SEMA 2008: Charger Coupe shows up in General Lee trim
by Frank Filipponio on Nov 8th 2008 at 7:06PM 
Click above for high-res gallery of the Charger Coupe
We had heard rumors that there was going to be a Dodge Charger Coupe at SEMA this year. We had hoped it would be something like the Charger show car from several years ago, the black one that looked a lot like the bad guy's car in Bullitt. In fact, that car was supposed to be made and shown at SEMA, but we never tracked it down. What we did find was probably just as good. If it wasn't going to be black, it might as well have been orange, and orange it was. Orange with a black confederate flag on the roof and a big "01" on the doors. Yep, it was the General Lee. In a year when we saw a Fast and Furious real Charger, a Bullitt movie Mustang, the Ecto-1 from Ghostbusters, and a smart fortwo that had made a trip to the Batcave, it was probably inevitable that we would find the General amidst all of the Challengers and other MOPARS on display. Not that we're complaining or anything.
Gallery: SEMA 2008: General Lee Charger Coupe
Photos copyright ©2008 Frank Filipponio/Weblogs, Inc.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Level 5 12:07PM (11/09/2008)
Sooo.. I mean what, is this a Challenger body with a Charger front and rear conversion? Or a REALLY hacked Charger 4-door with the body lopped in half?
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Eek 12:19PM (11/09/2008)
This is an actual hacked up 4-door charger. It was at the 2005 SEMA show too, which was, obviously, before the current Challenger showed up.
RIFRAF 12:21PM (11/10/2008)
Yeah the car has been around for a couple of years. The guys over at West Coast created it. If you've seen their show Street Customs on TLC last year, you would see the car in the opening credits and in several of the episodes.
Eek 12:13PM (11/09/2008)
I like this car, it's a shame that Dodge never made an actual Charger coupe like this.
Also, this is not this cars first trip to SEMA; it's a couple years old.
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dachshundtooateez 2:06PM (11/09/2008)
...The side view shows that off as one bulgy, slab-sided car... Not that a Charger sedan isn't, but without much to distract/break up the monotony...
At least it can distract those desperate to hang on to discarded bits of pop culture in that configuration. Anyway, there's not as much of a difference between Challenger/hacked up Charger to begin with, so.
The wheels would look good on something else, however.
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fixitfixitstop 8:17PM (11/09/2008)
I guess I like bulgy, slab-sided cars then.
jv2k 3:35PM (11/09/2008)
Looks kinda like an old film noire mobster car.
Only orange.
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RockStoneSteel 4:22PM (11/09/2008)
While this looks infinitely better than the Charger sedan, I agree with the above commenter that it is a bit thick with a slab-sided appearance. Same goes for the new charger. These vehicles would look so much better if they were leaned out and trimmed up a bit both in length and girth. They are just too thick from the base of the windows to the rocker panels.
The whole concept of bringing back the Charger as a sedan caused me to lose total respect for Chrysler. It would be like a 4 door Mustang or Corvette. While the current Charger may be a fine car (or not), they should have put a different name on it or not made it at all. The past decade had too many automakers obsessed with making 4 door sedans and three row SUVs while totally neglecting the 2 door coupe and hatch market.
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Ohso Clutch 7:11PM (11/09/2008)
Nice effort considering what they had to work with.
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Torrent 8:50PM (11/09/2008)
Nice. I think it would do well in production. Maybe if they made it, we could get a RWD Impala Coupe
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mkevin88 1:31AM (11/10/2008)
i've always thought a charger would look great as a coupe....but this one doesnt seem right :-/
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TurboGreg 2:08AM (11/10/2008)
This car was showcased at SEMA several years ago. It was done by West Coast Customs. Really nice job on it too..
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Level 5 12:33PM (11/10/2008)
Hmm... after thinking about my comment above, I wonder if there's any possibility of a Charger Conversion Kit for the 09 Challenger? I think if you slapped some HID projectors in the SRT-8 Charger front end it would look plain SWEET on the Challenger.
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moparman 1:12AM (11/20/2008)
Sorry, but it would take a few more "hacks" to make it look close enough to a '69 to pull off a "general lee" look. The effort is applauded, and the paint job seems to be good quality work, but with that hideous dode truck front end still there and no scallops in the doors, it's just a pubic hair off from making it, in my book.
I sure wish people would get over the whole confederate flag thing. Making it black takes away from the look of the car. And if you think the flag is racist, oh gee not jsut the confederate flag, but a black one at that.
I liked what was done with the one that got built for Kenny Wayne Shepard.
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