1970 Dodge Challenger T/a on 2040-cars

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Ralph Gilles publishes futuristic sketch that lampoons yellow spoiler guards

FCA design boss Ralph Gilles doesn't want to see yellow spoiler guards on future Dodge models. He joined the chorus of internet users urging Challenger and Charger owners to remove the protective strips installed at the factory by telling the story behind a futuristic-looking design sketch on his official Instagram account. The stylist explained the coronavirus work-from-home order isn't stopping his team from organizing design reviews. And, while he's not normally allowed to post images of future products on social media, he decided to make an exception. "This experimental design of a Dodge of the future fell on the cutting room floor ... because the designer decided to make the yellow spoiler guards a permanent part of the theme," he wrote. This isn't the first time Dodge has spoken out against owners who decided to keep the yellow spoiler guards on their car. The company even recently decided to make them pink to curb their popularity. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Looking beyond the spoiler's yellow accents, the sketch depicts what appears to be a coupe with a front end that shares very few styling cues with Dodge's current design language. The round headlights seen on cars like the Challenger are replaced by ultra-thin LED lines, the grille is little more than a gap, and there's a gaping air vent right below it. The entire front fascia is painted black, a look oddly reminiscent of SEAT's Bocanegra models. Sculpted sides, wheels that stick out of the wheel arches, and a glass roof add a finishing touch to the design. Gilles only posted one sketch, so we don't know what the rear end looks like. His team is busily designing the next-generation Challenger, tentatively due out by 2023, but we don't expect it will look like the sketch that surfaced on Instagram. Mark Trostle, Dodge's head of design, previously affirmed the retro lines are here to stay. The four-door Charger is due for a makeover, too, and its design isn't as firmly anchored to tradition as the Challenger's. Time will tell whether the sketch subtly previews the direction Dodge is taking the model in. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.    

Junkyard 1983 Dodge Rampage has Franco-American roots

Lee Iacocca and the K-Cars get most of the credit for saving Chrysler after the company's 1979 bailout by the US government, but the success of the Simca-derived Omnirizon platform was a large, if overlooked, component of Chrysler's early-1980s resurgence. The Dodge Omni and Plymouth Horizon were sold in the United States for the 1978 through 1990 model years, and variants included the 1983-1987 Dodge Charger and the Rampage, this well-worn example of which I spotted in a Denver self-service wrecking yard last week. The early Omnirizons came with a Volkswagen-sourced 1.7-liter engine, but all of the Rampage pickups (and their near-identical Plymouth Scamp siblings) came from the factory with a 2.2-liter K-Car engine making 96 horses. This truck has a 4-speed manual transmission, which would have made it reasonably quick by Malaise Era standards. This one had plenty of body filler and rust, even before the crash that sent it on that final tow-truck ride to this place, so it wouldn't have been worth restoring. Still, we can hope that some of its parts will live on in other L-body trucks. Related Video: Featured Gallery Junked 1983 Dodge Rampage in Denver View 16 Photos Chrysler Dodge Automotive History Truck Classics dodge rampage

Dodge Durango Shaker concept: A 392 V8 in front of six Viper seats

When done right, a parts-bin special can be a beautiful thing. This Dodge Durango Shaker concept for the 2016 SEMA show is one such vehicle, and it's easily our favorite Mopar debuting in Vegas. The key, of course, is pulling from the right bins. Take a tour and you'll see Charger, Challenger, and Viper pieces grafted onto this slick crossover. The featured special part is the big, 6.4-liter 392 Hemi V8 that's been dropped under the hood; it's sourced from the SRT Challenger and Charger where it makes 485 horsepower and 475 pound-feet of torque. With that in place, the fabricators cut a big hole in that hood for the Challenger's awesome optional shaker scoop. It wasn't an easy installation; it required a custom spacer for the intake to make sure everything lined up with the hole properly. View 17 Photos Apparently there were some Viper seats lying around, so six of them were stuck into this Durango. Makes sense. It does lose a bit of people-carrying capability as a result, since only two seats fit in each row, and the seats don't fold for extra cargo room. A Dodge spokesperson attested to the fact that all three rows are usable, if not totally comfortable. But then stock third-row seats aren't always that comfortable anyway. Seriously, though, Viper seats. We don't care how comfortable or usable the result is. Although you might not give it a second thought, even the fuel filler needed some special attention. This piece was also lifted from a Dodge Challenger, and it was taken along with the surrounding sheet metal. Because of the different orientation of the filler cover on the Challenger, the builders decided the easiest way to get it to fit was to chop the fuel filler section out and weld it onto the Durango. The designers also put a little blue Stig on the cover. And those are just the cool parts that were hard to install. This Durango features plenty of other slick details, like the custom bumpers, fender flares, and side skirts. Everything is painted B5 Blue with matte black and carbon accents all around. Up front, the bumper hides a pair of fog lights stolen from a Challenger Hellcat – and yes, they're the ones with intakes in the middle. The grille is also a custom piece, losing the standard crosshair design for better airflow. The fender flares cover up some seriously wide, 305-section tires at all four corners, which are hauled down by Hellcat brakes. The rear bumper bumper contains a stylish center-exit exhaust with dual tips.