Images: irmaododecio.blogspot.com

We know, we know; the days of the two-door Dodge Charger are far gone. Unfortunately, many people just haven’t come to grips with that reality. Don’t get us wrong, we’d love to see a modern two-door, true hardtop (no B-pillar) Charger available to the public. We’re sure they’d sell out if offered in limited numbers. But, Chrysler doesn’t bother to call us for ideas, so until that time, we’ll just sit back and cross our fingers.

Perusing the Internet, we stumbled across a post on RideLust that landed us at irmaododecio.blogspot.com where a Brazilian muscle car enthusiast created his own versions of Chrysler’s infamous Daytona Charger as well as a Plymouth Superbird version of the sibling winged warrior as well as a plain old HEMI Charger. Starting with a rendering of the Dodge Challenger and borrowing cues from the current mandatory “Car of Tomorrow” NASCAR design created these designs.

Many Mopar enthusiasts will look back over the last five or six years with a duplicitous love/hate ache in their heart. While Dodge resurrected the HEMI it was not the same 7-liter 426 cubic-inch behemoth they remembered, reduced down to 5.7-liters for today’s racing restrictions. Nonetheless, the HEMI was back and that was a good start. Then the Charger name was dusted off after a long-overdue hiatus, but not as they remembered it. It too was a pale shadow of what people expected – especially in light of Ford’s massively retro 2005 Mustang GT.

While the 425-horse 6.1-liter SRT8 Charger (as well as Magnum and 300C) was a good step in the right direction, Chrysler tried to tug on Mopar enthusiast’s heartstrings by rehashing some beloved names like Super Bee and Daytona. Unfortunately, these were little more than decal and color packages and made Chrysler look quirky and hackneyed more than nostalgic and traditional. Thankfully, Chrysler scrambled to put the appropriately faithful Challenger on showroom floors.

Sneak images of the new Charger reveal that while still a four-door sedan, strong traits from the Charger’s most iconic generation (1968-through-1970) have finally arrived. The twin hood louvers, long, wide taillights, door alcoves, and its strong, angular shoulder lines running along the quarters finally make this next year’s Charger closer to what people have been clamoring for, and if this is merely a slow evolution towards a true Challenger-esque retro Charger, we’ll happily wait.