1972 Dodge Demon

After passing up a 1972 Demon survivor car the first time around, Tory Shellehamer didn't make the same mistake twice.

Sports guys call it a mulligan. It's this imaginary thing where you get to turn back time to transform a moment of chokage and despair into perpetual glory and triumph. Mike Tyson could have used one when Buster Douglas knocked him out in 1990, and Scott Norwood could have used one when his kick went wide right to close out Super Bowl XXV. If mulligans were real, maybe Tyson keeps his heavyweight belt a few more years, and maybe the Buffalo Bills win four straight Super Bowls. Although building muscle cars isn't a sport in the eyes of the general public, Tory Shellehamer parlayed one fortuitous do-over into 26 years (and counting) of hot rodding euphoria.

2/23 With just 44,000 miles on the clock, the Demon has lived a sheltered life. All of the body panels and the floorpan are original.

The year is 1988. Tory hears about a friend of a friend who's selling a 340 small-block. An avid drag racer, this motor is of particular interest to Tory because it's got the coveted "X" cylinder head castings and a healthy solid-roller cam. Upon arriving on scene to inspect the motor, however, he discovered that the motor had a pretty cool wrapper to go along with it. "The only thing I was interested in was the engine, but the seller said I could have the '72 Demon that it came in for $3,000 total. He was going through a divorce, and he wanted to sell the car so his wife couldn't take it from him," Tory recalls. Here's the crazy part. Although the mostly original Demon had just 37,000 miles on the ticker, Tory passed on it. "The car was sitting in the corner of a dark shop, and I could hardly see it because it was covered in so much dust. I started asking around to see if anyone else was interested in buying the car, but I couldn't find anyone. When I went back to pick up the motor, the owner had cleaned the car up and parked it in the driveway. I noticed the inspection sticker on the car was from 1975, which meant that it had only been driven around a few years before it was put into storage. It turns out the owner lived overseas for much of the time he owned the car, so it hardly got driven. After learning about the history of the car, I couldn't pass it up."

"When I saw the car all cleaned up in the driveway, I knew I had to get it."

As luck would have it, Tory got his mulligan and over the next 26 years he made sure to put it to good use. Although he didn't come from a hot rodding family and he was only in his early 20s at the time, Tory immediately respected the originality of the Demon like only a true Mopar man could. "I come from a family of farmers, so I wasn't raised on Mopars. The guy who owned the transmission shop I worked at was an old Super Stock racer, and I followed in his footsteps," Tory recalls. "He told me that he drives Mopars because they're dependable, and that has always stuck with me. Ever since then, I've only owned Mopars. My first car was a '70 Dart, and I currently own another '72 Dart that runs 9.30 at 141 mph in naturally aspirated trim."

3/23 A stickler for details, Tory spent many hours hiding the underhood wiring. What looks like a bead of RTV on the front of the intake manifold is actually a bundle of wires.

If you haven't figured it out by now, Tory doesn't like trailer queens. Although his family wasn't into cars, he grew up racing motocross. After transitioning to cars, he picked up a '70 Dart and went street racing. "It ran high-13s back in the '80s, which was pretty quick for that era. I realized that none of the bolt-on parts fit right, so I built my own custom K-member, A-arms, headers, and rearend for the car," he recollects. "Ever since then, I've been building cars on the side after work for myself and for my friends. I build a lot of chassis, too. Going out back and working in the shop is a nice break after a long day at work."

"I went to look at an engine. I ended up buying a car."

While it may be true that an A-Body will never bring home the big bucks like an E-Body, Tory knew he had something special in the 37,000-mile Demon. Even the ignorance of youth didn't allow him to defile a future Mopar classic. "The car was in decent shape when I bought it and I didn't need to replace any of the body panels. I drove it around the first year I had it, but then I decided it was so nice that I should only drive it every now and then," Tory explains. "The car's former owner told all his friends ‘I bet that kid's going to ruin that car.' I can't blame him for thinking that, but I had no intention of hacking the car up."

4/23 Tory got tired of looking at the same round air cleaners, so he made his own using a triangular filter and some plexiglass. It seals to the bottom of the hood, and draws cool air from the hoodscoop.

The Demon saw very little street duty for the next 14 years until Tory decided to give it a complete makeover in 2003. As no surprise, the Demon needed very little bodywork as all of the original metal was completely rust-free. "After sand blasting the car, I had my friend Jeff Horst paint it," Tory recalls. "I planned on restoring it back to stock at first, but then I decided to build a healthy motor for it. At that point, I didn't want to drive around with all that power and stock drum brakes, so from there the car evolved into a restomod build. Sometimes less is more, so I just wanted to keep things simple."

"I originally raced this car with a four-speed, but it broke so many parts that I had to swap in an automatic."

As an avid drag racer, over the years Tory has learned how to squeeze loads of power out of an engine without going over the top. As such, he took the same 340 that led him to the Demon in the first place and give it a full 21st century rubdown. The block was bored to 4.040 inches, then fitted with an Eagle 4.000 inch crank, H-beam rods, and JE 13.0:1 forged pistons. While the factory "X" cylinder heads were great for their day, Tory replaced them with a set of high-flow Indy aluminum castings. Induction duties are handled by an Indy intake manifold and a Holly 930cfm carb, while an MSD ignition system provides the spark. A custom COMP Cams 255-at-.050 solid roller cam with .630-inch lift bumps the valves, and the exhaust exits through TTI headers and a custom dual outlet system Tory built himself with three-inch piping and Flowmaster mufflers. The end product is one stout 416ci small-block that kicks out 640 horsepower at 7,200 rpm. A TorqueFite A999 matched with a Turbo Action 3,500-stall converter manages the shifts, and keeps the high-winding motor in its powerband. Rounding out the driveline is a Chrysler 8.75-inch rearend fortified with 35-spline Moser axles and a spool.

5/23 The Demon originally had a hood tach when Tory bought the car, but he removed it to maintain a low-profile appearance. The spider finish on the scoop used to be textured, but after many coats of clear it's now smooth to the touch.

When it came time to revamp the suspension, Tory stuck with the keep-it-simple approach. He tweaked the torsion bars and installed some Mopar Performance Super Stock springs to lower the stance down a bit, then installed adjustable Competition Engineering shocks front and rear. Other than that, the suspension is stock. The rollers are an interesting story in and of themselves. Tory bolted up some 15-inch Weld Superlites back in 1991, and they've stayed on the car ever since then. Due to the close resemblance to the newer Weld Draglites, the 23-year-old wheels still look contemporary today. They're wrapped in 165R Volkswagen tires up front, and McCreary 285/60-15 slicks out back.

"The quickest it has run at the track is 11.44 at 117 mph on motor and 10.80 on nitrous."

With a spool, slicks, 13.0:1 compression and an appetite for aviation fuel, the Demon clearly wasn't built with cross-country trips in mind. To the contrary, Tory built it to traverse short distances in very short time intervals. "The quickest it has run at the track is 11.44 at 117 mph on motor and 10.80 on nitrous. I don't like the idea of losing a driveshaft and having it take out the whole floorpan, so I don't race it that often anymore," he explains. "I really enjoy taking it out to shows and cruises with my two sons. We have a blast together in this piece of classic American muscle."

6/23 Sure there are fancier solutions out there, but the stock suspension works great for occasional street driving. Adjusting the Competition Engineering shocks is as easy as twisting the shock body into one of three adjustment positions.

Nearly three decades after choking by passing up the deal of a lifetime, Tory got his mulligan. Maybe it was luck or fate, or a combination of both. Either way, he'll never have to wonder what might have happened if had he not passed up on that $3,000 Demon back in 1988. That's because he came to his senses before it was too late, and he's got 26 years of hot rodding euphoria under his belt to prove it.

Fast Facts
1972 Dodge Demon

 

Engine
Type: Chrysler 416ci small-block
Block: stock 340 block bored to 4.040 inches
Oiling: Melling high-volume oil pump, Milodon pan
Rotating assembly: Eagle 4.000-inch crank and rods; JE 13.0:1 forged pistons
Cylinder heads: Indy Cylinder Head aluminum castings
Camshaft: custom COMP Cams 255/255-at-.050 solid roller; .630/.630-inch lift; 108-degree LSA
Induction: Indy single-plane intake manifold, Holley 930cfm carburetor
Ignition: MSD billet distributor, coil, plug wires, and ignition box
Exhaust: TTI headers, custom collectors, dual 3-inch Flowmaster mufflers
Output: 640 hp at 7,200 rpm and 555 lb-ft at 4,800 rpm
Built by: Brett Miller (Dillsburg, PA)
Drivetrain
Transmission: TorqueFlite A999 automatic, Turbo Action 3,500-stall converter
Rear axle: Chrysler 8.75-inch rearend with Moser 35-spline axles, 4.30:1 gears, and spool

Chassis
Front suspension: stock with Competition Engineering shocks
Rear suspension: stock with Competition Engineering shocks
Brakes: Wilwood 11-inch discs with four-piston calipers, front and rear

Wheels & Tires
Wheels: Weld Superlite 15x3.5, front; 15x10, rear
Tires: BFGoodrich 165R15, front; McCreary 285/60-15 slicks, rear

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