The serious legends of power from the 1960s and 1970s were lauded for being monstrous. Torque on demand. Horsepower for days. Enough tire-melting good times that even today big money trades over fifty-year-old cars that were simply overpowered versions of the average, everyday machine that the factory was cranking out. When the bad times kicked in, when the insurance companies and the EPA stepped in ready to make life hell for enthusiasts and manufacturers alike, those monsters of yesteryear became legend. The 1977 Oldsmobile Cutlass might have been nice and new, but it sure wasn’t a 1970 442 W-30, now was it?

The current horsepower war has gone through stages…from the moment the Camaro and Mustang hit 300 horsepower each, it’s been an arms race to see who can crank out the baddest beast on the block. 325 horses in the Camaro SS. 340 horsepower from the Mopar sedans. 350 from the renewed GTO…at first..then let’s go ahead and cross the 400 horsepower mark, or the 500 horsepower mark with the Corvette Z06, or the 600 horsepower mark with the Shelby GT500 Mustang, or the 700 horsepower mark with the Hellcat twins. Each leap, further proof that the internal combustion engine is not only dead, it’s very much alive and more wicked than ever. It’s also cleaner, more reliable, and better tempered than it’s ancestors.

Then there’s that one step that seems to be too far, and that step was taken by Dodge in the form of the Challenger SRT Demon. 840 horsepower IF you got the hot ECM, IF you were running the right fuel. That might be a couple of serious ifs, but it’s “valet mode” is good for well over 500 horsepower, so can the bitching about specialized circumstances. The Demon represented something that hadn’t been around for a while: the purpose-built machine. You might be able to make an argument for the Camaro Z/28 of recent memory in the same realm….the Camaro was built as a no-compromise road course car and the Demon, a no-compromise drag car. You had to pay for each seat that wasn’t the driver’s seat, for the love of all that is holy! What’s amazing is that FCA didn’t offer a production option rollcage to go with the car. Certainly, flaunting the NHRA guidelines that said that the Demon needed to be caged before it ran that magical 9.99 quarter-mile was great advertising and yes, in person watching these things hit the track makes you a believer.

The production was firmly set in stone at 3,300 cars. Due to a fire that took out a few cars that were in transit to customers, we don’t know if that is the truest case…we don’t know how bad the cars that were involved in the transporter fire were, but we know that FCA did get every purchasing customer their car, minus this last one. This one will be hand-painted red to match the last production Dodge Viper as part of a charity auction that will benefit the United Way.

It was almost too insane to actually make, but they made it. They even priced it reasonably. It kicks the ass of cars that cost multiples more, and regardless of the moronic flippers who are asking stupid money on eBay for their investments, we are glad to see that some buyers are doing exactly what they should be doing with these cars: driving the hell out of them. This isn’t a sad goodbye. This is a farewell toast. Raise your glasses and celebrate the passing of the current legend. Here’s hoping there will be another successor.