Classic Demon Will Leave You Green with Envy

An awesome first car

I don't think you can really get any cooler than owning a Demon as a first car. Tony Angelo's name probably sounds familiar to you if you follow drifting in the states over last decade. As a teen growing up in Philadelphia, Tony saved up for his first car like most of us did - by working summers. One day while looking through the local classifieds he came upon an ad for a 1971 Dodge Demon conveniently in the suburbs of Philly. 

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Love gained and love lost

It turns out that it is a Demon with number matching factory 340 4-speed that was priced at a ready to roll number. The owner happened to be going through a divorce and wanted nothing more than to see the Demon go to a good home and out of his soon to be ex-wife's hands. Tony jumped on the deal and was excited to have the new car that he spent the first couple of nights sleeping inside the Demon whilst parked in his parent's garage. 

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Gone but not forgotten

Tony spent every evening working on the car, upgrading the suspension and brakes and gaining some on the job knowledge. The Demon served him well in high school but when it was time to go to college the car ended up sitting in the garage. Tony relocated to California to pursue drifting and again the Demon sat in the garage. Eventually the engine was removed but still, the car sat dormant for almost a decade. Cut to 2012 when Tony returned to Philadelphia and the motor went back into the Demon but that was all that happened for a bit. 

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The perfect candidate

Just a few years after that Tony flew back to sunny California to work as a host on Hot Rod Garage for Hot Rod magazine. As fate would have it when there came time for a segment on restoring a classic, Tony had the perfect car that would fit the job. The Demon was loaded onto a truck and made the trek across the country to Los Angeles last summer while the first order of business was a how-to on refreshing an engine that hasn't run in a long time. 

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Keep that but toss this

Things didn't go quite as easily as had been planned since, after the initial fire up, an oiling problem seized up the entire motor. Since the engine was an original numbers matching 340, Tony didn't want to swap the motor or destroy the bloc. Instead, he took the recommendation of Moto IQ's Mike Kojima and went to Engine Supply in Santa Ana for a full rebuild of the power plant. With the rebuild done, some small upgrades came the motor in the form of some basic cams, intake and exhaust upgrades putting the power at 300hp and 325lb-ft of torque. 

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The daddy demon

The handling of the Demon got an upgrade by way of a full bolt-in subframe and rear suspension setup from QA1 to replace the aging factory equipment. The brakes got beefed up with a large bolt pattern discs on all four corners with a 3.91 Sure Grip rear end. The wheels are basset NASCAR style D-Holes, 15x7 inch in the front and 15x8 inch in the rear.  Not too shabby at all for a first car. 

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