While Mopar Connection Magazine attended SEMA this past October, we spied these impressive Mopar builds and decided to make them our “Top 10” from the event. This year was a little different than past years for the show cars. With construction in the main parking lot, there was less room for show cars, which was good because it really shined the light on the great quality builds.

We’re not saying there weren’t a few questionable cars that snuck by with the occasional Bluetooth driveshaft or high horsepower cars that didn’t actually run, either. And there were a few cars on display this year that were shown last year, so we left those cars off of this list too. Oh, and this list is not in any specific order so don’t get upset if you felt one was superior to the other.

1. “Barbaric” 1971 Plymouth ‘Cuda: Starting off our list is a 1971 Plymouth ‘Cuda in the Magnaflow booth called “Barbaric” built by Salvaggio Design. It has a Direct Connection Hellephant crate engine making 1000 plus horsepower (tuned and upgraded by Gearhead Fabrications), a Tremec 6060 6-speed transmission, 3-inch Magnaflow exhaust, custom frame and cage, and Detroit Speed suspension.

The car has a full custom interior, carbon fiber panels and a custom set of wheels with dog dish center caps to give that vintage look on a large wheel. 

2. 1959 Chrysler 300E: In the Meguiar’s booth is a 1959 Chrysler 300E built by American Legends Hot Rod & Muscle. The engine is a 1,000-horsepower 6.2-liter Hellcat with a custom supercharger lid and billet one-off valve covers, and a Stage 2 Tremec T56 6-speed.

TFor chassis the car is sitting on a Roadster Shop chassis with four-wheel independent air suspension and cantilever shocks and bags. The chassis was painted to match the car with custom carbon fiber inserts and one-off carbon fiber wheels. A ton of parts in this car were 3D printed, from the door panels to the tail lights.

3. 1968 Dodge Coronet: Outside was a 1968 Dodge Coronet built by Superior Quality Rides. The drivetrain is a 6.2-liter supercharged Hellcrate with a T-56 6-speed transmission and backed by a Ford 9-inch fitted with a TrueTrac with 3:55 gears. For suspension, this was equipped with all QA1 parts and components.

While the exterior car was painted white, the engine bay was shot in this very beautiful bronze color.  The Coronet had Billet Specialties wheels and stopping it was Wilwood brakes with ABS power brakes.

4. 1954 Plymouth Savoy: Now it’s time for something a little different. This 1954 Plymouth Savoy was designed by Chip Foose and built by Troy Trepanier. For the powerplant, this touts a 488-cubic inch Viper V10 with a Viper 6-speed manual transmission. The chassis was hand-built using 1997 Viper suspension and brake parts. The color is unique –a deep Moss green sprayed over Spanish olive green.

5. “S.W.E.A.T.” 1962 Dodge Power Wagon: In the Barrett Jackson booth was a custom 1962 Dodge Power Wagon truck called “S.W.E.A.T.” This one-of-a-kind truck was powered by a 426 cubic inch 1,000 horsepower Hellephant crate motor with a J1 Motorsports/Direct Connection twin screw supercharger mated to an 8-speed transmission.

Over 8,000 hours have been invested into the build of this four-wheel drive truck, as every piece of metal has been custom fabricated. Building the truck into a Crew Cab version, the builders used five different Dodge vehicles to craft this up.

6. Mopar “Electromod” 1967 Plymouth GTX: This next car started a little bit of a controversy in the Mopar booth: originally a 1967 Plymouth GTX, this concept car underwent an electric conversion! Powered by Mopar’s E-crate propulsion system, the Mopar design team widened the GTX’s rear wheel openings for an aggressive and modern look, and shaved body panels of any trim.

Body-colored bumpers were tucked in and trimmed to fit the fenders. The GTX “Electromod” has a three-link suspension, 18-inch wheels and Wilwood Disc Brakes on all four corners. This GTX has 400 Volt 250-kilowatt electric drive modules. The output of this would be equivalent to 335-horsepower and the torque to the rear wheels run through a three-to-one gear reduction with a range of 250 miles.

7. 1958 Plymouth Belvedere: Jim Rawa built this 1958 Plymouth Belvedere with a Demon 170 engine. The transmission is a 1965 Chrysler 727 automatic transmission. While the case and output tailshafts are stock, everything else has been heavily upgraded:

Mono-leaf springs with Cal-Trac bars for the rear suspension with fully boxed-in frame rails. It is still rocking most of its stock suspension set up. A B-body disc brake conversion kit was installed. Italian black leather was used and the interior still appeared like stock.

8. 1968 Dodge Charger: This 1968 Dodge Charger was built by Noah Alexandra and earned the coveted “Overall Winner” award of Battle of the Builders among 172 total entries. This car is a beautiful green and has flush mount glass. Everything was tucked tight.

All the drip rail moldings were shaved off giving this car a very clean look. Impressively one of few not to sport a G3 Hemi, it boasts a big block engine with center stacks and multiport fuel injection.

9. 1971 Plymouth Duster: In the RacingJunk.com booth was a 1971 Plymouth Duster built by Troy Gudgel at BBT. The paint was a very unique white with a blue interior color scheme. The powerplant was a supercharged Hellcat mated to a T56 transmission and backed by an Eaton TrueTrac. Stopping this car was a 6-piston Baer brake setup.

10. Hydrogen Hemi 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air: Last but not least in the CRC booth was a 1957 Chevy however this car is powered by Mopar and is the very first hydrogen powered supercharged Gen3 Hemi. This car was built by Mike Copeland, Jeff Lutz, and top fuel driver Clay Millican.

The supercharger was an Edelbrock supercharger making 500 horsepower with a TCI automatic transmission. In the trunk you can see the large carbon fiber hydrogen tank. What’s really cool about this as well: there are 0 emissions and the exhaust is water.

A few honorable mentions were Blazing Rods’ 1970 Dodge Charger and the Ring Brothers’ 1970 ‘Cuda. If you were at SEMA and you wanted to see show quality cars that perform, these were in the Bronze Lot with Optima’s Search for the Ultimate Street Car Invitational where Ken Kelly’s 1970 AAR ‘Cuda and one of our own contributors David Kruk’s 1970 Dodge Super Bee were competing.  

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