The Future Is Quickly Closing In...Oh Yeah!

[Mr.DJ]

The following is a retintroduction of a February 2006 article from Motor Trend...

First Look: Dodge Challenger & Chrysler Imperial

~ American Idols: Chrysler Design celebrates two iconic classics with a show-stopping pair of dream machines ~

No manufacturer has played the concept-car game better than Chrysler. It reinvigorated the notion of dream machines with the late-1980s Portofino design study and hasn't stopped since. The Tom Gale era ushered in the notion of "hiding the future in plain sight," and it's worked time and again. Gale, Chrysler's design chief at the time, also demonstrated there's no reason not to make hot-looking cars and trucks--something the American car business forgot about for a while.

Some of these turntable toys have been flights of fancy; others have foretold, or led to, production models such as the Viper, PT Cruiser, and hot-selling 300. Chrysler design has set a high watermark and taps into two more of its most venerable nameplates for 2006 concept-car action: Challenger and Imperial.

The reborn Ford Mustang has demonstrated the ponycar is alive and well in the 21st century. And when you have a ponycar with the street cred of the 1970 Challenger in your portfolio, you'd be silly not to ask "what if?" with a concept car. Meanwhile, the imposing Chrysler Imperial begs the tantalizing question: Can America build a classically American luxury car once again?

Here's the inside line on two of the 2006 auto-show season's most significant concepts and their chances of showing up at a Chrysler or Dodge dealer in the future.

300. Charger. Magnum. The Hemi V-8. Legendary cars and engines from Chrysler's past recast for use in this millennium. You could say they're heritage-inspired or even retro. More correct, they're timeless themes that, when delivered in a modern package, are as relevant today as they were when new, be they the 1950s, 1960s, or 1970s. It was only a question of time until Chrysler pulled the 1970-1974 Dodge Challenger off the rack to give it a new lease on life.

"We have the ingredients we had in 1970--again," says Tom Tremont, Chrysler's vice president of advance design. "We've got a great rear-drive platform in the LX [300, Charger, et al.]; we've got a powerful Hemi V-8. So we looked at what the Challenger was all about and what it meant at the time and decided to take advantage of that for this concept." Look at the new car's proportioning, window shapes, muscled flanks, aggressive grille and tail, and there's no question as to what it is or where it came from.

There are plenty of reasons why the time is right for a new Chrysler muscle coupe. The Plymouth Barracuda and the original Dodge Challenger top today's most-wanted list of collectible--and expensive--American musclecars, especially the rare Hemi-powered models. And don't underestimate the popularity enjoyed by the Mustang. Expect more of the same when the new Shelby GT500 breaks ground. The Pontiac GTO got off to a slow start, but has since gained traction in the marketplace. Planning for the next one is already underway.


"When we began this project, we thought maybe we should do a modern musclecar," Tremont says. "It wasn't a Challenger in the beginning," adds Kevin Verduyn, chief designer at Chrysler's Pacifica design studio in California. "We have this exceptionally competent LX platform, and we were speculating about what we could do with it. We wondered what if we shortened the wheelbase and could do a sports car or something like that on it.

"Mike Castiglione," Tremont continues, "who ultimately led the exterior design effort, had some renderings that paid homage to the classic Dodge Challenger, but in a fresh way. So we said, 'Okay, if we're gonna do this, let's do it this way and not try to reinvent something that says it's a Challenger, but really isn't.' Once we got that in our sights, we knew exactly where we had to take things." The project began in earnest in January 2004.

~ The cues are similar, but this Challenger's proportions are different from those of the original (above). ~

This concept is built on a standard LX sedan platform. The wheelbase has been shortened to 116 inches (from 120), but the width, the rest of the chassis architecture, and the suspension are production spec. "The old cars are attractive, but when you look at them, you realize how tucked under they were. The sills were narrow, so the tires were buried within the bodywork. The wheels and tires were so small back then, too. But now we can fix all that."

The look is familiar, but the proportions have changed. The Challenger concept is thicker around the middle than the narrow-waisted 1970-1974 versions. "The original B cars were horizontal," says Castiglione. "This platform is taller, and the touchdown point of the windshield is much farther forward. The LX's H-point is higher, too. We could've made the overhangs shorter, but it wouldn't have looked right. We had to play with the line work, particularly on the side, to get the look. I view musclecars as masculine, and some of the detailing supports that. For example, the LED headlights to my mind resemble a six-shooter." What looks like a classic Challenger's flat-black hood graphics are in fact the unpainted surface of the concept's carbon-fiber hood. Rolling stock consists of massive 20x9.0-inch custom-made alloys wearing 255/40R20 rubber.

Oh, and yes: It's got a Hemi. Although there were many great powertrain offerings back in the musclecar days--the high-winding 340, the big-block 440, the 440 Six-Pack with its three two-barrel carburetors--there was no reason to go with anything other than today's biggest and best. The gang at Chrysler's Street and Racing Technology group pitched in a 6.1-liter, 425-horsepower version of the new Hemi. It's backed by a Viper-spec six-speed manual transmission, wearing an appropriately 1970s-looking Hurst-style "Pistol Grip" shifter. The exterior color? Hemi Orange, of course.

Pacifica's Alan Barrington was responsible for the interior design. "Key elements that made the original Challenger different from the Camaro and Mustang of the day include the four side-by-side gauges in the instrument panel, the shifter, the trapezoidal forms on the door panels, the three-spoke steering wheel. I tried to capture all that, but in a more modern way. We used more modern materials, such as the milled aluminum that shows through the rubber covering. The far-left gauge is a telemetry computer that shows quarter mile and ET and max rpm for each gear."

Can Chrysler build this new-era Challenger? Yes. It's based on a lot of existing hardware. Will it? That's a tougher call. But we do know Chrysler's LX platform cars will be switched to an updated rear-drive platform (codenamed LY) for the 2010 model year, which makes the decision to spin off a Challenger variant more cost effective because tooling for things like wheelbase changes can be factored into the overall program. So if enough of you like what you see here, you could be driving it in 2009. (N. Matt Stone)

Read more here
__________________

Source: Motor Trend
By Todd Lassa
Photography by Jerry Garns
Motor Trend, February 2006

[rlgiv]

Yeay!!!!!!!!!!!!! There gonna do it. I have been waiting for years for this to happen.

[Dakrt59]

Watching the press conference now !

AWESOME !