get a shot of the back side of the crate. Maybe the skinny wheels are really trailer wheels and the crate is really a mini trailer. Yeah, that’s doubtful. Forced to guess, we bet the tools have a dedicated spot in the car somewhere (or Mopar will sell some sort of organizer/tool bag) and that owners could probably stack the runners in the spare-tire well.
In addition to the clip, Dodge released a photo of a badge that appears to be affixed to the top of the box. This special plate reads “Built for: Tom Coddington” (a member of Dodge’s Ramchargers drag-racing team that rose to prominence in the 1960s) and includes the serial number 0757 and a VIN that curiously includes the letters “VIN” followed by ”001121.”
Are they quarter-mile figures? The Demon clocking 11.21 seconds would be too slow, we think, and 7.57 seconds is ridiculous. Output figures? We doubt that 757 refers to the car’s horsepower, as a mere 50-hp bump seems beneath the Demon’s specialness; we think it’s more likely to be the car’s torque figure in lb-ft, but we also believe Dodge wouldn’t tease any output numbers this early in the process. So what those numbers are pointing to remains a mystery—feel free to speculate in the comments below.
The video sadly doesn’t give us any more peeks at the Demon itself, only the large tool box sitting at the staging area at a drag strip. The YouTube clip’s description also reads: “The Demon’s crate is full of Direct Connection mods.” Mopar’s accessories catalog, it should be noted, used to advertise bolt-on performance parts as Direct Connection pieces long ago; today they go by the Mopar Performance name. We dig the connection, and we look forward to seeing what else Dodge has up its sleeve for its rear-drive, dragstrip-centric Challenger creation.
from Car and Driver BlogCar and Driver Blog http://ift.tt/2kuzqkW
via IFTTT
0 comments:
Post a Comment