2011 Dodge Challenger

Kowalski Coupe

6.4L 8 Cylinder Gasoline Fuel

Manual

2B3CJ7DJ3BH551075

Rear Wheel Drive

Gasoline

Power Windows

You are looking at a very rare Challenger SRT-8 that Dodge built only 10 of. This particular car is #10, the last one! Brand new, ready to go, untouched, no excuses. Think of the GM COPO Camaros, Novas and Chevelles of the day and then look at this Dodge Challenger SRT-8. Chrysler only built 10 of these examples as homage tot he 1971 movie Vanishing Point starring Barry Newman in which a white 1970 Challenger is driven halfway cross country with Police chases, nude women and an unceremonious end to the Challenger running into a pair of bulldozers (it really was a Camaro used to crash!) Below is excerpts from Red Letter Dodge and Hemmings stories about these special run of Challengers. The Hemmings story is directly about this particular car shot in my showroom. THIS CAR DOES NOT HAVE THE POWER SUNROOF AS THE AUTO-FILL EBAY STATES. ALL THE KOWALSKI CARS WERE BUILT THE SAME WAY AND WITHOUT SUNROOFS. I COULD NOT REMOVE IT FROM THE EBAY LISTING. THIS SHOWS THAT THE SRT'S ARE USUALLY BUILT WITH SUNROOFS AND SRT'S ARE NOT AVAILABLE IN WHITE UNLESS IT IS AN INAUGERAL EDITION. From the Hemmings blog in April 2011 We were somewhat surprised last week to learn of a special edition Dodge Challenger that seems to have flown almost completely under the radar. As it turns out, Bob Frederick of New Wilmington Dodge in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania, has worked with the folks at Chrysler to create a very short run of Challengers for the Kowalski Edition, a tip of the hat to the 1971 movie, Vanishing Point. As most muscle car fans already know, the original movie featured a main character known simply as Kowalski, driving a white ’70 Challenger R/T that bore no stripes. The plot involved Kowalski’s attempt to win a bet by driving the Challenger from Denver to San Francisco in less than 15 hours. High-speed mayhem ensues and a cult classic was born. Frederick has been a fan of the movie since he first saw it as a child, during a time when he was already familiar with Mopar performance cars because his father was operating a Dodge dealership in Ohio. By the time Chrysler finally re-entered the rear-drive passenger-car market, Bob had joined the family business and quickly became known as a source for Chrysler’s new generation of muscle cars. Creating a modern-day Vanishing Point Challenger would seem a natural for a guy raised with such influences, and considering the movie car’s uncomplicated appearance in basic white with stock trim, pulling it off might look simple. In fact, Frederick had ordered some Challenger R/Ts in white when they became available for 2009, but he felt an actual tribute car should be based on the top-tier model, the SRT8. Only Chrysler wasn’t offering it in white. Then a potential opportunity arose when Chrysler announced the 2011 392 Inaugural Edition Challenger SRT8, listing white among its available colors. That’s when Frederick began making calls to Auburn Hills. “I met with the team and told them what I wanted: 2011 Challenger SRT8 392, six-speed manual, Bright White, stripe delete, Dark Slate SRT seats, WP3 Alcoa SRT aluminum 20-inch wheels, 730 Nav and SRT Option Group II…. I reminded them that the paint was already in the plant and that the unique SRT8 parts were already there in white as well, so it seemed logical that it could be done,” explained Frederick, acknowledging that he knew it might not be quite as simple as that sounds, particularly because he really wanted the cars to have sequential VINs. The reality of today’s highly automated production facilities means that significant alterations to the normal product “recipes” can be troublesome, and perhaps deemed unworthy of the effort required by the mother ship. Fortunately, the team in Auburn Hills liked the idea enough to give it a try. The short version is, it worked, and the result is the 2011 Challenger SRT8 Kowalski Edition. In addition to the factory options listed above, the Kowalski cars are fitted at the dealer with unique “Kowalski Edition” decals on the rear spoiler and under the hood along with a special numbered dash plaque and a custom fender tag mounted in the engine bay, plus a pair of Scat Pack bee decals for the quarter windows, reminiscent of the ones used on Dodge’s 1970 performance models. Inside, the Kowalski cars get ’70-style Hurst Pistol Grip shift handles with woodgrain grips and a six-speed shift-pattern insert; out back are Mopar chrome quad exhaust tips. The cars come with a unique broadcast sheet as well, and the cherry on top is a reproduction Colorado license plate with the same digits as the movie car. Thanks to the efforts of Bob Frederick of New Wilmington Dodge, a batch of ten “Kowalski Edition” 2011 Challengers have been built. Featuring Bright White paint and no stripes, each of the special SRT8s received special badging in addition to upgraded shifters and exhaust tips. The underhood ID plate unique to the Kowalski cars is meant to emulate the data plate used on Chrysler vehicles during the muscle car era; 57X was the Chrysler production code assigned to the special builds. Inside, a Hurst Pistol Grip shift handle replaces the standard SRT8 leather-wrapped piece; woodgrain grips and shift-pattern insert emulate 1970, save for the six indicated speeds. So just how many were built? Only 10, and all have already been spoken for. We were fortunate enough to get a look at the last one, owned by Melvin Benzaquen of Classic Restoration Enterprises in Sloatsburg, New York, last week. Benzaquen has owned a 2009 Challenger R/T and a 2010 SRT8, both six-speed manuals, and says the extra power of the new 392 is instantly apparent; he also says that the chassis refinements for 2011 make the big Challenger seem much more nimble. Despite this, he says he probably won’t be putting many miles on his Kowalski Edition, and we’d imagine most owners feel similarly, though we hear tell of one that’s being fitted with a supercharger as this is written. (#1) Let’s hope there are no bulldozers in its future. THIS IS FROM DODGE: Ask any die hard Dodge enthusiast what their favorite car movie is of all time and most will acknowledge the 1971 cult classic Vanishing Point ranks at the top of their list. The plot was very simple and pure as the main character who is only known as “Kowalski” works for a car delivery service. There’s a bet he accepts from one of his “hook-ups’ that he can’t drive from Denver to San Francisco in less than 15 hours. He gladly accepts the wager and begins his power shifting odyssey with a white 1970 Challenger R/T. Along the way he has a few run-ins with the highway patrol, a Jaguar XKE and numerous dubious and somewhat “interesting” folks. We all know the end of the movie does not bode well for both Kowalski and his big-block E-Body as they both meet their demise in a roadblock outside a small cattle town. Here the hero and his white steed impact a pair of bulldozers and erupt in a cataclysmic fireball explosion thus sealing their fate. This movie had a profound effect on the minds young car junkies everywhere in the early 1970s and for one in particular, it would have a lasting impression. That young man was Bob Frederick whose love of all things Mopar started at an early age as his father owned a Dodge dealership in Canfield, Ohio. Bob was seven years old when he first saw Vanishing Point and he was hooked. He was glued to his TV set watching the Challenger and its high-speed romp through the desert while Kowalski rowed the Hurst Pistol Grip shifter. Eventually Bob would follow in his father’s footsteps as he got into the car business and began selling performance-minded customers Challenger and Charger R/Ts along with SRT8 models. However, it was Bob’s ambition and goal to recreate that iconic white Challenger R/T from the big screen. “When Dodge finally released the new Challenger in 2008, I immediately thought about how cool it would be to do a “Vanishing Point” version of the car. As the 2009 models rolled out, the R/T was available in White, but the SRT8 model was not. I ordered in a few White 6-speed R/T models in honor of Kowalski, but felt that the higher powered SRT8 would really be the one to do it on” said Bob. However, the opportunity did present itself this year when we launched the 2011 392 Inaugural Edition Challenger SRT8. Knowing it was available in white Bob began making phone calls to our Challenger team in Auburn Hills to see if there would be a possibility to build 10 unique units without the stripes and with different options. Bob really wanted to make this package special and true to the original concept. “I met with the team and told them what I wanted: 2011 Challenger SRT8 392, 6-speed manual, bright white, stripe delete, Dark Slate SRT seats, WP3 Alcoa SRT aluminum 20” wheels, 730 Nav and SRT Option Group II. They all liked the idea and said he would try to get it done. I reminded them that the paint was already in the plant and that the unique SRT8 parts were already there in white as well, so it seemed logical that it could be done” However that’s easier said than done as plants are highly automated and systems are hard to override to create low volume special vehicle builds. Never one to give up, Bob and our team huddled again and came up with a game plan. By entering the orders manually, they could override the system and get 10 2011 Challengers built to specifications Bob wanted. “After the meeting, I was really excited, but knew that it wouldn’t be definite until the first one rolled off the line successfully. The next week I gave the team the exact specs that I wanted, including a request for sequential VINs and unique sequential VONs. These are the only White, Slate interior, stripe delete cars made. I also requested special dash badges that read: “Frederick Scat Pack Kowalski Edition __of 10.” By late-February, the orders were in the system and had sequential VIN’s and unique vehicle order numbers. Bob even found a unique code in the system to track the cars, “All ten Kowalski Edition Challengers made through the build process with no glitches with the help of tracking code 57X, which means ‘Scat Pack Tracking’, how cool is that!”. The vehicles then were shipped to New Wilmington Motors in Pennsylvania where they receive some unique items to further commemorate Kowalski’s Challenger. Cool parts such as 1970’s Pistol Grip Shifter with woodgrain inserts, Mopar Chrome Quad Exhaust Tips, Rear Quarter Glass Scat Pack Bees, Unique Fender Tag and Broadcast Sheet, ‘Kowalski Edition’ Rear Spoiler and underhood decal, ‘Frederick Scat Pack Kowalski Edition’ numbered dash plaque and finally a reproduction 1970 Colorado License Plate with OA 5599 (this is really cool as this was the plate number from Challenger in the movie!). We had an opportunity to see the first ‘Kowalski Edition’ Challenger at last weekend’s LX Spring Fest in Irvine, California. Its new owner is Mike Haislet and he’s a diehard Challenger enthusiast (he’s also one of our many Dodge Facebook Fans). Mike and his wife recreated their version of Vanishing Point by driving all the way from Holland, Michigan to the west coast. Mike met up with the Challenger team and had them sign the engine compartment. Even our own Ralph Gilles got in on the fun. The response to the ‘Kowalski Edition’ has been phenomenal as it’s all been by word of mouth. Bob told us all that ten have been sold and he’s not sure is another run will ever be planned. It’s good to know that there are people like Bob in our tightly knit Dodge community that have the drive and ambition to work with our team and build some really cool and unique cars that may become collector items one day. We all know it would be awesome to take the 2011 Challenger SRT8 Kowalski Edition and make the run from Denver to San Francisco in less than 15 hours. Bet you one thing, we’re sure we can find Leslie West and Mountain cranking “Mississippi Queen” on the Sirius Satellite Radio! This also had the dealer added Magnaflow Competition series cat back exhaust giving it the true muscle car sound without any annoying resonance utilizing the stock exhaust tips. The original exhaust comes with the car also if you want it. If you have any questions or want to set up an appointment to see this rare 10 of a kind Challenger, feel free to call Melvin Benzaquen at 845-712-5500 during normal Eastern time business hours. I have a lot of paperwork and documentation on this car and the Kowalski Edition for the collector!