Classic Dodge Chargers are already seriously rad cars. The timelessly sinister hideaway headlamps, the long, flat body, and sculpted lines of the muscle car make it unmistakable. Frankly, features like those are the reason why the Charger is a movie favorite, with appearances like the bad guy in the historic Bullitt car chase. Pair that with the continuously resurrected mount of Dominic Torretto in the Fast movie franchise, and you have one of the most recognizable cars in the world. However, the envelope can always be pushed, and SpeedKore did just that with a custom mid-engine classic 1968 Dodge Charger build. 

Is the mid-engine Charger real? 

The mid-engine Dodge Charger is very real. Not only is it real, but it is also a movie star. The Vehicle Effects team built the mid-engine Charger for the long-running Fast film franchise. The notoriety isn’t the most bonkers thing about the car, though. No, the craziest thing about the car is that it is actually nine cars. Specifically, the builders made two cars with a supercharged Hellcat engine and transaxle design, and the rest were tricksters. Furthermore, the imposters used a plastic Hellcat engine with a concealed LS3 and Turbo 400 transmission. 

Who built the mid-engine Dodge Charger from Fast 9? 

The mid-engine Dodge Charger is the work of none other than Vehicle Effects and Wisconsin custom car gurus SpeedKore. Vehicle Effects is the company responsible for all of the incredible cars and stunt vehicles featured in the Fast franchise. They built the mid-engine platform for the film Fast 9. The ridiculous super-muscle car is driven in the movie by Vin Diesel’s crowd favorite character Dominic Toretto. 

How did Vehicle Effects build the car? 

Vehicle Effects started with a couple of Dodge Hellcat powerplants. If that wasn’t enough, Dennis McCarthy of Vehicle Effects told MotorTrend that they needed more power for Toretto’s mount. So McCarthy and the Vehicle Effects team added a pulley and a Performance Tech 110-octane racing fuel tune. The result: two Hellcat-powered drivetrains with Dodge Demon performance producing over 800 horsepower. 

The team then married the modified Hellcat engines to a pair of six-speed transaxles acquired from a set of Lamborghini Gallardos. The mid-engine Dodge Chargers were destined to be three-pedal muscle cars—no modern automatic for these beasts. Furthermore, the vehicles feature a custom Magnaflow exhaust system with similarly custom headers. 

No car is complete without a chassis, though. Enter the wizards at SpeedKore. The custom car builders provided the complete chassis and carbon-fiber widebody to slip down over the mechanical magic. Finally, Vehicle Effects endowed the mid-engine Chargers with clear glass panels and a Daytona roofline to showcase the powerplant. 

It might be unorthodox, but the mid-engine Dodge Charger is why we love this community

The folks at Vehicle Effects and SpeedKore didn’t just ask whether or not it could be done; they did it. There are weird, shocking drivetrain swaps and custom builds worldwide, and the mid-engine Charger rides with the best of them. Scroll down to the following article to read more about SpeedKore’s custom cars. 

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