For the last few years, Mopar has put out a special edition of a car, complete with stripes and bits from the Mopar Performance catalog. The Challenger got Mopar-ized twice, and the Charger, 300C and Dart have all gotten the treatment. This year, the Charger is back up to bat, but the method is going to be significantly different: instead of a limited-edition vehicle for sale at the local dealership near you, FCA is putting all of the Mopar ’15 kit into a crate and is shipping it to you, so that you can do the conversion yourself, if you have the $3,550 to spend. Wait…what?
The Mopar ’15 kit is pretty straightforward: inside the “branded and numbered” crate you will receive some good bits and some shiny bits. The good bits include a Mopar Performance cat-back exhaust, cold-air intake, Stage 1 premium fuel powertrain control module, high-flow oil filter and a front strut tower brace with caps. The shiny bits include Scat Pack 1 badges, a bright pedal kit, door sill guards with the Mopar logo, Mopar ’15 stripes in matte black, and a serialized Mopar ’15 dash plaque. Additionally, the kit comes with a certificate of authenticity stating that you indeed got a real Mopar ’15 kit, a Mopar Performance ’15 brochure, a replica vintage Scat Pack poster, Mopar Performance fender badge, a Mopar-branded magnetic mechanic’s tray, “and more”.
We’re just taking a shot in the dark here, but we highly doubt that anyone who has got the scratch to put down on this package on top of the cost of the Charger R/T itself is going to be willing to put the effort into bolting on 18hp and 18 ft/lbs of torque onto the car. We are willing to bet that in forty years, serialized Mopar crates will become the next weirdo item to fetch big bucks at auction, with buzzwords such as “never opened!” and “low number!” flying around.
Give new meaning to the term Chrysler “Kit Car”.
Speaking as a guy whose pickup left the factory 32 years ago with 96 ponies under the hood. Yes. Yes I would do all that work for 18 extra horses. That’s a generous 5% increase in power.
“We are willing to bet that in forty years, serialized Mopar crates will become the next weirdo item to fetch big bucks at auction, with buzzwords such as ‘never opened!’ and low number!’ flying around.”
And I would be willing to bet that they don’t fetch $3550 in inflation adjusted money… maybe not even in absolute dollars. These may be rare, but they’re not especially impressive. If I were to bet on what parts are going to be valuable in the future, I’d be buying up the little trim pieces and decals unique to the Hellcat cars, in anticipation of these being restored with NOS parts.
What, $3500 for 18hp!
Put a blower on it!