1972 Mr. Norm’s GSS Demon – B5 Blue Survivor*
Altogether, I have owned 3 Mr. Norm 1972 GSS Demons. In 1972, Mr. Norm supercharged the 340 Demons. My first 72 GSS Demon was my Petty Blue one. When I bought that car, it was in rough shape, but I restored it to a beautiful condition.
I heard about this car from a friend. He had heard about it and figured that it would be a good car for me. The car had been owned by a drag racer in the Moline, IL area. He had this car for a long time, and it was an unrestored all original car. He died in a racing accident (not in this car) and his widow had kept the car for a few years. She was finally ready to get rid of it.
I drove to see the car with 3 others from the restoration shop I was using at the time. It was about 100 miles away, and we took my car and also a truck and trailer. We parked the truck and trailer at a shopping center and went to see the car at her house. The car was everything I hoped it would be. It was a real survivor with the original motor and supercharger. It was in really great condition for its age, but had all the signs of the originality. The decals were worn but intact and you could even see where the metal seam sealer had shrunk. I decided on the spot that I wanted the car, and we struck a deal. I had brought a cashier’s check with me and had extra cash in my pocket to complete the deal on the spot. After we finished the deal, I called up the truck and trailer and they came. We loaded up and took it back to the restoration shop.
I have 2 good stories about the car. After the car was taken to the restoration shop, it was parked and left for a couple weeks. I got a call from the shop owner telling me that they had lost the key and couldn’t get in. They were able to get in through the trunk, remove the back seat and climb in that way. While they were doing that, they found a 2nd build sheet for the car. They later found the key, but if they hadn’t lost it, I wouldn’t have known about the 2nd build sheet.
One other thing was odd. The back of the Mr. Norm cars always had a Grand Spaulding Dodge decal put on the trunk deck. On this car, the decal was there, but the Grand Spaulding part had been removed, but you could still see the Dodge part. You could also see the outline in the paint of where the rest of the decal had been. I later found out that the original owner had torn off the rest of the decal. When he got the car, it had a problem with the carburetor floats getting crushed by the pressure from the supercharger. When that happened, the engine would flood with gas. It was a common problem, and it happened to him a couple times. Mr. Norm finally figured out that he needed to replace the standard floats with epoxy ones, and that fixed the problem. The original owner was so unhappy about it that he pulled off the Grand Spaulding part of the decal because he didn’t want to advertise for them.
Muscle Car Review 09-98 2-page
Mopar Muscle 05-97 2-page
High Performance Mopar 01-96 2-page
MCG 12-95 2-page
