It’s not every day that our friends over at Autoblog rip someone, anyone, a new NSFW. In fact, have they ever done it? Well, now they have. “SEMA 2009 Worst of Show: This Car Stinks” tears into a modded Dodge Charger with scissor doors like nothing I’ve ever read on the Gray Lady of autoblogs. “The why and the how of this particular example of aftermarket hubris and wretched, mindless – and let’s not forget pointless – excess don’t really matter now, as the poor thing will spend the next 15 years quietly rotting in the side yard of some shop in Joliet, Illinois waiting to either shrug off this mortal coil or get turned into a fine LeMons car right around 2025 – whichever comes first.” Looks like Mr. Lieberman is channeling his inner TTAC. Oh wait; he cut his teeth on this very website. So, to thine own TTAC be true? Yes, BUT—who built the cat piss special? On this point, Mr. Lieberman and/or his editors are not-so-surprisingly silent. So I turn to our Best and Brightest to answer two simple questions. First, why is this car any worse than the other abominations cluttering the SEMA ho’ down? Second, who done done it?
Minor point but it’s a Charger, not a Challenger.
It’s nice to know Jonny Lieberman still has the spirit!
The spirit is there, but the prose is often lacking…
Yet another example of how simply being able to do something does not justify it. At least this wasn’t done to a Challenger.
They should have produced a 2-door Charger hack instead.
It looks suspiciously like the same orange car featured in the lead pic of the AB SEMA 09 booth babe gallery. If so, then I think it was Vertical Door’s car. I know they noticed the name.
Edit: on second glance it’s not. But those doors are equally stupid in all non-factory applications.
Judging by the prominent Custom Rim displayed around it, it’s likely Velocity Wheel. You can vaguely make out their name in the display behind the car in one of the gallery pics.
However, checking out their website, looks like they are located in California, so the Joliet, Illinois city is a misleading clue, or I’m totally wrong…
Hi there!
We’re pretty sure that it’s Velocity Wheels. I really didn’t think it made a difference one way or another.
And Robert neglected to mention the most important part — the car actually smelled like cat piss.
Bye!
‘Twas a Jonny Lieberman article, wasn’t it? He’s hardly known for pulling punches. The man is a good writer AND funny.
Give JL some slack. He is one of the few reasons that I’ll actually see a readable article over on AB.
I think the damage was done when Chrysler insulted the Charger name by initially putting it on that ugly p.o.s.
It may be ugly, but at least the front doors and trunk lid obstruct most of their openings.
By SEMA standards this isn’t really that bad. Mind you, SEMA’s “bad” runs the gamut from “mediocre” to “hideous” to “so bad it approaches awesome from the other side”
This is is solidly in the first category.
This isn’t the scary part… it’s that there’s someone out there that says “Hmmmm, that’s pretty good, just not xtreme enuf®, I can fix that!”
First, why is this car any worse than the other abominations cluttering the SEMA ho’ down?
I think Lieberman made it clear in the post that it was the car’s odor of synthetic cat urine that put it in a class by itself.
well for one thing the fit of the kit was awful. the panel gaps are huge and there was one pic of the right front wheel i think, where the wheel was clearly a lot closer to the rear of the wheel arch than the front, it wasn’t centered at all and that is one bad look