Stock power, stock tire Demon runs a 9.86 by Patrick Rall on

A great many people insisted that the 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon is only capable of running into the mid-9s in impossible conditions, with different rear tires, with more power or with all three of those key points. However, one new Demon owner has proven that you don’t need any of those things to run in the 9.80s, as Byron Godbee ran those numbers without adding power, without changing the rear tires and without racing in negative Density Altitude. The only change made to this Challenger was that he switched out the skinny front wheels that come in the Demon Crate for a set of Weld skinnies that save him 8 pounds on each front corner.

Other than those front wheels, this Demon is stock and in positive DA, it ran a 9.866 at 137.76 miles per hour. That makes Godbee the first Demon owner to run in the 9s on the stock tires but more importantly, he has proven that a stock power, stock tire Demon can run in the 9s without nearly impossible air conditions.

The Record Run

When Byron Godbee hit the track yesterday afternoon at Virginia Motorsports Park, he had high hopes of being the first 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon owner to run in the 9-second range with stock tires and stock power. He knew that the DA would be good and on his first two passes, it was clear that 9s were within reach.

His first run at 1:23pm was a 10.148 at 136.79 and his second run, at 1:27pm, was a 10.031 at 136.68 miles per hour. Godbee was knocking on the 9-second door and on his next run, he became the first new Demon owner to drive into the 9s with the stock tires. At 1:38pm, he ran a 9.954 at 136.91, being the first to run 9s with the stock Nitto drag radials. All other owners who have run in the 9s did so with stickier rear tires, extra power or extreme weight reduction, but with nothing more than slightly lighter front wheels, Byron Godbee ran a 9-second quarter mile in nearly stock form at roughly 1,000 DA.

Later in the afternoon, DA dropped to 700 and his elapsed times dropped as well, running a 9.947, a 9.943 and a 9.909 at 136.81 miles per hour. As time went on, DA dropped to 450, allowing Godbee to run a 9.897 at 136.68 miles per hour.

and on his last run of the evening – with Density Altitude dropping to 250 – he laid down a 9.866 at 137.76 miles per hour.

The video below shows the 9.897 run and further down, you will find the 9.86 run.

On these record runs, Godbee’s Demon had the stock one-seat interior layout, he was running the race gas tune with 93 pump gas blended with Demon 116, leading to 102 octane fuel in the tank. As mentioned above, he was on the stock rear wheels and tires with Weld skinnies up front. The car weighs 4,101 pounds in the pits, while tipping the scales at 4,344 pounds with the 6’7” driver strapped in and in this form, this Demon ran in the 9.80s with positive Density Altitude.

Also, Godbee has made around 560 runs, so he has significant seat time, but he is still launching the car on the brake pedal, not on the TransBrake. The TransBrake makes for much more power at the wheels on launch, making traction far tougher. Like most Demon owners, Godbee is running without that extra launch power, but he is still within two tenths of a second away from the official Dodge record numbers which were run with the TransBrake in negative DA.

In other words, when Dodge made those 9.65 runs with the Demon, they were getting off of the line a bit hard while running in considerably better air. The drop from 250 to negative DA will get Godbee’s Demon even closer to the 9.65 record and once he gets a track surface that will handle those extra launch forces – this supercharged Challenger has a real chance of matching the Dodge numbers…if not beating them.

In the meantime, Byron Godbee has the claim of being the first and only Demon owner in the world who has run in the 9s with stock power and the stock Nitto drag radials.

After running these awesome numbers, Byron Godbee wants to thanks Al & Nancy Gennarelli (another fast Demon owner) for inviting him to their private track rental at VMP along with Brandon Mass from Mass Traction (the king of track prep) for 5 days of in depth discussions on the car and the tires.

Patrick Rall was raised a Mopar boy, spending years racing a Dodge Mirada while working his way through college. After spending a few years post-college in the tax accounting field, Patrick made the jump to the world of journalism and his work has been published in magazines and websites around the world.