Squeezing more horsepower out of Dodge’s mighty Hellcat motor isn’t hard, but getting those horses to behave in front of the Stellantis grown-ups is another matter.

Just ask Dodge CEO, Tim Kuniskis, whose engineering team has blown up seven Hellcat engines trying to get a more powerful variant through Dodge’s grueling certification process, forcing the cancellation of the car’s planned SEMA debut.

The Final, 7th ‘Last Call’ Challenger Will Have The Most Powerful V8 Yet

Dodge is currently sending the Charger and Challenger on a farewell tour, rolling out a series of “Last Call” special editions. It has already released six of them including the recent ‘Black Ghost’ and ‘Swinger’, and there’s one more remaining, the seventh and final still-secret car that was supposed to be more special than most. Because this model, which commemorates another as-yet unnamed muscle classic from Dodge’s back catalog, is in line to get the most powerful street-legal factory Hellcat motor ever produced.

“We were supposed to launch at SEMA and we ran into some problems. I’m not going to try to hide behind the usual go-to of ‘supply chain and chip issues,’ stuff like that. No, this one’s on me,” explained Kuniskis during a media briefing for Dodge’s SEMA plans last week.

Related: 2023 Dodge Charger And Challenger Orders Open, Here’s How To Get One Of The Last ICE-Powered Models

Seventh and final “Last Call” V8’s SEMA debut was cancelled

“When you want to add power to a Hellcat it’s very easy to do. Unfortunately when I sell it as a commemorative edition I have to put it through the normal production duty cycle,” the Dodge CEO said. And it’s those durability tests that have caused the problem.

“It’s not so easy to do. We run these things on wide-open throttle for hours and hours on end, 24-7. The testing on these things is just brutal. So far we’ve grenaded seven engines, but I think we’ve got it figured out.”

Kuniskis said that if the undisclosed fix works we can expect to see the finished car unveiled early in 2023. As for how much power we’re in line for, Dodge’s CEO isn’t saying, but previous reports have suggested it could be even more powerful than the old Challenger SRT Demon.

The 2018 Demon got a boost from 707 hp (717 PS) to 840 hp (852 PS) thanks to a bigger supercharger, higher rev limit and a new powertrain module designed to work with 100+ octane gas. Zero to 60 mph (97 km/h) took 2.3 seconds and the Demon could demolish a quarter miles of asphalt in 9.65 seconds at 140 mph (225 km/h).

How much power would you like to see Dodge squeeze out of the Hellcat for its final performance? Leave a comment and let us know.