Dodge Challenger Scat Pack Convertible—Good Buy, or Goodbye?
Scat Pack Mopar looks great as a convertible with the top down, but the top-up look is a little odd and chassis stiffness is a concern.
While flipping through the used Dodge Challenger listings on CarGurus.com, we came across this unusual R/T Scat Pack Widebody, which is being sold by Keffer Dodge in North Carolina. As you can see in the pictures, this Challenger is a convertible, but Dodge didn’t make any convertible muscle cars in the current era, so this Mopar muscle car has been transformed via the aftermarket.
The car is listed as used, even though the listing says that it only has one mile on the odometer, but with a price of $63,995, cutting the roof off of this Challenger Scat Pack Widebody added a whole lot of cash to the bottom line.
Modern Challenger Convertible
While the sale listing on this unique Dodge Challenger has all of the basic information that you could want on the car when it came from the factory, there is literally no mention of the convertible conversion. In fact, it doesn’t state that this car is a convertible in the title, so we don’t know what company converted this Mopar muscle car from a coupe to a rag top.
The most popular convertible conversion company is Drop Top Customs and we know for a fact that they have built more than a few modern Dodge Challengers, but we don’t know for certain if this is their work. In any case, it is clear that someone had the steel roof cut off of this car, replacing it with a black canvas convertible top.
Questionable Upgrade
While we have little doubt that cruising around in this Challenger Scat Pack convertible on a sunny day is a fantastic experience, we have to wonder how this modification impacts the chassis rigidity of the big Dodge muscle car. The roof on these cars is a key component in chassis stiffness, so by removing it, you are effectively weakening the chassis. The conversion company may add reinforcements to the undercarriage to prevent the chassis from being compromised during years of driving, but those items add weight to an already heavy car.
We don’t question the safety of this conversion, as it wouldn’t be legal if it were found to make the cars unsafe, but in the long run, we have to wonder how cutting the roof away will affect the structural durability over the course of 10 years of spirited driving.
More importantly, while this Challenger looks great with the top down, the look of the car is a bit odd with the top up, especially across the back window, where the top doesn’t appear to fit correctly.
Big Price for the Drop Top
Aside from the aftermarket convertible package, this is your average 2019 Challenger R/T Scat Pack Widebody with the 392-cubic inch Hemi, the 8-speed automatic transmission and the basic interior features. It appears that the only options added to this car at the factory are the Alpine sound system and the automatic transmission, so when this car shipped to the dealership, it had an MSRP of roughly $49,000.
The car is currently listed as used for $63,995, so the convertible conversion package added about $15,000 to the bottom line. That is a big chunk of money to have someone cut the roof off of your Challenger and add a folding canvas top, but if you are dead-set on having a 485-horsepower Dodge muscle car with a convertible top, buying a modified machine like this one is the easiest route.
Of course, you can also buy a new Dodge Challenger and send it away to a company that will transform it into a convertible, but in the end, you are likely to end up paying more.
Photos: Keffer Dodge
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