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Ralph Gilles shares how he imagined a modern-day Dodge Rampage in 1995

Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) design boss Ralph Gilles kicked off the company's 24-hour Design Sketch Battle by sharing an image of a mini-truck he drew in 1995. Called Tomahawk GTR, it never reached production. Gilles sketched the Tomahawk GTR when he was about 25 years old. He was a designer at the time, he wasn't promoted to a managerial position until 1998, and his obsession with performance already permeated the cars he drew. The Tomahawk GTR takes the form of a two-door, two-seater pickup with a muscular-looking front end, pronounced wheel arches, and a sizable spoiler over the cargo box. The wheels look almost Porsche-like. "I guess I was dreaming up a modern-day Rampage back then. This must be what happens when a want-to-be racer draws a truck," he wrote on his Instagram page, referencing the small, unibody pickup Dodge made from 1982 to 1984. His sketch moved the company's then-current design language in a sportier direction. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Dodge hasn't released a successor to the Rampage yet, at least not in the United States. The Fiat-based 700 that sister company Ram sells in Mexico is the closest thing available in 2020, but there's no indication it will be sold in America anytime soon. The firm used the Tomahawk name on a Viper-powered motorcycle concept introduced in 2003, and it dusted it off again for an SRT design study created in 2015 for Gran Turismo.  We may see a Rampage for the 2020s emerge from the Design Sketch Battle. The photo accompanying FCA's announcement depicted a Dodge Challenger Hellcat turned into a pickup and fitted with a front end borrowed from a Ram 1500. The contest's winners will be announced on Instagram today.  Instagram has recently turned into a window through which enthusiasts can peek into Gilles' mind. He published a futuristic-looking sketch in March 2020 that poked fun at the Charger and Challenger owners who leave the yellow protective stripes on their car while potentially shedding light on Dodge's next design language. Design/Style Dodge Truck

Widebody Challenger Hellcat spotted with no camouflage

Well this is a mightily mysterious muscle car. One of our photographers caught this Dodge Challenger out testing without any camouflage. At first glance it looks like an SRT Demon, since it has the same widebody flares and front spoiler of the hellacious Challenger. However, the hood is from a garden-variety Hellcat (as if such a thing existed...), the rear spoiler has an SRT Hellcat badge, and the wheels don't come from the kitty or the Hellspawn. We have two theories as to what this SRT mishmash may be. Our first is that this is perhaps a next-generation Hellcat that takes advantage of some of the Demon's developments. It could have a more potent engine under the hood, perhaps with the extra fuel pumps and air-conditioned intercooler, along with the Demon's beefier driveline. It would be a way to keep the Hellcat relevant, and a way for people who might miss out on the one-year-only Demon to get the next closest thing. Our other theory is that this is an all-wheel-drive Hellcat. The wide fender flares and chin spoiler appeared on an all-wheel-drive Challenger concept before they made their way to the Demon. And with the introduction of the Grand Cherokee Trackhawk, we know that Mopar has an all-wheel-drive system that can handle the grunt of the 707-horsepower Hellcat mill. If an all-wheel-drive Hellcat is in the cards, it would be another way to keep the Hellcat line fresh without too much investment, and would be a treat for fans of the old all-wheel-drive concept. It would also probably be a great seller here in snowy Michigan. Oh, and it would certainly post some amazing 0-30 acceleration times. Related Video:

Hellcat no help to Fiat-Chrysler's bottom-of-the-pile mpg average

What, you expected the "fastest muscle car ever" to help fleetwide fuel economy? Nope, don't think that's going to happen. That means Fiat Chrysler will likely to continue to languish at the bottom of the heap when it comes to fleetwide fuel economy among the largest automakers serving the US, especially as the automaker starts to sell its Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat. A few hundred Fiat 500E electric vehicles aren't going to turn the trend around. See, Chrysler has once again finished at the bottom of the list when it came to fleetwide fuel economy among automakers for 2014 model-year vehicles, according to a preliminary study by the US Environmental Protection Agency. Chrysler and Fiat had an average of 21.1 miles per gallon. That substantially lagged the overall 24.2 mpg average, but it was an increase from the company's 20.9 mpg average last year and the 20.1 mpg average two years prior. For 2014, General Motors had the second-worst fleetwide fuel economy at an even 22 mpg. Fiat Chrysler does say it's working on improving its fuel economy, according to Automotive News. The company plans on making its inline-four-cylinder and V6 engines smaller, and will sell more vehicles with eight- and nine-speed transmissions. Heck, there's even a plug-in hybrid version of the Chrysler Town & Country minivan in the works for late 2015, and the company can tout fuel-efficiency gains with the Chrysler 200 and Jeep Cherokee. We would be remiss if we didn't note that, compared to its muscle-car forefathers, the Hellcat actually performs pretty well at the pump. Last month, word got out that the 2015 Challenger Hellcat, equipped either with a six-speed manual or an eight-speed automatic transmission, got a combined fuel economy of 16 mpg. Heck, the automatic-tranny version got 22 mpg on the highway. And that's for a car with 707 horsepower and a 10-second quarter-mile time. Still, with the pedal floored, the car can burn a gallon and a half of fuel per minute. Ouch.