In true demonic fashion, Dodge is teasing us with tidbits of information about the Challenger SRT Demon spread over next 10 weeks. For motorheads, this is the worst form of torture—knowing a wickedly powerful and purpose-built street machine will exist, but not knowing many details is like a never-ending Christmas Eve for an eight-year-old. But a little news has trickled out on, exactly, how the beefy Challenger lost some weight.
Dodge Challengers are heavy machines. In base V-6 form they flirt with two tons. Add a couple hundred pounds for the iron-block 5.7-liter Hemi and a few more when the car makes the jump to the 6.4-liter Scat Pack or the base Challenger SRT 392. The Hellcat from which the Demon spawns weighs nearly 4500 pounds—707 horsepower is a heavy number to carry around, after all.
To shed some unholy mass from a Demon, Dodge ditches everything it can, starting with all the seats except one for the driver. Dumping the rear and passenger seats sheds 113 pounds, 58 of that for the passenger throne alone. (A betting man could safely wager that the seats, and their respective belts, could be available as dealer-installed options.) Ditching the trunk trim saves another 20 pounds, and 18 pounds of sound-deadening material goes away, too. As we speculated, the speakers are all gone except for two small ones in the doors for the warning chimes; that and a simplified wiring harness pares another 24 pounds.
Further mass reductions compared with Hellcat-spec Challengers include ditching the parking sensors (two pounds), replacing the power tilt and telescoping steering column with a manual version (four pounds), 18-inch wheels in place of 20-inchers (16 pounds), hollow anti-roll bars (19 pounds), and the surprising choice of four-piston front brake calipers grabbing 14.2-inch rotors to supplant the Hellcat’s 16-pounds-heavier pair of six-piston grabbers and 15.4-inch rotors. (Maybe this isn’t intended as a road-course machine?)
Simple arithmetic puts this reduction at 232 pounds, slightly more than previously indicated. Dodge also admitted that there’s 17 pounds worth of new body add-ons (which we assume includes the fender flares and maybe a front splitter) and a further eight or nine pounds added back in when the drive- and half-shafts are upgraded to handle the increased torque that the Demon surely will possess.
It’s a dribble, we know, but get used to it. Dodge has promised another nugget every week until the Demon is fully uncovered at the New York auto show in April. If we can, we’ll make a deal with this devil to get you the info sooner.
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