First Test: 2006 Dodge Charger and Dodge Viper
Couped Up: Super8 Hemi concept
by Frank Markus
The earliest sketches of what's become the Charger originated as a coupe in Freeman Thomas's Pacifica studio in Carlsbad, California. This extreme, wheels-to-the-corners design featured a long front end similar to the Charger's leading back to an almost Audi TT-like roofline and bobbed tail. It grabbed design VP Trevor Creed's attention, and he ordered it transformed into a sedan (the market for large coupes is moribund). The first draft of this transformation was the rather poorly received Super8 Hemi show car of 2001. Meanwhile, in the studio next door, a separate team was attempting to adapt the highly acclaimed 1999 Charger concept to fit the LX architecture. That low and wide concept didn't translate well to the big-shouldered LX architecture, and, in any case, its look was too retro.
A Tale of Two Race cars
by Frank Markus
The original Viper GTS coupe was an RT/10 with a full roof and hatch that also was available with a club-racer ACR package or as a full-blown race car, dubbed GTS-R, capable of dominating the American Le Mans series. In 2003, the SRT10 roadster arrived without a coupe sibling, but a race-only Competition Coupe based on the GTS/R concept car of 2000 became available to privateers competing in Speed World Challenge, Grand American Cup, and other series. With no corresponding street-legal variant, it wasn't homologated for American Le Mans. Relative to the SRT10, the Comp Coupe's wheelbase was three inches longer, track two inches wider, the doors were longer, the body was carbon fiber, and the engine made 520 horses and 540 pound-feet. Some 50 coupes were sold for about $150,000 each. The new roadster-based coupe will permit owners to compete in grassroots SCCA-type events. Whether it'll eventually be approved for ALMS or other series remains to be seen.