It’s not just a car, It’s someone else’s dream

Life is to short to driven boring cars -Chrysler

I couldn’t find the sports car of my dreams, so I built it myself. – –Ferdinand Porsche

I had never stopped thinking about the ideal car

-Ferruccio Lamborghini

Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.

-Henry Ford

Race cars are neither beautiful nor ugly. They become beautiful when they win.

-Enzo Ferarri

Designing and building a car as outrageous as the 2018 Dodge SRT® Demon is only half the battle. The other side of the coin is promoting and advertising the car to attract buyers. Happily the Demon’s record-setting performance and unprecedented attitude have done a great job of attracting publicity from Hollywood action filmmakers, producers of TV commercials and car magazine editors seeking the latest hot topic. News of the Demon keeps spreading like the automotive wildfire that it is.

To help keep the ball rolling, Dodge created perhaps the ultimate interactive automotive publicity generator of all time: the Dodge SRT Demon Drag Strip Simulator. While a set of the latest 3-D goggles can partially recreate the thrill of a 9-second quarter-mile blast at the wheel of a Demon, there’s nothing like the real thing. That’s why Dodge transformed a pair of actual Challengers into full-size ride simulators and took them on a nationwide tour of major NHRA drag races and related car shows.

Starting life as early-production Challenger test cars, they’ve been reconfigured with powerful electric struts at each corner that subject the vehicle – and occupants – to realistic movements meant to duplicate a full-throttle drag strip pass. And since one of the real-world Demon’s most exciting traits is the ability to pull a wheelie, each simulator car is designed to lift its nose a full 14 inches in the air. From inside the car, the effect is incredibly realistic and treats participants to over 1 g of forward thrust.

And while the Demon simulator was preceded by road race simulators using similarly modified Viper, Challenger and Charger bodies, the Demon exhibit (like the Demon itself) is focused on the uniquely American sport of quarter-mile drag racing. As such, riders look through the windshield and see a realistic drag strip scene, complete with the Christmas tree starting light, race officials, sponsor banners and grandstands packed with virtual spectators. Activating the Demon’s first-ever-in-a-production-car trans-brake and flooring the accelerator pedal triggers the Christmas tree countdown (three yellows and a green).

When the green light flashes on, you release the right-hand shift paddle and gasp with surprise as the nose shoots skyward. Keeping your wits about you — and an eye on the functional tachometer — tapping the paddle again at 6,500 rpm engages second gear while the realistic soundtrack fills the cabin with supercharged HEMI® V8-sourced automotive music. Throughout the sub-10-second thrill ride, the four-corner active suspension jiggles, swerves and shudders in response to real-time steering wheel and gas pedal inputs.

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