2023 Dodge SRT Demon 170 Jailbreak: the Secret Handshake You Weren’t Supposed To Know About!

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Unless your name was on a confidential email sent to a smattering of Dodge customers this past June, you were not supposed to know about a very limited run of 2023 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170s being built. In a sequel to Dodge's Jailbreak program, wherein, for a price, customers could special-order Dodge Challenger and Charger models with almost any combination of interior and exterior colors while mixing and matching a variety of special trim treatments and badges, just 40 Dodge Demon 170 customers were sent an invitation to participate in the special-order Demon 170 Jailbreak program, all of whom have confirmed orders for the 1,025-hp 2023 Dodge SRT Demon 170. Want to participate in this program? That's too bad. You're too late.

To get on the list, you either had to be a celebrity (Dodge obliquely refers to these folks as "select individuals" with "Dodge brand affiliation" in the email below) or you had to be a rabid repeat customer of multiple Dodge SRT products over a multiyear period. Rumor is, the list of invitees was drawn up by Dodge president Tim Kuniskis, who has long championed the hardiest of Dodge fans. The shortlist of customers was split between 20 celebs and 20 hardcore new SRT buyers, and the members at Hellcat.org have been able to figure out that purchasing as many as four previous SRT vehicles was not enough to qualify for the list.

We contacted Dodge PR for an official program description and got this short response: "The Jailbreak 170 is a celebration of the ultimate Last Call Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170 shared with our most loyal muscle car customers. Select individuals were offered this exclusive paint option based on their new Dodge Charger and Challenger purchase history and Dodge brand affiliation. This one-of-one paint option will add an extra layer of customization and collectability to the record-breaking Challenger SRT Demon 170 and was made available on a limited basis to those who have meant so much to the latest era of Dodge muscle. The option is no longer being offered."

Each of the 40 special Jailbreak Demon 170s will have a unique color, with the quantity split between 20 throwback colors and 20 special one-off colors that were chosen by Dodge's color and style department. The honor of choosing your one-of-one Demon 170 Jailbreak model costs an extra $30K on top of the $96,666 base price. That's a total of $131,961 (including destination and gas guzzler tax)—which represents a unicorn price for a stripped-down Demon 170 (probably not gonna happen) at MSRP (also probably not gonna happen). All jailbreaking aside, the concept of an SRT vehicle selling at MSRP at this point is a pre-COVID fever dream; Dodge message boards have already lit up with dealers and brokers offering their Demon 170 allotment for $100K over sticker, and those aren't even Jailbreak models.

All 40 winners of the Willy Wonka Golden Ticket have already received color samples directly, but no photos of color chips or a list of colors has surfaced online. (These winners are homogeneously wise and don't want to put their lottery tickets in jeopardy!) We've been in contact with one of the celebrity ticket holders, and they declined to provide color info or photos of color chips to HOT ROD due to confidentiality concerns. We do know from a post on Hellcat.org by a member who also got a Jailbreak invitation letter that the throwback colors are specifically being lifted from 1970 Dodge Challenger heritage colors, a statement we understand to mean any color that was available on a 1970 Dodge Challenger. How does it work? You select your top three favorite colors from the color chips SRT sends, and prioritize them first to last. (Panther Pink anyone?!) If your first choice is taken, the SRT concierge service moves to your second choice, and so on. At some point, you take what's left. If you were selected to participate, the response time was critical, as color choices were first-come, first-served.

What about interior colors? It's stated by one invited participant at Hellcat.org that there will be no special interior or trim color combinations other than those already announced for the "standard" Demon 170. One could argue that the Demon 170 Jailbreak program—as a strictly exterior-color-only deal—isn't technically a Jailbreak treatment, although it's likely some sort of plaque with a Jailbreak sequence number or "one-of-one" callout will be included. It's also interesting to observe the phenomenon of horse-trading going on as ticket holders negotiate between themselves to jockey for a VIN or sequence plaque number that matches an existing car in each buyer's personal fleet. One post on Hellcat.org also stated that at least one Demon 170 with a special interior color has been built in Butterscotch, a distinct possibility considering the program's fluidity.

The Demon 170 Jailbreak program mirrors a similar program that ushered out the 2017 Dodge Viper. Known colloquially as the "1 of 1" program which offered customization of new 2017 Vipers from one of 50 million possible build combinations, Dodge's Demon program utilizes the same company, Prefix Corporation of Auburn Hills, Michigan, to perform the Jailbreak Demon 170's custom paintjobs. After being built in Stellantis's Brampton, Ontario, plant with all the customer's chosen options and black paint, Demon 170s in the Jailbreak program are shipped to Prefix, where they are sprayed-out by hand for their final unique color coat before being shipped in an enclosed car hauler.

Those who didn't get an invitation to participate and who inquired with Dodge to ask about participating in the Demon 170 Jailbreak program got the following note: "An extremely small number of select individuals were invited to participate in the Jailbreak 170 exclusive paint program based on their new Charger and Challenger purchase history and Dodge Brand affiliation. This 1-of-1 paint job will add an extra layer of customization and collectability to their record-breaking, Last Call SRT Demon 170. While this is available to only a few of those who have meant so much to the latest era of Dodge Muscle, we recognize and thank you for your passion, and appreciate your interest but aren't able to accommodate your request."

In case you find Dodge a bit off-putting in its preference for top customers and supporters, keep in mind what's happening with customer service elsewhere in the industry—Tesla specifically. If allegations are true, Tesla is running a huge, clandestine campaign to cancel most customer service appointments for complaints of poor range performance.

If you're a customer with this problem, you've been digitally ghosted by your own brand. Could Dodge's more burnished performance reputation lure the inevitably dissatisfied Tesla enthusiast with tales of super-served customers at a time when Dodge is getting ready to uncork hybrid and BEV cars like the 2024 Dodge Charger SRT Banshee shown above?

As an avowed performance brand with bespoke products and white-glove treatment, Dodge is bound to capitalize, provided they can keep dealers from ruining the experience with greed. Stay tuned …