FCA Goes for a Drive in Its Concepts During Woodward Dream Cruise
Dodge, Ram, and Jeep bring out brightly colored, Hellcat-powered showstoppers to make the journey down Woodward Avenue.
Concept vehicles are typically a bittersweet sight. They’re boldly and unreservedly styled signposts to what future models from a particular company will look like. They can bring out the little kid in all of us. Sadly, many of them don’t make it onto the road. They go into museums or private collections. FCA showed up at the 25th-annual Woodward Dream Cruise earlier this month with several of its concept vehicles, but they didn’t just bring them for show. FCA brought them out so they could go.
Mark Bosanac, the head of Mopar in North America, and his crew arrived with more than just display stand beauties. They brought runners for automotive journalists to open up. He said, “We’ve got a lot of our Mopar-accessorized vehicles here. Let people see them and experience them while we’re here.” Joe Dehner, director of Ram exterior and Mopar design, said, “Whether you take them off-road or on the street, they’re fully functional.” That included everything from hood scoops to the supercharged 6.2-liter Hellcrate V8 in the well-named Plymouth “Hellvedere” custom.
‘Shakedown’
FCA’s wide array of brands gave it the chance to show off a variety of souped-up cars, trucks, and SUVs. Of course, it brought a Challenger, opting for the old-meets-new “Shakedown.” You may remember it from the 2016 SEMA show. It’s a 1971 Challenger with the headlights and taillights of a modern Challenger and a 392-cubic-inch Hemi connected to the gearbox out of a Viper.
Two-tone Ram
Ram got in on the action with a couple of modified 1500s, one with a sleek two-tone street look and the other with an obvious focus on off-roading.
J6 Gladiator
The Jeep folks raided the warehouse where the brand’s previous Easter Jeep Safari concepts are kept and came out with builds such as the lifted and cargo-ready Trailpass, the ’70s-esque J6 truck, and the Gladiator-based JT Scrambler, complete with auxiliary lights on the sport bar and throwback orange stripes.
Dehner summed up FCA’s presence at this year’s Woodward Dream Cruise by saying, “It’s not just a cars event. It’s a wheels event because you see a lot of stuff down here that isn’t necessarily classified as a car and that’s what’s really cool about it. It has evolved over the years and I think the Mopar brand has, too.” We can’t wait to see how it changes between now and the 2020 event.
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