DODGE DEMON clone

My ’72 Valiant Charger has been cloned into a ’71 Dodge Demon look alike. It is built bracket-racing style and has a full aluminum dash with only the essential gauges. It has no brake booster (only a master cylinder) nor any power steering.

It has a strong revving 400 Chevy motor with Dart Iron-Eagle Platinum 200 heads (with 72cc chambers), with roller rockers, a pretty wild Erson cam, and all the other bells & whistles. It was masterfully built by Ivan Carstens from Randburg, Johannesburg.

This hot motor is coupled to a 4 speed, TH700R4 Chevy auto box, linked to a new Dana limited slip diff. (3.73:1 ratio). It has a racing B&M shifter.

The car was bought with a large round hole in the hood, (possibly to accommodate a tall air cleaner???). This aperture was expertly closed up and repaired by Bern van Gass and sprayed black – not an easy fix to get it back-to-normal, straight and looking factory. 

It has a large 50 litre HDPE racing fuel cell (sponge interior) fitted in the trunk and the filler cap on the left side has been closed up. The lines are braided throughout with A/N fittings on all connections. The battery has also been transitioned to the rear with a cut-off in the cab. The front and rear suspension has been triangulated and seriously beefed up.  It also has strong custom drag tramp bars which is IDEAL for big LAUNCHES!!!

The custom chin spoiler was made & widened from a stock VW Golf 1 front spoiler by Bern van Gass. A trick parcel shelf was also designed, manufactured & fitted by him.

The fully functioning, back air wing was manufactured out of aluminum by Nic v/d Merwe. I managed to secure a 2nd trunk lid that has no wing, so I have the option of exchanging the rear trunk lid, giving it a different look in minutes.The back bumper has also been filled in & smoothed out and sprayed black to match the front. A second Twin-Post mirror was imported and fitted to the left side. 

A custom fan shroud was also made by Bern to help the air flow through the Flex-A-Lite aluminum radiator in addition to preventing serious damage to fingers in the bay. There are no over-heating issues here. it has a truck Hayden oil cooler for the oil coolant. The one-off stainless steel exhaust and side pipes were built by Tommy from TNT and it rolls on 15” Weld Racing Pro-Star wheels.

Dynamat were laid throughout, including the trunk, before installing fresh black seats & upholstery. Black thick-pile house carpets were also fiited. This was all done by Mark Wahlberg from Steeledale. Clint & Wesley Mann also tweaked some of the wiring issues we had, to make it super safe.

Adapter plates were made custom designed by Peter Jackson and laser cut to retrofit the Mopar valve covers on the Chev heads. They have been painted Mopar orange, as has the air cleaner cover.  (This has been done intentionally to invoke discussion and debate).

I am considering an exchange of ratio in the rear, maybe, to something with longer legs…  but enjoying as is, for the time being. Lets see !!