HOUSTON: First there was the Dodge Challenger Hellcat, which set new standards for power and performance in the American muscle car segment with its now-legendary 707hp and 884Nm of torque.

Then Dodge decided to up the power ante even further with a new, more powerful track-focused version called the Challenger Demon, boasting an outrageous 840hp.

But if even that isn't enough power to quench your muscle car power thirst, Hennessey has now gone and done what it does so well by launching the HPE1000, which takes the Demon and tunes it to a simply staggering 1,035hp.



The production version of the Demon was already so fast and powerful that the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA), which regulates American motor sport, went and banned the Dodge from sanctioned competition. It wasn't because it was too fast, but because any car that can complete the quarter-mile in less than 10 seconds has to have special safety equipment to be allowed to compete, which the road-legal Demon simply doesn't have.

It takes the production Demon 9.65 seconds to complete the quarter-mile, but the Hennessey-tuned HPE1000 manages it in just 9.14 seconds. The Hennessey achieved that time at the Lonestar Motorsports Park on May 8, where it became the world's fastest Dodge Demon. Hennessey's president and founder, John Hennessey, said of the car: "The 2018 Demon is a street-legal rocket from Dodge, but we wanted to take the car's impressive track times to an industry leading level."

The modifications include replacing the standard 2.7-litre supercharger with a staggering 4.5-litre unit, and adding stainless steel long tube headers, a high-flow air induction system, upgraded throttle body, upgraded fuel pump and fuel injectors, and custom calibration of the engine management system.

All of that adds up to a total of 1,035hp at 6,500 rpm and 1,289Nm of torque at 4,200 rpm. An "ordinary" Dodge Demon can get from 0 to 100kph in 2.4 seconds, but the HPE1000 has got that down to a ridiculous 1.9 seconds.

To put things into perspective, that's fast enough to cause embarrassment to a Bugatti Chiron. And although Hennessey hasn't put a price on the HPE1000 yet, it's safe to assume you'll be able to buy several of them for the amount of money Bugatti asks for the Chiron.

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