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 "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. "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."

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