It doesn’t get much tighter than stuffing a 6.1 Hemi into a ’71 Demon.
By Jim Koscs Photos by TheBruntBros
rotisserie restoration. Car was painted
before the 6.1 Hemi was installed.
Body was dropped over the stock crate
motor with TTI headers already in
place. Think how much better it’d look
with the OEM blackout paint.
If you want to know all about Brad Krstic’s 1971 Dodge Demon
resto-rod, you need to talk to Brad. Brad Johnson, that is. Krstic
owns Brad’s, a collision repair shop in Aledo, Illinois. And Brad is
the expert body man. Brad Johnson, that is.
Confused? Good. We had nothing better to do than
confuse out readers, and they say idleness is the devil’s
workshop. (If that’s true, this place must be his home office.)
Anyway, getting a little more serious now, what you’re looking at
took Brad (Johnson) about six months of part-time labor to build for
his boss, Brad (Krstic).
“He basically gave me a blank check, to build the car,” said
Johnson. We don’t know if it was signed in weird red ink or even
signed at all (minor detail). We’ve never had much luck passing off
blank checks ourselves.
A 6.1-liter Gen-3 Hemi sits down below the hood, ready to fire
up for some sinfully wicked driving. Or, at least that’s what Johnson
told us. He’s the one who put on the car’s 30 or so miles since its
completion in November 2011. How’s it drive? “Fantastic!” he
said. His boss, Krstic, doesn’t know what he’s missing.
Why the no driving (yet)? Johnson says the boss “Is
very rough on stuff, by his own admission. He’d tear
it up.” Johnson added that he thinks Krstic will
eventually give in to temptation and drive the
Demon at some point.
He should enjoy it when he does, given
the power from the Hemi breathing
through a BBK Mopar throttle body
and exhausting through TTI headers
and custom 3-inch pipes with
Flowmaster mufflers. Krstic went
old-school for the tranny,
putting in a 727 rather
than a more modern
overdrive automatic. It
