When you have ghosts, you call the Ghostbusters. However, when you have demons, you call an exorcist. With sights set squarely on the Dodge Demon, the Hennessey Exorcist looks to blitz it in the quarter mile.
The Exorcist is based on a Camaro ZL1 and certainly packs a punch. With a multitude of performance parts and a massive supercharger, the Exorcist sports 1000hp and 833lbft of torque. This is good for a top speed of 217mph and a 0-60 time of just 2.7 seconds.
Given the drag racing nature of the Demon, where does the Exorcist stack up? In a recently released YouTube video, the Camaro broke into the mid-nines with a 9.57 at 147mph.
This is faster than the Demon, but only just. When the wraps came off the super Challenger back in April the 9.65 quarter mile time made it the fastest muscle car ever.
In theory, this sounds great. A Camaro that pushes the boundaries of how fast you can go all with a 3 year, 36,000-mile warranty.
There’s a problem though: the Exorcist is absurdly expensive. With a starting price of $117,135, it’s $32,140 more than the $84,995 of the Demon. That’s a substantial amount of cash to only go .08 seconds quicker in the quarter mile.
Unfortunately, the cost for the Exorcist doesn’t stop there. If you want a drag racing spec automatic transmission — something the Demon already has — pony up an additional $9,950.
There are other options too. These include monoblock wheels, drag radials, and track tools. All of these, of course, add to the overall cost of the Exorcist. Checking all the option boxes will put you right around $135,000.
Even when you fully option out a Demon, you’re still under $96,000.
Keeping with just the base models, is a $32,000 premium really worth it for .08 seconds in the quarter? Probably not.
You also need to consider these quarter-mile runs happened under ideal conditions with professional drivers. In the real world, it’s entirely possible for the Demon to beat the Exorcist down the drag strip.
So why isn’t the Exorcist quicker? Well, you need to consider that Hennessey just threw parts at a Camaro to turn out the four-digit power figure. Whereas the Demon had the entire backing of the Fiat Chrysler Alliance behind it, and all its engineers.
A factory vehicle will almost always be able to perform better and more reliable than a tuner.
Don’t get us wrong, A fire-breathing 1,000 horsepower Camaro is still pretty cool. No word on if an old priest or a young priest was behind the wheel though.
