Lakeshore, Ont., car enthusiast Lucas Kiewitz had a dilemma: He liked the look of trucks, but he didn’t like their size and handling.
That’s why he came up with his unique “Dodge Charger TRX” — a body and suspension customization of the iconic Dodge muscle sedan that styles it like a Dodge Ram 1500 TRX pickup truck.
“I’ve always been a car guy,” says Kiewitz, 21. “I’ve driven trucks before. They’re just kind of too big for me.”
Lakeshore resident Lucas Kiewitz stands next to his personally customized Dodge Charger in his parents’ driveway. (Dalson Chen/CBC)
Similar to the truck, Kiewitz’s Charger has a three-inch lift and sits on off-road tires.
Its heavily modified matte black body is covered in the same material that’s used for truck bed liner. “It’s scratch resistant now,” Kiewitz said. “Won’t get any rock chips — nothing like that. And it looks mean.”
The vehicle is based on a 2016 Dodge Charger that was originally used as a pursuit vehicle by Amherstburg police.
Kiewitz obtained the vehicle, but the real start of the passion project was a pencil drawing that he did on a piece of paper.
Lucas Kiewitz shows the pencil drawing that started his ‘Dodge Charger TRX’ project. (Dalson Chen/CBC)
Part of Kiewitz’s inspiration was seeing digital concept art of a “Raptorized” Ford Mustang, which styled the muscle car like a Ford Raptor off-road pickup truck.
Oscar Vargas, a Texas-based 3D artist who goes by @wb.artist20 on Instagram, has also done concept drawings of an off-road Charger and an off-road Challenger.
But those were fantasy renderings — pictures of vehicles that only exist in imagination.
Kiewitz’s car is most assuredly real. He says it’s received a lot of positive feedback at car shows and on social media. His TikTok videos showing off the car have accumulated almost 700,000 views.
A profile view of Lucas Kiewitz’s customized Dodge Charger. (Dalson Chen/CBC)
“It’s a ‘double-take’ car,” Kiewitz said. “Most people, they see it, and then they look away. And they’re like ‘Wait a minute’ — and they take a really good look at it.”
All that explained, Kiewitz’s modifications are essentially cosmetic: The “Dodge Charger TRX” still has the engine and components of an all-wheel drive police pursuit car — not a true off-road racing vehicle.
Lucas Kiewitz’s personally customized Dodge Charger sits in his parents’ driveway in Lakeshore. (Dalson Chen/CBC)
Kiewitz says the next phase of the project will be to get into the guts of the car and make it suitable for all-terrain action.
“I do have plans to do a full rally car suspension and make it 700 horsepower,” he said. “So it won’t just look off-road — It’ll be capable of off-road.”
Aside from the vehicle’s base value, Kiewitz estimates that the customization has only cost him about $3,500, so far. “I sourced a lot of things off Facebook Marketplace.”
The project was much more expensive in terms of personal labour: Kiewitz reckons he has invested from 12,000 to 15,000 hours of his own time into the car. He lifted the suspension in January, and it’s been an ongoing obsession since then.
A close-up of the truck bed liner material used to cover Lucas Kiewitz’s customized Dodge Charger. (Dalson Chen/CBC)
“A lot of fibreglass work,” Kiewitz said. “A lot of late nights.”
Most of the work was done in the garage of his parent’s house in Lakeshore. Indeed, the garage is entirely taken up by Kiewitz’s projects. “They’ve been very understanding.”
Kiewitz says he’s proud of the region’s history of automotive manufacturing, and he’s well aware that the next generation of the Dodge Charger is being built at the Windsor Assembly Plant.
“As a Chrysler person at heart, I find it really good. I know a lot of jobs will come to the city because of it… I think it’s good that we stay an automotive city. It’s where our roots are.”
Lucas Kiewitz of Lakeshore next to his personally customized Dodge Charger. (Dalson Chen/CBC)