It’s a new year and Jeff Moran, owner of Drop Top Customs, has already fired up his torches and plugged in his SAWZALL to transform another Challenger into a high-horsepower convertible. Now, this is not just your run-of-the-mill R/T, Scat Pack or SRT® Hellcat (if you can call these awesome cars ‘run-of-the-mill’). What Jeff is doing is taking his personal car, a 2023 Challenger SRT Demon 170, and turning it into a convertible. Now before your head explodes and chime in about the legendary status of the limited-production 1,025-horsepower SRT Demon 170 and why anyone in their right mind would do this, you have to know Jeff. “Everyone said not to do it, and that made me more determined to go ahead with the project,” laughed Jeff. “I tell people all the time, not everyone likes the same thing. There’s more than one flavor of ice cream.” The Challenger SRT Demon 170 marks the end of a platform that has rocked the industry since 2008. One would think a car that’s capable of breaking into the eight-second zone down the quarter-mile at 150 mph would be enough to satisfy most people. You’d think … but not for Jeff. You may recall our feature on Jeff in DodgeGarage back in October of 2022. He gave us access to his conversion facility that takes production Challengers right from the factory and modifies them into convertibles for customers and ships them right to dealers across the country. Up to this point, the wildest Challenger Jeff and his team did surgery on was a 2018 Challenger SRT Demon. Today, an F8 Green 2023 SRT Demon 170 is ready to claim the title of the world’s quickest convertible.
For those of you unfamiliar with Drop Top Customs, they’re the oldest convertible coachbuilder in the United States and have converted at least 1,500 Challengers into convertibles since 2008. In 2018, Jeff and Dodge formalized a seamless ordering system for customers to order a new Challenger convertible. “We all sat down and figured out a way to make this happen. Dodge provided the NVH (Noise Vibration Harshness) standards we had to meet along with the testing parameters. We benchmarked the Camaro and Mustang convertibles and made the Challenger even better and Roush Engineering performed independent tests to confirm our chassis design performed as well as if not better than similar chassis from factory convertibles. Again, it was a team effort with our team and the folks at Stellantis to make this happen and I couldn’t be happier,” smiled Jeff. “Since this is being offered by Stellantis, this is the closest thing to a factory Dodge Challenger Convertible.”
Since production for the current model Challenger has ended, Jeff his team at Drop Top Customs wanted to make a statement about their modification capabilities and decided to go out in high-octane style with an SRT Demon 170. “I know I’ll get some pushback from the Demon 170 community and that’s fine,” said Jeff. “Not everyone will like it but converting a 1,025-horsepower Challenger into a convertible and making a well-engineered machine showcases our company’s capabilities and commitment to turning out a great product. We’re already working on enhancing chassis modification due to the Demon 170’s massive horsepower and torque output,” said Jeff. Once complete, Jeff will head out to the dragstrip and claim the bragging rights for the world’s fastest convertible and make runs with the top both up and down. “We also plan on taking my Demon 170 to the Radford Driving School for more track time.”
So, here’s a sneak peek of the world’s first 2023 Challenger SRT Demon 170 getting transformed into a rag top! Love or hate it, you must admire Jeff for making Mopar® history and DodgeGarage will have a follow-up feature on the finished project. Until then, check out these exclusive images and video of the first Challenger SRT Demon 170 going under the knife!
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