Back in summer of ‘08, I entered a design competition held by MSN Autos in partnership with Dodge to promote the new Challenger R/T. The contest is called Dream, Design, Drive Challenge.

The premise of the contest was to design your idea of the ultimate paint scheme for the Challenger through the MSN’s Challenger Online Customizer.

This is how the downloadable template looked like.

Then you’re suppose to apply your designs into these Challenger guides.

Then when you’re done, you upload it and you can see your design 360 degrees displayed in a turn table.

A panel of judges will then select one grand prize winner to receive their own customized 2009 Challenger R/T, designed just the way you imagined it.

I thought a black car as a base with the iconic hot rod flames but in true fire style would be kinda cool with a stripe in the middle. These design contest are tricky as you must visualize what the judges are expecting to want.

I submitted my entry and the was that. It ended August and I never really expected to win, but obviously just HOPED. With so many things going with life and work, I forgot about it.

Then around October, I got this notice telling me that my entry actually won the grand prize. Right, coz I’m just that good – Of course I did not believe it. I played enough pranks at my friends so I got enough coming my way to last me a lifetime. No way this is real.

But after many paper work and phone calls, it started to feel real. The car was now built and was handed to QEK- a shop in Michigan that Chrysler/Dodge uses for their special projects. I did a few more renderings to help Jason and Greg at QEK see exactly how my design should look like and figure out the details of the paint colors etc.

Here are some of them:

The car was supposed to be displayed at SEMA and the LA Autoshow but it got delayed.
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And couple of days before Christmas, we got a phone call from our local Dodge dealership and told us our car have arrived.
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Here are the first pictures after we drove it home..

My wife and I were in disbelief. The car looked better in person. I was in shock for a while just staring at this thing, still trying to comprehend what we just drove home.

I’ve always admire this car but as a starving artist, there’s no way I can afford another car especially all modified like this. So Thank You LORD!

Big thanks to MSN Autos, Dodge, Sam from Chrysler, Jason and Greg at QEK, John at Gage and everyone involve in making this design come into reality for me.