Hennessey Performance has built some incredible machines that are made for speed. From the Venom F5, to the VelociRaptor truck, they have shown quite the skill when it comes to performance, but perhaps the most important vehicle to come out of their doors right now is their made over Dodge Demon slayer, the Camaro ZL1 Exorcist. The bad-to-the-bone Hennessey Performance Exorcist has just proven itself to be the world’s fastest muscle car.
With enough power to ward off a real demon, the 1,000-horsepower, 883 lb-ft of torque beast has hit a top speed of 217-mph, and they made sure to get it on video for proof, or for gloating, whichever. The Dodge Demon had its few sweet seconds in the sun when one example of the Dodge flagship car hit 203-mph, as reported by Allpar, but that’s clearly not enough to stave off the Exorcist.
The run went down at the Continental Tire Proving Grounds in Uvalde, Texas with professional driver and Ford Performance Driving School Director Brian Smith behind the wheel. When unleashed on the 8.5-mile high-speed oval track, the Camaro reached 60-mph in under 3-seconds, and blasted through the quarter-mile in under 10-seconds.
Hennessey made this possible by upgrading the supercharger, installing a custom ground camshaft, and gave it a set of ported cylinder heads. They also upgraded the valvetrain with new springs, lifters, pushrods, and valves. The automatic transmission has been overhauled to handle the power, and maximize performance. A high-flow intercooler, longtube stainless steel headers, and high-flowing catalytic converters top off the build. To keep this monster planted, and for maximum acceleration on the dragstrip, 20” drag radial tires are used outback.
Introduced about a year ago now, the Dodge Challenger Demon isn’t the only target when building the Exorcist, Hennessey has the new Corvette ZR1 in its crosshairs.
Shawn Henry is a Texas native who has spent the majority of his career building and selling F-Bodies and Corvettes. Now studying journalism, he is taking a new direction with his love of GM Performance vehicles.
