Cleetus McFarland just can’t get enough of the Demon’s TransBrake and 808 horsepower.
Cleetus McFarland, best known for his body-less, twin turbocharged Corvette named “Leroy” and other high performance Chevrolet vehicles, but in one of his recent videos, he had a chance to get behind the wheel of the 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon. Not surprisingly, the Chevy fan was impressed by the 808-horsepower stock Mopar muscle car, especially when he did a massive burnout with the America’s first factory-built 9-second street car.
Cleetus & His Chevys
If you pay any attention to Cleetus McFarland, you know that he is a Chevy guy. He is best known for his wicked eight-second Corvette that is really just a chassis and drivetrain, as he bought it totaled without a body. He has acquired other vehicles along the way, including a C7 Corvette, a NASCAR-style Chevy pickup and a Lincoln stretch limo, so while he also has a Ram 3500, his channel is chock full of GM performance.
This video begins like many of his videos, with Cleetus and his boys headed off for some high performance hijinks in a few built Chevrolet products. In this case, he is taking a built Camaro ZL1 and a C7 Corvette with well over a thousand wheel horsepower to a dyno shop for some tuning work. As you would expect, the video has some cruising footage of those two cars, followed by dyno clips of the Vette making more than 1,100 rear wheel-horsepower.
While at the dyno shop, someone showed up with a new Dodge Challenger SRT Demon and he offered to let Cleetus play with it a bit.
McFarland & Dodge Demon
If you aren’t interested in the Chevy information, you can skip to the 5:35 mark of the video, where the F8 Green Demon makes its first appearance. The YouTuber has been given the greenlight to make a quick launch with the TransBrake system and he does so in the driveway of the tuning shop.
With the car in the 808-horsepower mode (we are guessing that the owner hasn’t installed the race gas PCM yet), Cleetus takes a shot at launching with the TransBrake. Like so many others, he finds that a high-RPM launch, even in pump gas mode, roasts the rear tires. He then heads out onto the street for a quick drive of the 808-horsepower Mopar muscle car before heading back to the shop.
Once there, the he watches as the heavily-modified Corvette does a burnout, followed by the Demon, the Camaro ZL1 and an older Ford Mustang. Compared to the modified Chevys, the Demon does a solid burnout, but in the Chevy-heavy crowd, the voting poll for the best burnout is heavily favoring the modified Camaro and Corvette over the stock Dodge.
"Before I was old enough to walk, my dad was taking me to various types of racing events, from local drag racing to the Daytona 500," says Patrick Rall, a lifetime automotive expert, diehard Dodge fan, and respected auto journalist for over 10 years. "He owned a repair shop and had a variety of performance cars when I was young, but by the time I was 16, he was ready to build me my first drag car – a 1983 Dodge Mirada that ran low 12s. I spent 10 years traveling around the country, racing with my dad by my side. While we live in different areas of the country, my dad still drag races at 80 years old in the car that he built when I was 16 while I race other vehicles, including my 2017 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat and my 1972 Dodge Demon 340.
"Although I went to college for accounting, my time in my dad’s shop growing up allowed me the knowledge to spend time working as a mechanic before getting my accounting degree, at which point I worked in the office of a dealership group. While I was working in the accounting world, I continued racing and taking pictures of cars at the track. Over time, I began showing off those pictures online and that led to my writing.
"Ten years ago, I left the accounting world to become a full-time automotive writer and I am living proof that if you love what you do, you will never “work” a day in your life," adds Rall, who has clocked in time as an auto mechanic, longtime drag racer and now automotive journalist who contributes to nearly a dozen popular auto websites dedicated to fellow enthusiasts.
"I love covering the automotive industry and everything involved with the job. I was fortunate to turn my love of the automotive world into a hobby that led to an exciting career, with my past of working as a mechanic and as an accountant in the automotive world provides me with a unique perspective of the industry.
"My experience drag racing for more than 20 years coupled with a newfound interest in road racing over the past decade allows me to push performance cars to their limit, while my role as a horse stable manager gives me vast experience towing and hauling with all of the newest trucks on the market today.
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