A look at the Dodge Demon's drag settings, modes, and go-fast tech
Thu, Mar 9 2017
A lot of these hints come from the Demon's version of Performance Pages, the infotainment screens that show what SRT models are doing and let the driver change the powertrain and chassis setup. There are a lot of Demon-only features, including line lock, a quick cooldown mode for the supercharged engine, and data recording. And of course there are pages to show a digital time slip with acceleration and braking figures, a g-load plot, and lots of gauges to track temps and levels.
The engine output is shown in the video on a special Dyno page. It tracks horsepower and torque over time on the upper graph, and engine rpm and shift points on the lower graph. And we think it's still hiding something.
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Any good drag car has a line lock, allowing the driver to lock the front brakes and leave the rears free to do a nice tire-warming (or tire-shredding, depending on length) burnout. Ford has it on the Mustang, Chevy puts it on the ZL1, and now Dodge is adding it to the Demon. It should help get the giant Nitto tires up to temp for a drag run.
And once the tires are warm, there's launch control, just like on the SRT Hellcat, with selectable rpm to dial things in for the conditions. The Demon also has a shift light in the cluster, and the driver can set a shift point individually for each gear.
After each drag run, you can activate Quick Cooldown, which Dodge says uses the first production application of After-Run Chiller – it runs the cooling fan and intercooler coolant pump with the engine off until the coolant reaches its target temp. It's shown in one of the slides above. The checklist on the left side of that page suggests it requires a set of conditions be met to work: engine off, hood open, and sufficient battery level. This further reinforces our theory that the supercharger is going to make big boost, beyond the Hellcat's 11.6 psi.
And while you're waiting for the supercharger to cool off for another run, you can review the performance data the car records. In addition to tracking dyno runs to see how changing setup and swapping parts affects things, each run can be recorded with all of the output from the various digital gauges. There's also an unexplained camera icon at the top of the screen, suggesting something like the Corvette's Performance Data Recorder will be included to match video to the data.
There will be three drive modes to choose from: Auto (Street), Drag, and Custom. The Red key will be included, unlocking whatever the full output (which we believe will be at least 757 horsepower and a similar amount of torque). Driver-selectable items include the power level, steering response, suspension, shift strategy, paddle shifter activation, and traction control.
Note that the Hellcat doesn't have adjustable steering, because it uses a hydraulic system (unlike other new Challengers, which all switched to electric). We thought that was for packaging reasons, so either the Demon gets around those issues somehow to add electric assist or it has an adjustable hydraulic-assist rack. Either way, it sounds like it's a new system for the Demon. We're thinking drag mode helps keep the car on the straight and narrow.
In addition to all this, Dodge has already announced the Demon will have special Launch Assist software to tame wheel hop. So basically it has all the available tools to go really quickly in a straight line. We can't wait.
Related Video:
Featured Gallery 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon Performance Pages
By David Gluckman
See also: Here are the Challenger SRT Demon's bare-minimum performance numbers, Junkyard Gem: 1963 Dodge Dart two-door sedan, The Fate of the Furious music video shows how much Demons love donuts.