This compact 1971 Dodge Dart carried a name so controversial that religious groups protested the Dodge brand over it. Despite costing barely half what a big-block Charger did, the Demon 340 could embarrass larger muscle cars at the strip. Here’s the story behind one of Mopar’s most divisive nameplates.
Two Dodge Darts!!
A muscle car doesn’t need a Hemi to make history — sometimes all it takes is a name nobody could stop talking about. The 1971 Dodge Dart lineup included a compact, budget-friendly variant that punched well above its price tag, embarrassing bigger, more expensive machines at the strip. But the car pictured here wasn’t just fast — it carried a name so controversial that religious groups actively protested the brand over it. Priced at barely over half what a big-block Charger cost, this small Dodge proved that displacement wasn’t everything. What made this compact muscle car so divisive that Dodge eventually had to kill it off?
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Small Car, Real Numbers
By 1971, Dodge had reshaped its Dart lineup to include the Demon 340, a compact alternative to the heavier, pricier Charger and Challenger at a moment when rising insurance costs were starting to squeeze traditional muscle cars out of reach. Under the hood sat a 340 cubic inch V8 rated at 275 horsepower, built with a hot cam, hydraulic lifters, and a a compression ratio right around 10.3:1, all stuffed into a car that weighed around 3,200 pounds. The result was a genuine performer: period road tests recorded 0-60 mph in 6.5 seconds and a quarter mile of 14.49 seconds at 98.25 mph, numbers that gave far larger big-block cars a real fight.
The Name That Caused a Backlash
At just over $2,721 new, the Demon 340 undercut nearly every other muscle car on the market, but Dodge’s choice of name and a grinning devil-with-pitchfork emblem drew genuine backlash from religious groups, some of whom organized protests against the car and the Dodge brand itself. Production reflected the car’s niche appeal — only 10,098 Demon 340s were built in 1971, dwarfed by 69,861 base Demons and 102,480 Dart Swingers built the same year. The controversy, combined with softening demand, helped end the Demon nameplate after the 1972 model year, but its rarity and performance have made surviving examples like these two Darts genuinely sought-after today.
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