Dodge unveils 50th Anniversary Edition Challengers

Dodge done done it again—there’s another special edition Challenger, this time celebrating a half century worth of smokey burnouts. The limited-run 50th Anniversary Edition of the Challenger muscle car bowed at the 2019 Los Angeles auto show. The changes are largely cosmetic, but that doesn’t make this special edition any less appealing for one of America’s last great old-school-style muscle cars.

The 50th Anniversary Edition package will be available on four different trim levels, starting with the rear-drive Challenger GT and continuing through the R/T Shaker, the R/T Scat Pack, and the ultra-wide Scat Pack Widebody models. Opt for anything but the bottom-rung GT and you’ll score a body-colored Shaker hood, something previously unavailable to Widebody Challenger customers. We think it adds just the right degree of menace.

Speaking of body color, the 50th Anniversary Edition Challengers will be offered in seven delightfully loud (High Intensity Paint, or HIP for short, according to Dodge) colors, four of which are new for the Challenger for 2020. Key among them is Gold Rush, aptly appointed as the poster-child hue for the Challengers golden birthday. The other new colors include Frostbite, Hellraisin, and Sinamon Stick. They’re joined by familiar faces like TorRed, F8 Green, and Go Mango to round out the special edition’s colors palette.

Each 50th Anniversary Edition Challenger gets a hand-painted satin black hood and a black-wrapped roof and decklid, replete with Challenger 50th Anniversary logo badges in the grille and spoiler.

These honorary half-century Challengers also get new shoes, in the form of 20-inch “Gold School” wheels that go as wide as 11-inches in the R/T Scat Pack Widebody cars. The interiors receive a smattering of special badges on vents, seatbacks, floor mats, and more.

Buyers will have to act fast to get their hands on any of these special editions. (Math coming, work with us here.) Each HIP color will grace just 70 of each of the four trim levels of the Challenger, meaning that there will be 1960 of the 50th Anniversary Edition Challengers total. Each one will be numbered with a special plaque specifying “x out of 70.”

As other manufacturers risk muddying the waters around their iconic nameplates, we’re happy to see that Dodge—already the undisputed bad boy of the Big Three—seems completely comfortably leaning into this rowdy persona. Hell yeah, Dodge. Here’s to 50 more.