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 ultimate type, made to ship the mannequin out with a bang.
And it does not stand an opportunity in a drag race towards the electrical Lucid Air Sapphire.
“I do know, I do know, we have 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 have 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 honest right here and word manner up excessive that this sequence of quarter-mile runs pitted the Demon towards a vastly costlier automotive. As dear because the Dodge is, the Sapphire too is the final word expression of the Air lineup and it prices round $250,500. Give the Dodge some severe 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 vehicles that may enchantment to very completely different individuals.
However it’s nonetheless a outstanding 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 assume that having the ability to smoke Dodge’s finest muscle automotive is only one additional benefit, should you can afford it.
On this Hagerty check, Cammisa and crew throw the final Challenger towards 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 though 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 methods are vastly extra superior, having the ability to regulate energy output as much as 1,000 occasions per second on every rear wheel individually in addition to on the entrance ones. That is quicker, Cammisa says, “than the Dodge’s pc can pull engine energy and add it again in.”
“The vehicles could have almost equivalent power-to-weight ratios, however that is greater than only a battle of RWD vs. AWD,” he says. “On the one hand, we have now decades-old pc know-how making an attempt to regulate piston-engine tech that is a century previous. On the opposite, nicely, we simply have the pace of electrons.”
So that they resolve to maneuver the competition to a correct drag strip with non-street asphalt, which the Dodge’s tires have been truly designed for. That requires a detour to the VHT-added Famoso Drag Strip, the place… nicely, the result’s mainly the identical factor. Over and over, the Lucid nukes the Dodge from orbit. It does not even really feel like a good battle. I needed to look away towards the tip of the video; I simply felt unhealthy for the muscle automotive.
So how did they stack up? Not even shut:
In the long run, this check is additional proof that if American efficiency has a future, it isn’t going to be powered by gasoline, regardless 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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