Worth The Chase: Alex Hays’ Turbo-LS ’71 Dodge Demon

Alex Hays chased his 1971 Dodge Demon across three states and through several owners, sold a prized car in the process, missed his opportunity more than once, and needed a timely Facebook Marketplace discovery by his father before the classic Mopar finally landed in his South Carolina shop.

The Demon caught Hays’ attention when it was first advertised in Maryland in 2023, having been built over several years by AJ Trott and his grandfather. With Trott and his wife expecting a child, the car was available, but Hays lacked the means to purchase it and lost track of where it went.

He remained interested because his father, Pat, owned a 1972 Demon that was a fixture of Alex’s childhood in Garden City, Michigan. A Koffel’s Place-built 440 with B1 heads and nitrous powered Pat’s Dodge to mid-nines back in the early 1990s, and he drove it extensively on the street.

“I always had a spot for A-bodies in my heart. I recall many nights watching my dad work on his Demon in the one-car garage where we lived at the time,” Hays shares. “I would be in a car seat with him driving it down Telegraph Road to Detroit Dragway, then my father’s best friend Dave would watch me while my dad was in the lanes to make a pass. I fondly remember watching him put that car on the rear bumper, and then the driveshaft broke, and it came crashing down at the 60-foot mark.”

That car disappeared, and Hays has been unable to find it, but memories kept the orange ’71 on his mind. But the car resurfaced in Virginia, was raced a few times, and was largely unchanged. Hays confirmed it was the same car.

An attempted trade went nowhere, prompting Hays to sell his 2018 Camaro ZL1 1LE to raise the money, a decision his wife, Stephanie, gives him grief over. The Camaro sold in late October, and by then the Demon had slipped away, its owner trading it and another car to an Indiana dealer for a Chevy II.

Hays resumed searching for an older drag-and-drive-style car until Pat spotted the Demon on Facebook Marketplace in Indianapolis around Thanksgiving. Alex contacted the seller, learned how it had arrived there, and offered what the previous owner had been asking; days later, the seller told him to come get it.

Pat brought his open trailer from Detroit, and Alex drove north from South Carolina, allowing them to meet at the seller’s shop and send the Demon home. “Finally, after chasing this car since 2023, I had it home in my shop,” he says. “I was ecstatic, to say the least.”

The Demon also filled a practical need, as Hays’ 1992 radial-tire Fox body Mustang necessitates a crew and considerable planning to get everyone together to test or attend a local race. “The Mustang sits a lot more work than I like and I get bored because of it,” he explains. He wanted another car he could use more often and, as a Keizer Racing Wheels dealer, a development vehicle to showcase the company’s products.

Finished in bright Audi Glut Orange and satin black, the Demon was already a serious piece when he got it, with an 8.50-cert cage completed by Jason Brazzel at BPF, while Matt Smith at Performance Fab continues refining the chassis. Its suspension pairs an RMS AlterKtion k-member and double A-arms with Santhuff double-adjustable shocks, with a triangulated Performance Fab four-link and Santhuff shocks out back.

Jonathan “Grubb Worm” Atkins at JA Competition Engines assembled the short-deck 388-cubic-inch LSX mill, fitted with a Manley billet crankshaft, Oliver rods, Wiseco pistons, and PRC heads. A Forced Inductions 88mm S400 turbo supplies the boost, helping produce an impressive 1,492 horsepower to the wheels. A lockup-equipped Coan Turbo 400 and converter combination transfers power to a Performance Fab 9-inch rearend.

Devin Vanderhoof at HCR Innovations wired the car around a Holley Dominator, and Peter Harrell at HED handles the tuning.

Polished and chrome Keizer Veelvoud wheels — 17s up front and 15×13 double beadlocks in the rear — wrapped in Hoosier frontrunners and DR3 275 drag radials, respectively, complete the package. Strange four-piston steel race brakes are on all four corners.

Hays values the classic old iron and the versatility of the car. “It’s a true driver, doesn’t overheat, doesn’t burn oil, and rides relatively well,” Hays explains. “When you’re out in a real nice old muscle car, everyone breaks their necks looking. Every time I stop to get fuel, I get stopped by someone who wants to ask questions about the car.”

The car offers Hays a respite from his emergency-department job. “Working on race cars and street cars gives me peace; I can completely block out the world,” he says. “The track is all business, though. You will hardly find me having a ‘good time.’ Even when I win, it’s all competition to me, and I don’t take it lightly. This is more of a lifestyle to me than anything else.”

On the first rip, Hays went 5.22 in an aborted pass and then broke the anti-roll bar the next one. “The car should go deep in the fours once I can keep the front end down and put some power to it,” he shares.

Hays is planning some local street car shootout list racing every other Thursday close to home, and the Southeast Street-N-Yeet drag-and-drive down South in October.