Hennessey Performance plans 1,700-horsepower Dodge Demon

So let's say you're an owner of a Dodge Challenger Demon 170. You just bought the ultimate factory Challenger with upgraded supercharger, engine and driveline, and it makes more than 1,000 horsepower on E85 ethanol. But you want to go even faster, what do you do? Well, Hennessey Performance is planning to have a 1,700-horsepower solution, though it arguably won't be a Demon anymore.

You see, while Hennessey sometimes upgrades factory powertrains, the company will be taking a different approach to the Demon 170. It will instead remove the engine, transmission and driveshaft, and substitute its own take on an upgraded V8 (details on the block, internals and more haven't been revealed yet) and drivetrain. That V8 will also get a pair of Precision 7675 turbochargers. Hennessey expects to make 1,700 horsepower on E85 ethanol, and be able to do the quarter-mile in under 8 seconds at around 175 mph. That's around a full second and 25 mph faster than the standard Demon 170.

What happens to the original drivetrain that Dodge gave the Demon? Well, the owner gets to keep it all, so it can be easily put back in if desired and/or to maintain the collector value. So you still sort of have an original Demon 170, but also a way faster one.

With that said, while the Demon 170 isn't just the supercharged super Hemi – it does have styling and suspension changes to handle the power – it is kind of the heart and soul of that car. To an extent, if you want to do this level of modification, would it make more sense to start with a more common and basic Challenger?

But we don't have the money to own a Demon 170, let alone Hennessey's Demon 1700, so that's not up to us. And surely there are a few people out there that like the idea of having even more powerful Demons. The company is counting on 12 buyers liking the idea, since that's all they'll be building. They'll be handled by a new division at the company called Hennessey Special Operations that will build low-production special models (15 to 20), as opposed to the rest of Hennessey that apparently builds more than 500 vehicles a year.

The conversion will cost $200,000, and the owner must supply the car. Exact timing on deliveries hasn't been given. Based on the announcement video, Hennessey only recently got its own Demon 170, so it's likely still doing some development work. In fact, the photos in this post are of the as-yet unmodified vehicle. But interested buyers can contact Hennessey about ordering one right now.

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