Dodge Demon: Devilishly clever or evil incarnate?

Richard Truett covers engineering, design and Jaguar Land Rover for Automotive News.

If absolute power corrupts absolutely, as Lord Acton famously said, then first responders around the nation may have their hands full when Fiat Chrysler Automobiles begins delivering the latest version of the Dodge Challenger, the SRT Demon.

Not just the cops; paramedics, too.

With 840 hp and 770 pounds-feet of torque, drag-racing tires that are nearly slick and barely legal, the car is an automotive weapon in all but the most skilled hands. Consider:

■ The Demon can reach 30 mph in 1 second.

■ It goes from 0 to 60 mph in 2.3 seconds.

■ It is so fast and powerful that it has been banned from the drag strip by the National Hot Rod Association.

■ The engine makes so much power it can lift the car’s front wheels off the ground.

This won’t be a popular stance, and people will be angry and disagree, but here goes: For FCA to build a car like this, one that can be legally driven off the dealer’s lot, is nothing short of irresponsible. It’s an act of desperation by a company whose cars are getting really old. Consider that the Challenger itself is 8 years old, and the platform it rides on is from well into the last century.

You can do a search for “Hellcat crash” on Google or elsewhere and turn up videos, photos and stories of people who have been hurt or killed themselves and others wrecking the Challenger with the 707-hp version of the 6.2-liter Hemi V-8. Some of those crashes came within just miles of driving it off the dealership lot for the first time.

I grew up in an era when more horsepower was always better. General Motors’ 455-cubic-inch performance V-8s from the early ’70s, Chrysler’s 426 Hemi and Ford’s 427, 428 and 429 V-8s were highly coveted. Before increasingly strict emissions standards choked off power and expensive gasoline dried up buyers’ thirst for more, the highest horsepower engines topped out at a sane and manageable 425 or so.

FCA says there are no special requirements — no training at the dealership, no mandatory racing-school attendance — needed to buy a Challenger SRT Demon. Anyone can show up at the dealership with the money and drive it home. That is also irresponsible.

FCA offers a free track day for potential owners, but attendance is not required.

FCA keeps turning up the horsepower on its aging Charger, Challenger and Jeep Grand Cherokee to mask the age of their designs and platforms. Every one of those vehicles is still riding on a platform that came from Daimler — three owners ago.

There’s a reason drag-centric cars such as this from other automakers or specialty equipment manufacturers aren’t given a vehicle identification number: They present a clear and present danger to not only their drivers, but to the motoring public.

That FCA is able to skirt those regulations with the Demon says to me that the rules should be significantly tightened.

FCA is offering the SRT Demon for the 2018 model year only and limiting production to 3,000 for the U.S. and 300 for Canada. For safety’s sake, let’s hope most never see street use and end up in private collections and museums, where the cars can’t hurt anyone.

You may email Staff Reporter Richard Truett at [email protected].