I have a big interest in cars. Especially classic muscle-cars tickle my imagination quite a lot. My absolute favorite among muscle-cars is the 1968 Dodge Charger, which is easily one of the coolest cars ever produced in my opinion. The fabled Mustang can’t hold a candle to it as far as I’m concerned.
So the other night I was slacking off and zapping around the boob-tube and I came across a show called Street Customs. It features West Coast Customs, of “Pimp My Ride”-fame but in their new and much bigger locale. The tone is also much less wacky than Pimp My Ride, and focuses on the various customers and builds produced there.
(Now, before I launch into the tirade I have planned, I gotta say that I find that the more corporate a car-customizer company gets, the more bored I am. When I see shows about custom cars it’s usually the small garage-companies that I feel most akin with, not the huge, gaudy factories such as the one WCC has become)
The episode in question features Gary Dourdan. Gary plays (or used to, I think his character got killed off) Warrick Brown on CSI: Las Vegas. I can’t really comment on Gary as a person since I of course have never met him, but judging from the show he has as a taste in cars that is as tasteless as it is eccentric.
He came in and wanted a Dodge Charger – but with a twist. He wanted a brand-new Charger, but that they should chop off the entire body, keep the chassis, engine, various struts and stuff and plunk a 1968 B-body Charger on top of this thing.
Alright, fine. I figured this was a wacky enough pursuit and since I like the ’68s I decided to watch it.
Well, the resulting car can only be called an abomination in my eyes. It’s a faux-charger, and it looks absolutely awful. First off, why would anyone want a candy-apple green Charger? Chargers should come in strong base-colors. Black, red, orange. Whatever. Not candy-apple Green.
Secondly, everything about it clashes with everything else. The dashboard and all of the interior such as seats are from the “new” Charger. This looks completely out of place with the old body. It’s just awful. To make it even worse, he asked for a confederate flag on the roof – but in african colors! This makes the whole car look even more hideous.
So, this is an abomination. This is a Frankencharger, and not in a good way. Just look at the photos. Anyone with any love for the ’68 Charger will absolutely loathe this creation. Just look at how the dash clashes with the line of the windshield, or how the wheels look completely out of place. Awful!


