The Dodge Demon 170 is a fever dream of a modern-day muscle automotive. It has a 1,025 horsepower supercharged Hemi V8, it prices virtually $100,000, and its producer claims a jaw-dropping 1.66-second zero to 60 mph time. For anybody who ever owned or loved the long term of the soon-to-be discontinued Dodge Challenger, that is the automotive’s closing kind, made to ship the mannequin out with a bang.
And it does not stand an opportunity in a drag race in opposition to the electrical Lucid Air Sapphire.
“I do know, I do know, we had been all hoping for a a lot nearer consequence,” Hagerty’s Jason Cammisa stated in a brand new video the place America’s final gas-powered muscle automotive takes on America’s final electrical car. “Even the Lucid people, who had been right here rooting for the Demon. However we tried and we tried and we tried and we tried.”
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Now, let’s be truthful right here and notice manner up excessive that this sequence of quarter-mile runs pitted the Demon in opposition to a vastly costlier automotive. As dear because the Dodge is, the Sapphire too is the last word expression of the Air lineup and it prices round $250,500. Give the Dodge some critical factors for having the ability to compete in any respect in what’s basically a supercar’s worth class. And, sure, they’re additionally very completely different automobiles that may attraction to very completely different individuals.
But it surely’s nonetheless a exceptional displaying for the Sapphire, which boasts 1,234 horsepower, 427 miles of vary and sufficient plush comforts to make the Mercedes EQS really feel virtually irrelevant. I suppose that having the ability to smoke Dodge’s greatest muscle automotive is only one additional benefit, for those who can afford it.
On this Hagerty take a look at, Cammisa and crew throw the final Challenger in opposition to the Air Sapphire in a sequence of quarter-mile runs in two locations. They begin on the standard Willow Springs Raceway, the place the Dodge instantly—and I imply instantly—will get walked by the Lucid.
The EV crosses the end line virtually 400 toes forward of the muscle automotive, operating the quarter in simply 9.2 seconds at 158 mph. It hit 60 mph in simply 2.1 seconds alongside the best way, thanks largely to its all-wheel-drive dual-motor traction benefit. So despite the fact that the Dodge is on Mickey Thompson drag radials, it is nonetheless outclassed right here.
Lucid Dodge Drag Race Leaderboard
Cammisa notes the Air’s traction management programs are vastly extra superior, having the ability to alter energy output as much as 1,000 instances per second on every rear wheel individually in addition to on the entrance ones. That is sooner, Cammisa says, “than the Dodge’s pc can pull engine energy and add it again in.”
“The automobiles could have practically equivalent power-to-weight ratios, however that is greater than only a battle of RWD vs. AWD,” he says. “On the one hand, now we have decades-old pc know-how attempting to regulate piston-engine tech that is a century previous. On the opposite, properly, we simply have the pace of electrons.”
In order that they resolve to maneuver the competition to a correct drag strip with non-street asphalt, which the Dodge’s tires had been truly designed for. That requires a detour to the VHT-added Famoso Drag Strip, the place… properly, the result’s mainly the identical factor. Again and again, the Lucid nukes the Dodge from orbit. It does not even really feel like a good combat. I needed to look away towards the tip of the video; I simply felt dangerous for the muscle automotive.
So how did they stack up? Not even shut:
In the long run, this take a look at is additional proof that if American efficiency has a future, it isn’t going to be powered by gasoline, irrespective of how a lot individuals love the go-fast noises.
And hey, Dodge is engaged on an answer to that too.
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