You may have come across a wild muscle car called the Dodge SRT Ghoul in your time on the internet. In some instances, it seems like a myth or a legend, while some Dodge dealerships have dedicated a fair amount of space on their sites committing to what you can expect of the new model when it arrives. But in truth, there's very little information out there about the mysterious Dodge Ghoul.
That's for a very good reason: because the Ghoul was an entirely made-up car that started its life as an April Fools' prank, went viral, and had Dodge dealers and fans believing it was real. Its story was fun and showed Dodge just how much fans craved the insane, and it may have helped drive demand for the craziest Dodge muscle car of them all, the Challenger Demon 170.
The CarBuzz April Fools' Prank That Broke The Internet
In 2019, a CarBuzz writer suggested a prank article for April Fools' Day. This is not an uncommon practice in the automotive industry, and everyone from automakers and news outlets to YouTubers and aftermarket suppliers announces pranks annually on that day. Little did we know that the original story would go viral, with more than 700,000 people reading it and Dodge dealers being inundated with requests for a reservation for the new model. Dodge HQ in Detroit even heard about it and had a good laugh, but contrary to some reports, it was never even vaguely confirmed by the mothership.
The original report was vague, suggesting the Ghoul was to replace the 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon and that it was arriving for the 2020 model year with 1,000 horsepower, although the source of that power was unconfirmed.
A Logo Taken From Dodge's Own Sketchbook
Maybe the biggest driving factor behind the viral rumors was founded by the logo for the Ghoul. But even this was made up. The origins, however, were semi-legitimate, as we sourced the logo from Dodge's own sketchbook of Demon logos. When Dodge released the original Demon, it had also shown various sketches for the Demon's logo. We simply took one of the alternate ideas and made it look semi-official.
Rebooting The Ghoul Rumor With A Hellephant Engine And Two Extra Doors
While the original prank focused on the concept of a new Challenger variant, we rebooted the gag for 2020, suggesting that Dodge had changed its focus to the Charger after the two-door Demon's success. To that end, the Dodge Charger SRT Ghoul was born with the promise that Mopar's 1,000-horsepower Hellephant crate motor would power it. The Hellephant engine, in case you're unfamiliar, is a 7.0-liter supercharged HEMI V8 with 1,000 hp and 950 lb-ft of torque.
| Hellephant Crate Engine Specifications | |
|---|---|
| Engine Configuration | Supercharged V8 |
| Displacement | 426 ci / 7.0 liters |
| Bore | 4.125 inches |
| Stroke | 4.00 inches |
| Block Material | Cast Aluminum |
| Crank Material | Forged Steel |
| Compression Ratio | 9.5:1 |
| Peak RPM | 6,800 rpm |
| Horsepower | 1,000 rpm |
The Charger SRT Ghoul was to be the ultimate muscle sedan, and it would need a gearbox that could handle all that torque. We expanded on this prank in 2021 with alleged confirmation that the real thing would arrive in 2022 sporting a heavy-duty Allison transmission - the kind you'd typically find in heavy-duty trucks that have 1,000 lb-ft of torque.
Some saw through the smoke and mirrors, though, and rightly so. The Hellephant engine, for example, is not CARB-approved, which is why it could only be bought as a crate motor in the first place for use in vintage builds. And the Allison transmission might have been able to handle the torque, but it's not a performance gearbox, nor were these gearboxes used in Dodge products.
The Dodge Ghoul SRT Had A Massive Price, Or So We Thought
Fictional creations can't have a price, but the one detail that remained consistent throughout our pranks was that Dodge wanted around $200,000 for the privilege of owning the Hellephant-powered Dodge Charger SRT Ghoul.
It was alleged that Dodge would produce 100 cars, which would help recuperate the development costs of the Hellephant engine. The crate motor was limited to the same 100 units, each priced at $29,995, about 15% of the cost of the supposed Charger SRT Ghoul.
At the time, we thought such a price tag was insane, but in the years since the COVID pandemic, we've been introduced to dealer markups and car flippers like never before. The real 1,000-hp Dodge, the Demon 170, may have had an MSRP of just under $100k, but dealer markups surged to over $250,000 in some cases. This made our fictional price tag for the Ghoul seem cheap.
Even 'lesser' models from Dodge, like the Challenger Black Ghost, are attracting massive markups, with 109 of the 300 still for sale, some for as much as $146,926.
Sources: Stellantis/Dodge, Mopar Insiders, Lucid
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This article originally appeared on CarBuzz and is republished here with permission.
