Challenger. | FerrariChat

Challenger.

Discussion in 'American Muscle' started by Fan512bbi, Jan 10, 2006.

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

  1. Fan512bbi

    Fan512bbi Two Time F1 World Champ
    BANNED

    Mar 25, 2004
    20,938
    Wales-UK
    Full Name:
    Steve.
    #1 Fan512bbi, Jan 10, 2006
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 7, 2017
    In creating the new Dodge Challenger concept car the designers at Chrysler Group’s West Coast Pacifica Studio knew they had a rich heritage to draw upon.

    They also knew they had an obligation to “get it right.”

    Tasked with the enviable assignment of developing a hot-looking performance coupe using Chrysler Group’s advanced rear-wheel drive LX platform and its fabled HEMI® engine, the designers explored a variety of options, eventually gravitating to “something” for the Dodge brand — appropriate given that brand’s bold performance image. The idea of reinventing the highly-collectible Challenger quickly came to mind.

    Eager to begin, the designers drew up a “short list “of the essential attributes of a muscle car: distinctly American; mega horsepower; pure, minimal, signature lines; aggressive air-grabbing grille; and bold colors and graphics.

    “Challenger draws upon the initial 1970 model as the icon of the series,” said Tom Tremont, Vice President – Advanced Vehicle Design. “The 1970 model is the most sought after by collectors. But instead of merely recreating that car, the designers endeavored to build a Challenger most people see in their mind’s eye — a vehicle without the imperfections like the old car’s tucked-under wheels, long front overhang and imperfect fits. As with all pleasurable memories, you remember the good and screen out the bad.

    “We wanted the concept car to evoke all those sweet memories … everything you thought the Challenger was, and more.”

    “During the development of the concept car,” says Micheal Castiglione, principal exterior designer, “we brought an actual 1970 Challenger into the studio. For me, that car symbolizes the most passionate era of automotive design.”

    Being key to the image, getting the right proportions was critical. The Challenger concept sits on a 116-inch wheelbase, six inches longer than the original. But its width is two inches greater, giving the concept car a squat, tougher, more purposeful persona.

    The signature side view accent line — designers call it the “thrust” line — is higher up on the body, running horizontal through the fender and door and kicking up just forward of the rear wheel.

    In section the upper and lower body surfaces intersect and fall away along this line, which has just a whisper of the original car’s coved surfacing.

    “We wanted to stay pure,” said Castiglione, “with simple, minimal line work, but with everything just right.”

    The five-spoke chrome wheels — 20-inch, front; 21-inch, rear — are set flush with the bodyside, giving the car the powerful muscular stance of a prizefighter eager to challenge the world. Wheel openings are drawn tightly against the tires, with the rearward edges trailing off. To emphasize the iconic muscularity, the designers added plan view “hip” to the rear quarters.

    One of the key characteristics of the original car the designers wanted to retain was the exceptionally wide look of both the front and back ends. To achieve this the designers increased both the front and rear tracks to 64 and 65 inches respectively, wider than the LX, wider even than the 1970 model. To realize the long horizontal hood the designers deemed essential, the front overhang was also increased.

    Both the hood and the deck lid of the Challenger concept vehicle are higher than the 1970 in order to lift and “present” the front and rear themes. The front end features the signature Dodge crossbar grille and four headlamps deeply recessed into the iconic car-wide horizontal cavity. Diagonally staggered in plan view, the outboard lamps are set forward, the “six-shooter” inboard lamps slightly rearward. At the rear, the car-wide cavity motif is repeated, encompassing a full-width neon-lit taillamp. Both the grille and the front and rear lamps are set into carbon-fiber surrounds. Like the original, slim rectangular side marker lamps define the ends of the car.

    Bumpers are clean (no guards), body-color and flush with the body. “This is something we would have loved to do on the original Challenger,” said Jeff Godshall, who was a young designer in the Dodge Exterior studio when the first Challenger was created, “but the technology just wasn’t there. With the Challenger concept, however, the Pacifica Studio designers are able to realize what we wanted in our perfect world.”

    The hood reprises the original Challenger “performance hood” and its twin diagonal scoops, now with functional butterfly-valve intakes. Designed to showcase the modern techniques used in fabricating the car, what look like painted racing stripes are actually the exposed carbon fiber of the hood material.

    The Challenger concept is a genuine four-passenger car. “You can sit up in the back seat,” said Castiglione. Compared to the original, the greenhouse is longer, the windshield and backlite faster, and the side glass narrower. All glass is set flush with the body without moldings, another touch the original designers could only wish for. The car is a genuine two-door hardtop — no B-pillar — with the belt line ramping up assertively at the quarter window just forward of the wide C-pillar.

    Exterior details one might expect, like a racing-type gas cap, hood tie-down pins, louvered backlite and bold bodyside striping, didn’t make the “cut,” the designers feeling such assorted bits would detract from the purity of the monochromatic body form. But tucked reassuringly under the rear bumper are the “gotta have” twin-rectangle pipes of the dual exhausts.

    In contrast to the bright Orange Pearl exterior, the interior is a no-nonsense, “let’s-get-in-and-go” black relieved by satin silver accents and narrow orange bands on the seat backs. “Though the 1970 model was looked to for inspiration, we wanted to capture the memory of that car, but expressed in more contemporary surfaces, materials and textures,” said Alan Barrington, principal interior designer. As with the original car, the instrumental panel pad sits high, intersected on the driver’s side by a sculpted trapezoidal cluster containing three circular in-line analog gauge openings.

    “We designed the in-your-face gauge holes to appear as if you are looking down into the engine cylinders with the head off,” relates Barrington. These are flanked outboard by a larger circular “gauge” that is actually a computer, allowing the driver to determine top overall speed, quarter-mile time and speed, and top speed for each of the gears.

    With its thick, easy-grip rim, circular hub and pierced silver spokes, the leather-wrapped steering wheel evokes the original car’s “Tuff” wheel, as does the steering column “ribbing.” The floor console, its center surface tipped toward the driver, is fitted with a proper “pistol grip” shifter shaped just right to master the quick, crisp shifts possible with the six-speed manual “tranny.”

    Inasmuch as the original Challenger was the first car to have injection-molded door trim panels (now common practice), the doors received special attention.

    “We imagined that the door panel was a billet of aluminum covered with a dark rubberized material,” Barrington relates. “Then we cut into it to create a silver trapezoidal cove for the armrest.”

    Although the flat-section bucket seats of the original Challenger didn’t offer much support for aggressive driving, the front seats in the Challenger concept car boast hefty bolsters much like those found on Dodge’s famed SRT series cars. The trim covers’ horizontal pleats or “fales” provide just a hint of that “70’s” look.

    Rethought, reworked, reproportioned and redesigned, the Challenger concept car offers iconic a HEMI-powered performance coupe derived from a classic American muscle car.
    Image Unavailable, Please Login
    Image Unavailable, Please Login
    Image Unavailable, Please Login
     
  2. njn63

    njn63 Rookie

    Nov 17, 2005
    28
    Chicago, IL
    that car is absolutly beautiful.
     
  3. SSNISTR

    SSNISTR F1 Veteran

    Feb 13, 2004
    8,046
    SFL
    Nice, but a little TO much like the orginal.
    I'll take the new Camaro.
     
  4. mkultra

    mkultra Formula 3

    Nov 3, 2004
    1,705
    Chicago, IL
    Full Name:
    MK Ultra
    is it wrong for me to be on FChat and say damn, i like it!!!?
     
  5. WJHMH

    WJHMH Two Time F1 World Champ
    Silver Subscribed

    Sep 5, 2001
    25,364
    Panther City, Texas
    Full Name:
    WJHMH
    Looks so much better than the proposed Camaro.
     
  6. Ferrari330P4

    Ferrari330P4 Formula Junior

    Aug 4, 2005
    739
    Bay Area
    Full Name:
    Karl
  7. ryalex

    ryalex Two Time F1 World Champ
    Consultant Owner

    Aug 6, 2003
    24,957
    Las Vegas, NV
    Full Name:
    Ryan Alexander
    I want one too...
     
  8. Carrera_gtcrazy

    Carrera_gtcrazy F1 Veteran

    Oct 24, 2004
    5,389
    Munich, Germany
    Full Name:
    Stephan Bauer
    That things just awesome. BUT for the first time i like GM's New Camaro a bit more.
     
  9. Hemiragtop

    Hemiragtop Karting

    Nov 5, 2004
    145
    Me too ! It will go perfectly with my 70 ragtop! [​IMG]
     
  10. Roderick

    Roderick Rookie

    Mar 27, 2005
    33
    I really like it, it's burly.
     
  11. LightGuy

    LightGuy Three Time F1 World Champ
    Silver Subscribed

    Oct 4, 2004
    39,592
    Texas
    Full Name:
    David
    How much you want to bet the end product looks nothing like the proto ?
     
  12. CMY

    CMY F1 World Champ

    Oct 15, 2004
    10,142
    Redondo Beach, CA
    Full Name:
    Chris
    #12 CMY, Jan 11, 2006
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 7, 2017
  13. rush109

    rush109 F1 Veteran

    May 26, 2005
    8,099
    Montreal, Quebec
    Full Name:
    Joshua McRae
    i love the new challenger...new road and track has an awesome article on it...the new camaro though is just as stunning, hope we see these two new cars on the streets soon..........
     
  14. DMOORE

    DMOORE Formula 3

    Aug 23, 2005
    1,720
    San Diego
    Full Name:
    Darrell
    Love it. They definately got it right.
     
  15. jeffdavison

    jeffdavison F1 Rookie
    Silver Subscribed

    Jul 29, 2002
    2,544
    Suwanee Georgia
    Full Name:
    Jeffrey Davison
    Here's hoping that Plymouth will come back out of retirement for at least a run of a Barracuda variant. WITH the 6.1 SRT8 Hemi! or better yet the SRT10 from the Viper...now THAT would be an instant classic and spawn a two year waiting list!!!!!!

    :) :) :)

    JD
     
  16. rush109

    rush109 F1 Veteran

    May 26, 2005
    8,099
    Montreal, Quebec
    Full Name:
    Joshua McRae
    omg ya....we need to see a new cuda...........
     
  17. tonyh

    tonyh F1 World Champ
    Lifetime Rossa Owner

    Dec 23, 2002
    14,372
    S W London
    Full Name:
    Tony H
    lots of retro styling going on these days; love the Dodge & Lambo.
     
  18. REMIX

    REMIX Two Time F1 World Champ

    For me the question is: what do you do when the *next* design cycle is due? Is Ford going to copy the Mustang II? They've played their hand, so what next?

    RMX
     
  19. Koby

    Koby Formula 3

    Dec 14, 2003
    2,307
    The Borough, NJ
    Full Name:
    Jason Kobies
    They got the showcar right, but let's see what happens if it makes the jump to a production model. This car looks so much like the original that if watered down for the masses it could end up an a painful mockery of the original. The Mustang lost most of it's appeal in its transition.

    I agree with CMY, this retro craze is out of hand. It's not just cars either, every movie that come out these days is a remake of something, even other recent movies. Have we officially run out of ideas?
     
  20. sampson

    sampson Karting

    Dec 22, 2004
    202
    near Detroit, MI
    Full Name:
    Matt
    That purple one may look better with white stripes.

    I love this new Challenger, I think they nailed it. If and when they make it, I'll have to find a way to get one.
     
  21. Cajun

    Cajun Formula 3

    Mar 20, 2004
    1,618
    Da BY-U
    Full Name:
    MJG
    I want mine with the biggest motor they make, with the fewest options they have, and the color...PLUM CRAZY please!!!
     
  22. CMY

    CMY F1 World Champ

    Oct 15, 2004
    10,142
    Redondo Beach, CA
    Full Name:
    Chris
    #23 CMY, Jan 12, 2006
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 7, 2017
    I suppose the world really needs a modern interpretation of the timeless "King Cobra"... You can spin the 195/70 13" tires all day long! :)
    Image Unavailable, Please Login
     
  23. CMY

    CMY F1 World Champ

    Oct 15, 2004
    10,142
    Redondo Beach, CA
    Full Name:
    Chris
    The answer to the question is that they haven't really thought out the design cycle. I'd be willing to wager that most of these cars are designed with aging baby boomers in mind- I know my own father (54) gets a wild look in his eye when you mention some of these new (old) designs, but he'd still rather have a decent 993. He had almost all of the original muscle cars when he was younger and spent his youth getting the jackassery out of his system; he's not going for a new Mustang because the cool kid in HS had one.

    It's pretty simple- car companies roll out these designs, they test well across the board, go into production and yet nobody steps up to the plate when it's on the lot. The idea of a new Camaro is far more appealing than the reality of a new Camaro. See SSR, Thunderbird, Prowler..

    The Mustang is the lone exception, IMHO. For whatever reason, Ford has some secret sauce in their marketing campaign that makes this yawn of a design appealing to everyone, not to mention fleet sales to rental companies. Maybe it's because they've never broken the love affair off, maybe it's just cheap fun.. I'm not entirely sure. They still dropped the ball by giving the car a live axle, that's for sure.

    I just would like to see some companies take a step forward in regards to design and not present us with a cartoon-like caricature of the past. The Corvette is a good representation of what I'm talking about.. It's got elements from previous generations but is far from retro (and it won't look ridiculous 20 years from now).
     
  24. DesmoDog

    DesmoDog Karting

    Jan 2, 2005
    102
    Dexter, MI USA
    Full Name:
    Craig Kenfield
    You're going to have to convince me about that. The percentage of Mustang buyers that know what a live axle is, let alone care if the car has one, can't be more than single digits... probably low single digits at that. I don't follow the market all that closely so don't take this as a flame - serious question - who else is making a rear wheel drive, V8, 300hp convertible for under $30k these days?

    FWIW: I've got a '66 Mustang convertible in my garage, 289, 4 barrel, 4-speed, triple black... and the new 'stang doesn't appeal to me any more than a lot of other cars. The Challenger concept though? I love it... qualified by I haven't seen it in person, and it's not a production car.
     

Share This Page