Slideshow: What You Can Expect After Buying a Demon

At Last

Finally, the moment is here. You've waited with anticipation since Dodge announced they were making an even crazier and more powerful version of the Challenger Hellcat. You went through the trouble of finding a dealer with an allotment and squeezed your way onto their list. You checked the appropriate option boxes for your dream car, the Dodge Demon, after careful consideration and research. The check has been cut, the garage has been cleaned, and you've asked your insurance company to show mercy for what is bound to be a mountain of points on your license in the coming months. As you pull into the dealership parking lot, you know your life is going to change in a major way. While your chauffeur parks in the spot up front, you get your first glimpse of the object of your obsession. Your brand new 2018 White Knuckle Dodge Demon. 840 horsepower of American muscle. Enough beef to get you from 0-60 in 2.3 seconds in optimal conditions. The stats and figures are just one part of the story. What happens after you cut the check?

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Paper Carpet Treatment

You slide into your new Demon and get the first whiff of new car smell emanating from the leather seats and plastic interior pieces (after all this is still a Dodge). On the driver's side floorboard, you'll notice paper carpet protectors, a sign of the long trip your Demon has made to get to you. After being built at the Dodge factory, moving on to an upfitter to install Demon-specific parts like the wider wheels and tires, and passing quality control inspections, your Demon was then placed on a Reliable Carrier truck for the journey to its new home. Luckily, your Demon wasn't one of the three Demons to catch fire and be burnt to a crisp on Halloween in 2017. You know what they say, play with fire...

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One Last Inspection

Your Demon has passed the quality control tests at the factory. Lastly, it needs to get past the watchful eye of the owner and the dealer inspector. All buttons are fiddled with and the panels are looked over one last time. This is where you cross your fingers and hope there are no flaws with your new baby.

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Sweet Release

Like peeling the screen protector off the face of your new smartphone, there is no greater release than peeling the plastic off your Demon's supercharger. It signals that the time for blown V8 glory has arrived and you will soon be turning gasoline into tire smoke and loud noises.

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Destined for eBay

That yellow chin spoiler cover is bound to fetch a fortune on eBay one day. Some collector will scour the internet (if it's still around) in the year 2060 to ensure their mint Demon is ready to cross the auction block at Barrett Jackson. The spoiler cover is a useful little piece that will no doubt be lost on roadways, in garages, and at the hands of mischievous youths. 

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Drag Strip Specials

Your Demon comes with special lightweight wheels wrapped in drag radial tires. They're legal but won't do you a whole lot of favors on public roadways or if there have been more than two drops of rain outside. A more reasonable idea is to buy a second set of wheels and tires for regular use and keep the drag radials or a pair of slicks for when you visit the "1320". 

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Junk in the Trunk

You've opted for the Demon storage package, so as you pop the trunk you're greeted by the floor mats, the car cover, and a custom Mopar battery tender. The small brown box on the left contains the Demon specific pedals you'll have to install. Click the next slide to see what those look like. 

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Some Assembly Required

Despite the $90,000 plus you've spent on your Demon, there are a few things you'll have to piece together yourself. Those cool looking stainless steel pedals with raised foot grips? Those are customer-installed options. Not to worry, your entire college and young-adult career has prepared you for this moment. Channel the lessons learned from countless IKEA purchases and you'll have the job done in no time. Just don't spend too much time looking for the parking brake and dead pedal cover, they're not included in the kit. 

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Time to Study

Although some sports cars come with beautifully tailored leather-wrapped owner's manuals, your Demon's manual is protected by a thin layer of shrink-wrapped plastic. Perhaps it's a weight-saving measure for your drag-inspired Challenger. Flip through the pages to learn the "Do's" and "Don'ts" of Demon ownership. Or maybe keep the manual untouched in case it affects the collector's value down the road.

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Hold Onto That Window Sticker

History has taught us that every great story about a barn find or collector's car begins with the original window sticker. It's an index of what makes your Demon more or less special than any of the others that left the assembly line at the Dodge factory. I wonder if we'll look at the $93,000 suggested retail price in awe in 60 years the same way we look at the $3,400 sticker price of a 426 Hemi Cuda.  

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Time to Drive

The "I's" have been dotted, the "T's" have been crossed, the Demon is officially yours and you've been cleared for flight. All that's left is to deal with the pesky break-in period and make sure you don't wrap your cherished new possession around a tree. Unless, of course, you've bought the Demon strictly to store in a garage for decades. In that case, there's a special place in hell reserved for you with a whole other kind of demon waiting for you. 

>>Join the conversation about what it's like to pick up your new Demon right here in Dodge Forum.

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