Tony Angelo is one of the most accomplished members of the automotive world. He is one of the founding drivers and a longtime frontrunner of the "automotive figure skating" competition: Formula Drift. After retiring to Formula Drift judge, Angelo was instrumental in creating the scoring system that defines modern Formula Drift. Angelo is still involved with racing, as the founding president of Drift Alliance and a stunt driver in ads for Audi, Nissan, and Chevrolet.
Auto-racing is only half of Angelo's automotive passion. Besides being an accomplished racer and stuntman, Angelo is a master custom builder and the host of MotorTrend's HOT ROD Garage show. Angelo and his HOT ROD Garage team's builds include the SEMA-famous "Fishtail" 'Cuda, a monstrous 630 horsepower 1973 Chevy van, and an absurd two-engine Impala (The "Twinpala") capable of 10 second 1/4-miles.
Angelo can trace all of his automotive passions back to his first car: a 1971 Dodge Dart Demon. When he was a teenager, his vintage Dodge was one of the coolest daily drivers around. But instead of outgrowing this car and trading it away, Angelo continues to restore and update the classic.
As his ability as a driver and fabricator grew, he modified his Dodge to match. Today, a built 340 V8 and race-ready suspension kit make Angelo's 1971 Demon one of the sickest A-Body Mopars on the road.
A-Bodies Make Perfect Project Cars
In need of an economic people-mover, Mopar engineered the A-Body drivetrain in the late 1950s, launching the Plymouth Valiant in 1960. The lightweight, dependable little car was an instant hit. By 1963 Dodge began building its Darts on the shared drivetrain. In 1964 Plymouth launched the high-performance Barracuda pony car on the A-Body chassis, and in 1970 the Duster. Dodge kept pace by building several generations of performance-oriented Darts, including the 1971 and 1972 Dart Demon.
Mopar's A-Body cars are among the best first muscle cars. The sheer number produced keeps the vehicles' price, and the cost of parts, relatively low. Dodge sold later A-Bodies with all manner of high-power engines. Finally, as one of the lightest cars in the Mopar lineup, Darts are fun muscle cars to drive.
By the time he was a teenager, Tony Angelo was a full-on car nut. Before he even had a license, he worked summers in a shop, changing tires. The entire time Angelo saved his pennies, waiting to buy the perfect first car. One day, he saw a numbers-matching 1971 Dodge Demon 340 with a 4-speed transmission advertised. In the 1990s, muscle-cars weren't yet collectors' cars. Still, the Demon was listed well below market value. Angelo went to check it out.
The Demon's owner told Angelo that he was in the middle of a divorce and wanted to unload the muscle car rather than see his wife get it. When the fifteen-year-old Angelo said he wanted a first car to fix up and drive, the owner agreed to sell him the priceless vehicle for just $3400. Angelo was so excited, he parked the car in his garage and slept in it instead of his bed.
Angelo's 1971 Dodge Demon 340 4-Speed
The bright green 1971 Dodge Demon features a 340 cubic inch (5.2 liters) V8. A true motorhead, Angelo had lusted after the specific model-year. The early seventies witnessed the end of the pony car horsepower wars. Stricter emissions standards and lower-quality pump gas conspired, and the big-three all detuned their V8s. Mopar held out, but 1971 was still Dodge's last year of high-compression V8s. Angelo believes the stock compression of the 1971 engine was 10.25 to 1. The powerplant made 275 horsepower stock. Angelo recently rebuilt the engine with new bearings, pistons, and rods. Instead of an extreme horsepower build, he decided to keep the car driveable; a medium-aggressive cam bumped the power output to about 375 horsepower.
The Demon's interior is mostly original. The gauges have a slight patina; all of them work except for oil-pressure. The exterior has a couple of dings and scratches, and Angelo prefers it that way. He drives the Demon often and doesn't worry about getting it dusty or throwing up a little gravel.
Building A Drift Racer's Muscle Car
When Tony Angelo took his Dodge Demon out of mothballs and restored it on HOT ROD Garage, he took the opportunity to modernize the muscle car's suspension. The lightweight vehicle only weighs 2,850 pounds, but its cornering suffered from worn-out 1970s suspension components. Angelo partnered with QA1 suspension and received their Level Three Handling Kit, custom-engineered for Mopar A-Bodies.
Today, a tubular front cross-member reduces the weight of the car's front end. The lightweight A-body also benefits from new upper and lower control arms, dual adjustable shocks, fully adjustable camber and caster, and disc brakes at all four corners. The rear of the Mopar gained a six-link suspension conversion that bolts in place of the original leaf springs and adds the performance of coil-over shocks and an anti-roll bar.
Even with the stock 8-and-3/4-inch sure-grip differential, the Demon boasts excellent street performance--for a 1970s muscle car. Angelo was the fitting first driver to do donuts in a muscle car in the Hoonigan parking lot. See him burning some rubber on youtube.
Sources: HOT ROD Garage, Formula Drift, Conceptcarz