People who work on cars love the Dodge Charger Daytona. It sounds like a good joke, but Waido made the first widebody package for the car. It looks like it was based on the splitter guards of the previous version. In Waido’s drawings, there is a Charger Daytona with a widebody package painted Destroyer Gray. The black-finished wheel arch extensions make the track longer, but the front splitter really stands out. It’s painted bright yellow, which looks like a nod to the lip guards that Dodge put on some Challenger and last-generation Charger cars while they were being shipped. A few years ago, plastic protectors were a controversial but typical change. Some owners kept them or even put them back on. In the late 2010s, Mark Trostle, who was in charge of design at Dodge, asked the owners to take down the barriers. He said in an interview in 2019: “This is the last word: It never had yellow stripes on it when we did the sketch for the Charger and Challenger.” Ralph Gilles, who was in charge of design at Stellantis, put the yellow guards on an early version of the current Charger. Owners and some of his coworkers laughed. Besides the splitter, the widebody kit is a good choice for that kind of change. The big tires tucked under the flares make it look like an old-school race car. Pay attention to the deep-dish wheels. They are set up in the usual drag way, with the back wheels being smaller than the front ones. The kit also comes with a new lower rear bumper, side skirts, and a rear wing with the Daytona logo, all painted in yellow to make them safe for shipping. It’s not clear how each of these add-ons changes the drag coefficient and, in turn, the driving range. Waido only says that the kit will be available “soon,” but he doesn’t say how much it will cost or when it will be available. A widebody kit for the Challenger costs $2,090, and a kit for the Durango costs between $1,390 and $2,990. There are also options on the aftermarket for people who would rather have more space than bigger wheel arches. A Florida-based company called Drop Top Customs, which works with Dodge, just sold a convertible Challenger and hopes to do the same with the Charger. The company’s first thoughts for the convertible were not quite right; it could be great with a little work. We will have to wait and see what Mopar has in store for the newest Dodge.
