Dodge Says Don't Drive the Demon Below 15 Degrees
The most important feature on the Dodge Challenger SRT Demon is the factory-mounted drag radial tires. These barely-street-legal slicks make it possible to put the Demon's 840 horsepower to the ground, enabling a 0-60 time of 2.3 seconds and a quarter-mile of 9.65. Those tires also severely limit how you can use your Demon.
Over at Jalopnik, Jason Torchinsky got his grubby, unsettling hands on the legal document that Fiat Chrysler will require every Demon buyer to sign before taking delivery of their street-legal drag racer. It's full of legal disclaimers seemingly aimed at protecting FCA from a lawsuit if a reckless Demon driver gets in trouble, with buyers asked to agree never to use the car's track-oriented features on public roads, or put passengers where seats have been deleted.
But one tidbit in particular jumped out at us: Demon buyers are required to initial next to a line that says "Customer shall not move the Vehicle in temperatures below 15° F with the Drag Tires. In temperatures below 15° F, the Drag Tires can lose flexibility and that may lead to cracking and other tire damage."
Yep, that's right: Dodge doesn't want you to use your Demon as a winter commuter - at least, not with the drag radials mounted.
And that makes sense! The 315-width Nitto NT05R drag radials, while technically street legal, are made of an absurdly soft warm-weather compound with the legal minimum tread depth. Elsewhere in the buyer agreement, FCA warns that the tires are not intended for highway use (where they'll wear down to nothing in a very short amount of time) or wet weather (where there's a huge risk of hydroplaning).
But it is kind of funny to discover that Dodge, a Detroit automaker with a headquarters squarely in the snow belt, insists that the Demon must not be driven in anything other than clear, warm weather.
Which, when you think about it, is the kind of weather that brings people to the drag strip, where the Demon was meant to play.
Of course, there's nothing stopping you from swapping out the soft, finicky, expensive drag radials on your Demon for something that can safely traverse a puddle or a cold snap. In fact, we think a Demon on snow tires would be devastatingly rad - and would satisfy Dodge's Demon disclaimer.
There's plenty of other fun Demon tidbits in the document, which you should absolutely peruse over at Jalopnik. And if you end up buying a Demon and fitting it with snow tires, we wanna come for a ride.
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