OVER THE TOP!

The West Coast's premier muscle car happening featured Mopars, Fords, GMs, and Dodge's public unveiling of the Demon 170!

- JOHNNY HUNKINS

Each spring, the Strip at Las Vegas hosts one of the best-kept secrets of the muscle car world— Muscle Cars at the Strip. Initially started about 15 years ago as “Mopars at the Strip,” promoter Phil Painter’s annual event has grown to encompass all brands of high-performance vehicles, even though it is still principally known as a Moparheavy event. As one of the first outdoor hot-rodding events of the season, the spring opener is held every March in Las Vegas, the city known as a premier entertainment and vacation hot spot. For this year’s event, held March 17–19, 2023, attendees got an extra surprise as the MotorTrend Presents Roadkill Nights Powered by Dodge added to the festivities with the reveal of Dodge’s final “Last Call” model, the SRT Demon 170 on Monday, March 20.

The debut of the 2023 Dodge SRT Demon 170 was the cherry on top of this unforgettable event, as nearly 10,000 attendees gathered at sunset to see the quickest domestic ICE-powered, mass-produced car in history helicoptered onto the Las Vegas dragstrip. With fireworks blasting, Dodge Development Engineer Jim Wilder thrilled the crowd as he launched the Demon 170 on its first public trip down the track at 8.91 seconds with a trap speed of over 150 mph. The 1,025-hp, street-legal missile is the final model to be built on Dodge’s outrageously popular L-car platform that dates to the 2005 model year.