First Look: Dodge Challenger & Chrysler Imperial
 

First Look: Dodge Challenger & Chrysler Imperial
American Idols: Chrysler Design celebrates two iconic classics with a show-stopping pair of dream machines
By Todd Lassa

Motor Trend

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.