Tesla Plaid Slays Dodge Demon 170 in Drag Race
A YouTuber recently posted a video of a Tesla Plaid leaving a Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170 in the dust during a series of drag races. The Dodge Demon 170 has a supercharged V-8 engine that generates up to 1,025 horsepower and is considered the most powerful street-legal drag car ever produced.
Tesla vs. Dodge
Motor1 reported that the Demon 170 came with precise drag-ready suspension, a transmission brake, and drag radial tires (Dodge built it for the drag strip, after all). However, the monstrous Demon 170 was no match for the Tesla sedan in three consecutive quarter-mile races. It’s not the first time a Tesla vehicle has taken on a gas-powered speed machine in a quarter-mile race and come out victorious. Late last year, Elon Musk tweeted a video that coincided with the Cybertruck’s launch that showed the stainless steel pickup truck besting a Porsche 911 in a quarter-mile race while towing an identical Porsche 911.
The race footage, courtesy of the YouTube channel DragTimes, showed the Demon 170 and the Tesla Plaid going head-to-head down a quarter-mile drag strip three times, with the Tesla easily winning each contest.
The Demon’s driver only managed to get a quality start in the second race, which saw these two lightning-fast vehicles neck and neck as they tore down the middle of the strip, only for the Plaid to pull away in the final stretch gradually. The other two races were never that close, though. The first contest saw the Plaid explode off the start line to take an early lead — the race was over as soon as it began. The same was true of the final race, which saw the Demon 170 launch like a tortoise to get left in the dust for good.
YouTuber Brooks Weisblat pointed out that in ideal conditions, with a flawless start (not to mention a more skilled driver behind the wheel), the Demon 170 could take the Plaid in a quarter-mile race. These results undoubtedly differ from what Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) enthusiasts hoped for. We doubt that a dedicated SRT buyer who threw down around $28,000 for a “Hellephant” motor would be happy seeing any vehicle powered by such a gas-guzzling beast getting smoked by an Electric Vehicle (EV) in any capacity, let alone the final ICE Challenger ever produced.
Maybe if someone busted out a time machine and got Barry Newman, circa 1971, behind the wheel of the Dodge Demon 170, he’d be able to beat the Plaid? While this may not have been the showing that Challenger fans were hoping for, it’s undoubtedly a victory for Tesla enthusiasts. Curiously, Motor1 concluded their race report by saying that even though the Tesla did get the better of the Demon 170, they would still choose the Demon over the EV. The Tesla may have won the race, but the Dodge Challenger still drives away with our hearts.
