Custom Charger from the eighth Fast and Furious movie packs a fake jet engine and a real Chevy engine.
There are multiple cars on display at the 2018 SEMA Showthat have been featured in movies, but few are as unique or as fast as the custom Dodge Charger shown above, driven by Vin Diesel‘s character Dominic Toretto in “The Fate of the Furious”. From the front, the car looks like a uniquely reinforced, widebody-converted classic muscle car, but when you get around back, it really gets good.
The Ice Charger has a compact turbine engine mounted where the trunk had been, allowing it to rocket across a frozen lake late in the movie, but it is not functional. What is functional is the built LS crate engine under the hood and the high performance all-wheel-drive system that allowed these cars to do all of their own stunts.
Ice Charger
The car shown here is a modified second generation Dodge Charger with front end of a 1970 model and the rear end of a 1968 model. It also has a custom widebody setup over gigantic wheels and tires, windows that are framed into place, a prominent rear diffuser, a gutted interior and, most importantly, a fake turbine engine in the trunk.
AWD Performance
While most Hollywood cars are all show and no go, the Ice Charger was built to perform some on-ice stunts, so while the turbine engine is fake, this classic Dodge muscle car needed big power. To keep build costs low, this car is powered by a Chevrolet LS crate engine that produces around 500 horsepower, but it needed more than power.
To perform stunts on the ice, it needed to be able to get traction, so this car is equipped with a high performance all-wheel-drive system. To make this setup fit, the engine is mounted much further back than the stock Dodge engine was, allowing the front axle assembly to fit in front of the engine rather than under it. This preserves the low, aggressive stance of the classic muscle car while offering the traction needed to serve as a stunt vehicle.
The Ice Charger has proven to be so popular that Jada Toys has made a small scale toy of it and at the SEMA Show, this unique Mopar muscle car is on display in the toy company’s booth.
"Before I was old enough to walk, my dad was taking me to various types of racing events, from local drag racing to the Daytona 500," says Patrick Rall, a lifetime automotive expert, diehard Dodge fan, and respected auto journalist for over 10 years. "He owned a repair shop and had a variety of performance cars when I was young, but by the time I was 16, he was ready to build me my first drag car – a 1983 Dodge Mirada that ran low 12s. I spent 10 years traveling around the country, racing with my dad by my side. While we live in different areas of the country, my dad still drag races at 80 years old in the car that he built when I was 16 while I race other vehicles, including my 2017 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat and my 1972 Dodge Demon 340.
"Although I went to college for accounting, my time in my dad’s shop growing up allowed me the knowledge to spend time working as a mechanic before getting my accounting degree, at which point I worked in the office of a dealership group. While I was working in the accounting world, I continued racing and taking pictures of cars at the track. Over time, I began showing off those pictures online and that led to my writing.
"Ten years ago, I left the accounting world to become a full-time automotive writer and I am living proof that if you love what you do, you will never “work” a day in your life," adds Rall, who has clocked in time as an auto mechanic, longtime drag racer and now automotive journalist who contributes to nearly a dozen popular auto websites dedicated to fellow enthusiasts.
"I love covering the automotive industry and everything involved with the job. I was fortunate to turn my love of the automotive world into a hobby that led to an exciting career, with my past of working as a mechanic and as an accountant in the automotive world provides me with a unique perspective of the industry.
"My experience drag racing for more than 20 years coupled with a newfound interest in road racing over the past decade allows me to push performance cars to their limit, while my role as a horse stable manager gives me vast experience towing and hauling with all of the newest trucks on the market today.
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