The final Dodge Challenger has rolled off the assembly line at Stellantis’ plant in Brampton, Canada, marking the end of the long-lived V8 muscle car and its LX platform.
Completed on Dec. 22, the final car was a Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170 in Pitch Black, a Dodge spokesperson confirmed to Motor Authority. The automaker wouldn’t share the fate of this final car, so it’s unclear if it is a customer car or will be kept by Stellantis for posterity.
The Demon 170 was the final model in a series of “Last Call” special editions built to celebrate the end of the current Challenger and Charger. With a 6.2-liter supercharged V8 generating 1,025 hp and 945 lb-ft of torque on E85 fuel (and 900 hp and 810 lb-ft on E10 premium gasoline), it’s hard to imagine a better sendoff.
Dodge has said the Demon 170 will do 0-60 mph in 1.66 seconds and pull 2.0 g off the line on a prepped surface with rollout. The automaker also claims an NHRA-certified quarter-mile time of 8.91 seconds at 151.17 mph. That made the Demon 170 the fastest accelerating and quickest production car money could buy. Pricing was set at $100,361.
Dodge confirmed to Motor Authority that it did end up building the full 3,300 Demon 170s it aimed to. The Brampton plant was scheduled to stop building LX-platform cars at the end of the year regardless of how many Demon 170s were actually built, so there was a chance the production number could have been lower. Dodge began taking final orders for gasoline-powered Challengers and Chargers in July.
With the final Chrysler 300C performance sedan also having rolled out of the same plant earlier this month (and Dodge Charger production having also wrapped up), production of LX-platform cars has officially ended after nearly two decades.
The LX platform brought rear-wheel-drive, V8 performance cars back to what was then DaimlerChrysler in the early 2000s. It was first used in the 300 and the Dodge Magnum wagon, with the Charger and Challenger coming later. While the Magnum had a short life, the 300, Charger, and Challenger survived mostly unchanged long after other cars would have been redesigned or discontinued. Ford example, the rival Ford Mustang has been redesigned twice in the time the current Challenger has been on sale.
While the gasoline Challenger and Charger are dead, Dodge hasn’t confirmed the end of these nameplates. Any future successors will likely be EVs, though. Dodge already plans to launch an electric muscle car in the coming year, previewed by the Charger Daytona SRT concept.
This article was originally published by Motor Authority, an editorial partner of ClassicCars.com
I believe you folks are making a big mistake in making EV chargers. if anything like the ev mustang it is going to be a poor seller. many auto dealerships are refusing shipment of electric vehicles. you make electric chargers and they wont sell. sorry
If Dodge does go all EV”s. I predict they will be gone as a car brand in ~5 years. Why do I say that? At the end of our local Mopar club meeting in November, when they ask if anyone had any new business, I raised my hand and stood up. I asked “who is planning to get an electric Charger?”, the room went wild!! Booing and shouting, all that was missing was people throwing things. I did see one guy in the back, who was just sitting there with his arms folded, so he is a maybe. They must have a big new target market because it looks like the current Mopar fans are not in the market for Dodge EV”s.
Our only hope for a real muscle car from Chrysler is for Stellantis to sell off Chrysler once again. Give us back what we want. European multi-national business owners will never understand the love for the American car and the American road. They don’t understand the American market. It’s the enthusiasts that saved Chrysler as a brand. You gotta dance with the girl that brought you. Stellantis please just go away (and quickly); we hate what you are doing. You have knifed us in the back and we will never forgive you, nor buy your (EV) products. You are not creating customers, you are creating enemies.
Agree with another commenter that these EV mandates will destroy the auto industry. People are trusting liars across the board, and auto manufacturers have bought into the pronouncements of the global elite hook, line, and sinker.