When Dodge brought out the Challenger SRT Demon at a star-studded, burnout-filled New York Auto Show week event, the carmaker was quick to tout the sub-$100,000 car's deranged acceleration statistics: a 2.3-second 0-to-60 mile-per-hour run, a 9.65-second quarter-mile time, capable of pulling a wheelie for almost three feet. As it turns out, though, at least one of those numbers was a result of Dodge playing things safe. Do everything right, Dodge says, and the Challenger Demon can actually run from 0 to 60 mph in 2.1 seconds.
The discrepancy, according to both Motor Authority and Motorsport.com's chit-chats with Dodge representatives, is due to the nebulous characteristic known as "rollout."
"Zero to 60 pure is 2.3 seconds, but with rollout it's 2.1," FCA head of passenger cars Tim Kuniskis told Motor Authority, "and that's important because that's the fastest 0-60 mph of any production car, I don't care what the technology is."
See, when it comes to measuring acceleration, the first few inches can make quite a difference. At a drag strip, cars are usually given several inches of room to begin accelerating before they pass the line where the clock begins. Likewise, many major automotive magazines, such as Motor Trend and Car and Driver, include a 1-foot rollout when calculating their acceleration figures. MT's 2.28-second Tesla Model S 0-60 run, C/D's 2.2-sec Porsche 918 Spyder 0-60 blast-they both included that 12-inch grace space.
So if Kuniskis is on the level, the Dodge Demon should prove the fastest 0-60 car in the land once the buff books lay their hands on it for independent testing. We look forward to finding out...as do, we assume, our friends at Car and Driver and Motor Trend.