The Dodge Challenger Demon is the muscle car to beat these days. With a 9.65-second quarter-mile time and 840 horsepower at 100 octane race fuel, there’s no denying it’s impressive from the factory. But, Chevrolet may have something brewing, too.
At the 2017 SEMA show, Chevrolet discussed its Camaro ZL1 Drag Development car, which it says clocked a 10-second-flat quarter-mile time with a couple of enhancements. We wonder if Chevrolet is simply using the car as a testbed for new bolt-on parts, or if it has something greater in mind.
However, some of the parts do go beyond the Challenger Demon, for instance, the Camaro ZL1 development car houses a roll cage and a racing seat with a five-point harness. Otherwise, the modifications aren’t too extreme.
Chevrolet added a larger throttle body, smaller-diameter supercharger pulley, 110-octane fuel calibration, a new eLSD, magnetic ride control, and transmission calibration and new racing tires. All of this helped the car clock the 10-second quarter-mile time at 137.78 mph during official testing, along with a 1.415-second 60-foot time.
Again, we don’t know if Chevrolet has any intention for a factory drag racer, but even if it doesn’t, factory Chevrolet Performance parts may be on the horizon to help slay the Dodge Demon.
Comments
Lol! the demon is a joke. Those upgrades should get at least 100 extra horsepower out of the LT4 and take out solid 50 pounds. Put it on 18″ aluminum rims, give it a proper drag suspension, and replace the NPP exhaust with a COPO setup and she’ll be running mid 9 second passes all day long. Has anyone run a sub 10 second pass with a stock, privately owned Demon? I don’t think so.
Here’s some mods to blow your doors off !
http://www.thedrive.com/news/9427/hennessey-to-boost-dodge-challenger-demon-to-1500-hp-because-hennessey
Quinten, I just watched the Vengeance video where the ZL1 runs the upper 9.50’s. Sounds like it’s running a four speed trans??? Seems odd to me. I would think the best automatic would be faster. MPH is over 150, which isn’t any too shabby! I think there’s room on the launch for at least another tenth.
A great example of how competition improves everything. We are living in somewhat of a golden age of horsepower again. You have to give Dodge credit for how much they have accomplished with little resources. This raises the bar for everyone!
Yes, I think that’s very true Edward. I was around way back in the day when Chrysler came out with their vaunted full race 426 hemi’s in the light weight race cars. We didn’t have very good tires back then and I well remember watching one of the factory race Hemi’s go up against a 327 Chevy powered Stude lowboy. They were fairly evenly matched and ran around 120 mph in the low 12’s. Chevy power won two out of three!
I wish GM would offer a version of this to shut up the competition
We all know they can
I think you need to compare ‘apples to apples’. ie modified … and .. standard …’out of the box’.. from the dealer! If you are going to compare a ‘modified’ to ‘out of the box’ than let the competition do their modifications. And WE all know who is going to win … DODGE!
The ZL1 weights 600 pounds lighter! So apples to apples ZL1 wins!
Brian … check this out …
here’s another one …
Enough said … and .. it is not the stock ‘demon’!