Back in 1971, Dodge introduced their Demon340, which was a pillared two-door fastback. The Demon came in two trims, but the one we are most interested in here was the 340, which featured, you guessed it… a Chrysler 340 small block worth 275 horsepower and 340 lb-ft of torque at 3200 rpm.
The Demon was set-up nicely with dual exhaust, heavy-duty suspension, stripes, dual scoop hood, rear spoiler, optional hood pins, and devil decals that had religious groups in a tizzy back in the day. You would get all this at the bargain basement price of around $3,000.
If you knock off about 100 horsepower, several hundred pounds (it weighs 2,600 lbs), the pillar roof, smooth out the lines, add about $15 grand to the price tag, and you’ve got yourself the next generation of demon. The new demon comes as one flavor this time, and that’s roadster.
Aiming at the lower-end of the market (obviously, with its remarked base price of $15,000), the new Dodge Demon is once again powered by a formidable Chrysler engine. Albeit not quite the runner that the 340 was, the 2.4 liter still puts out 172 horsepower and 165 lb-ft of torque, which actually if you consider the weight and mated six-speed manual gearbox, you might not actually fair too bad against the original.
The “Roadster with an Attitude”, as Dodge calls it, is also considering plans for a true-to-its-name 300 horsepower turbo version that will be capable of taking-on quite a few of todays performance oriented roadsters, such as the Pontiac Solstice, Saturn Sky Redline, and Audi TT.
What is very cool about this low-end roadster, is that it might actually be made of carbon fiber body panels, which will not only give it nice rigidity on the road, but reduce its weight considerably. To give it modern flare, the Demon features cat-like (black cat of course!) headlamps, a Viper-ish front grille, squared off wheel wells, and functional rear brake ducts.
Yes, and did we mention possibly just over $15,000 for a base model?
It all sounds so great, but as the saying goes, “Anything that sounds too good to be true…”
First of all, the Dodge Demon will probably be closer to the over $20,000 price range once all the dealer costs have been added in, and foremost there in no real “green light” from Dodge that any of this cool talk is going to ever come to fruition.
All we can do for now is sit back for the next year and see if Dodge is going to put-up or shut-up!
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