CHRYSLER GROUP
Rethought, reworked,
reproportioned and redesigned, the Challenger concept car offers iconic a
HEMI-powered performance coupe derived from a classic American muscle
car
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Dodge 2006 Challenger Concept Flexes Some Muscle
In creating the
new Dodge Challenger concept car the designers at Chrysler Groups 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 Groups 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 brands 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 minds eye - a vehicle without the imperfections
like the old cars 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 cars 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 wasnt
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 twodoor
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, didnt 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, lets-get-in-andgo 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
drivers 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 cars 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 didnt
offer much support for aggressive driving, the front seats in the Challenger
concept car boast hefty bolsters much like those found on Dodges famed
SRT series cars. The trim covers horizontal pleats or fales
provide just a hint of that 70s look. |
READER COMMENTS
CHRYSLER GROUP
DaimlerChrysler Communications,
January 08, 2006 |
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