Lee Carter bought a stolen-and-chopped Dodge Demon 170 for $20K. After six months of work, will the 1,025-HP HEMI finally run?
A YouTuber known for reviving broken and abandoned vehicles has spent over six months painstakingly rebuilding a 2024 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170 that had been chopped into pieces by thieves—after winning the remains at auction for just $20,000.
Lee Carter, who documents his work on the Scrapped LifeLee YouTube channel, stumbled upon the stolen and disassembled Demon 170 at an auction yard last fall. According to police, the car was likely stolen directly from a showroom floor, stripped of its VIN, and chopped apart for parts—only for law enforcement to recover and piece together much of it before it went to auction.
What Carter bought was a puzzle: a scattered collection of body panels, a 6.2-liter supercharged HEMI V8, a transmission, and various electronics—some even from the wrong model. “I thought I was getting a cheap Demon,” Carter joked in one video. “Instead, I got a masterclass in frustration.”
Built in limited numbers—just 3,300 units globally—the Demon 170 launched with a staggering 1,025 horsepower and a claimed 0–60 mph time of just 1.66 seconds. This car, VIN #0032, is among the earliest produced. But none of that power means anything if it can’t start.
To reconstruct the car, Carter sourced a shell from a Hellcat, glued together the original parts, and painted it in a striking Panther Pink. The original was finished in B5 Blue.
The real challenge came with the wiring. Thieves had removed the ECU, body control module, key fob, and harness—critical components for getting the car to run. Worse, the replacement wiring was pulled from a Charger, which further complicated the build.
After dozens of failed attempts and over 100 man-hours, Carter finally brought in an expert who managed to program the car’s modules. Now, the team has voltage to the starter and a digital cluster showing just 61 original miles. But they still can’t shut the car off properly, and the engine hasn’t yet fired.
"If it doesn’t crank," Carter jokes, "there’s a boat ramp a quarter mile away. This thing’s going in."
Despite setbacks, Carter says he’s not giving up. With new parts arriving and steady progress made, he's determined to make the HEMI roar again—no matter how long it takes.
For now, the Demon 170, banned by the NHRA for being too fast to run without a parachute, remains grounded—its 1,025 horses still corralled. But in Carter’s hands, it’s only a matter of time before it breaks free.
