Next Generation Dodge Challenger Could Wear Racetrack Taillight

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The next generation Dodge Challenger is expected to debut in the next few months and when it does, it could be wearing a “racetrack taillight” treatment similar to the one featured on the Dodge Charger, Dart and Durango - and a recent sighting of a test car supports this idea.

I received an email last night from a well informed TorqueNews reader who found himself behind one of the Dodge Challenger test cars with the thick black and grey camo on the front and rear. He wasn’t able to get a picture showing much more than a car in camo two lanes over but he was sure that when the driver hit the brakes, the taillight design was similar in its form to that seen on the Charger and Dart. He said that while the Challenger wore the grey mesh that covers the lights while still allowing the lights to do their jobs, the car passed through the shadow of a tractor trailer a few times while braking and at that point; he was able to make out the rough shape of the rear lights. He said that is appeared as though the small portion of taillight visible had the thin, tight form of the racetrack taillight and that the lens appeared to be shorter top to bottom than the lights on the Charger or Dart.

I have spoken with this reader on multiple occasions and in every situation, he appeared to be well versed in the industry to I would expect his Dodge Challenger sighting to be valid. He also didn’t state that he was sure beyond a reasonable doubt that the Challenger test mule had a racetrack taillight, but he said that that brief portion in the shade of the semi trailer appears to be more of an outline design than what we see on the current Challenger.

The racetrack taillight design that is featured on the current Dodge Charger, Dart and Durango look great and they are, without a doubt, the most distinct taillights in the industry today. With the successful spread of the LED racetrack taillights from the full sized Charger to the compact Dart to the large Durango SUV, I would fully expect to see the racetrack taillight design on the lightly refreshed 2015 Dodge Challenger. That high tech lighting design went a very long way in making the rump of the Dodge Charger much more aggressive and it did the same for the new Durango. Both the Charger and Durango were fine looking vehicles with a somewhat vanilla rear end, but the racetrack fixed that. This outline design also helped to make the new Dodge Dart stand out in a jam packed compact segment so with so much success thus far – it would only make sense for the Chrysler Group designers to come up with a thinner racetrack design for the next Challenger.

Based on the vast number of Dodge Challenger test mules that only wear camo on the front and rear end, it is widely expected that the 2015 Challenger with have the same basic shape – especially through the greenhouse (middle) portion of the car. That means that the automaker will need to make enough changes to the front and rear to allow this new Challenger to really stand out against the current models. A slightly sharpened front end seems like an obvious change, but how do you freshen up the rear of the Challenger significantly without changing the shape? Racetrack taillights.

With the Dodge Challenger debut expected to hit within the next couple months, we shouldn’t have to speculate much longer!

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