JONSIBAL » Blog Archive » Got me a HEMI

Got me a HEMI

2 January 2009 5 Comments

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:

Click HERE for Hi-RES.

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.

5 Comments »

bugzy said:

I still like your E36 M =) but still nice design !

[Reply]

# 27 July 2009 at 3:33 pm

T3true said:

Hey Jon. I just happened to visit your site today, august 07, 2009. And I have never been so depressed. Let me explain. I too did this MSn competition to win this car. I am not the best at Photoshop, but I am ok. At first Id id not read the rules and I thought you could only submit one and that was it. I want to show you what my first design was! I do not have access here at work, but I will upload it to my website and show you.
Back to the story. So I then found out that you could make a new design each day! You have no idea how hard I tried, and all of the different designs I did for this thing! (actually you will see them when I have the link ready) I’d say i did about 20 or so. The cool part is I did win every other prize. I won 4 Racing games for the xbox (the same game, the name escapes me…and I do not have an Xbox) I won the zune, I’m using it now at work. And I won a Road and Track subscription. I tried so hard for this car! I believe this was a true competition where someone was bound to win a car. I looked at hundreds of other cars and I did not see many who were even close to my bad designs! I never ever saw yours on the rankings (which kind of irqs me)
pt 1……………..

[Reply]

# 7 August 2009 at 2:50 pm

T3true said:

pt 2……….
Then the contest ended and it was waiting time. I checked my email everyday, my mail. i was really hopefull, but to no avail. I had to then forget about it and enjoy my zune. So when the email came to see the winners, I clicked on the link and my heart almost stopped! I THOUGHT I WON! Why you may ask? We have the same identical design.. but our fire is different a little. (I will show you) then I looked closer and realized you had the front a bit different. I was so down that a design exactly like mine won. You must of sent yours in before mine, or something.
The other guy who won, that design was GARBAGE! But Im pretty sure it was at a school where hundreds of people voted everyday. I couldnt win that war.
Its funny because just like a month ago on the Heavy Hitters mag they had some images of a show, and this car showed up, and Im like “no way is that the MSN car!”.. And then I see it here and sure enough it is!
I still give you mad props, that must of been the best feeling in the world. But man what I would do for that Car! I cannot wait to show ……
ok while typing this I remembered i did have them saved on my server. O I don think this embeds, but this is the black one, the first one I did..
http://design.t3true.com/my_work/challenger_contest/image2.jpg
and the white one I def thought it was sick because you dont really see fire on white!…
http://design.t3true.com/my_work/challenger_contest/white.jpg
So thats my sobb story on how I found the guy who won my challenger, and how IM so depressed that you already had an amazing collection. Im not a sore loser, you won fair and square, I just thought you would like the irony. I’ll be taking the bus home after work. Dont cry for me Argentina. lol
Wow, thats real!… man I will day dream all the way home like when I was designing the cars. I will post the others up on a page to show you also. thanks for listening.

[Reply]

# 7 August 2009 at 2:51 pm

T3true said:

ok last time, let me get this right.. I promise I am not trying to spam you, just unforeseen syntax errors.. I would delete the posts, but i cannot…
black one =
http://design.t3true.com/my_work/challenger_contest/black.jpg

white one=
http://design.t3true.com/my_work/challenger_contest/real_white.jpg

[Reply]

# 7 August 2009 at 3:27 pm

Walfunk said:

Congrats on winning the car…However, I think i see an Acura TL-S in your garage..can you please send me some pics and info on that car??…I love those cars!!

Thanks!

[Reply]

# 22 November 2009 at 7:19 am