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This 2016 Dodge Challenger from the Ukraine Flawlessly Applies 1971 Styling
If you are active in any large Mopar® social media groups, you may have seen the white Dodge Challenger R/T shown here. Earlier this summer, pictur...
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This 2016 Dodge Challenger from the Ukraine Flawlessly Applies 1971 Styling
By Patrick Rall 8/22/2024 7:13 AM Owners + Clubs8 min readChallengerDodge Europe
If you are active in any large Mopar® social media groups, you may have seen the white Dodge Challenger R/T shown here. Earlier this summer, pictures of this car were being shared around social media due to the fact that this modern muscle car has so many tastefully applied design cues from the 1971 Challenger. After seeing a few pictures of this car – and loving how it looks – I started digging around to see where they originated. As it turns out, the owner is in one of the many Mopar Facebook groups in which I participate and in looking at his posts, I learned that the interior is modified with the classic look just as beautifully as the exterior.
It turns out that this cool 2016 Dodge Challenger R/T is owned by a man named Yevhen Kovalchuk and he lives in the Ukraine, where he operates an automotive repair and custom shop. He has performed all of the modifications to his Challenger over the course of the past two years, and considering what has been going on in the Ukraine over the past two years, the progress of his classic-look build really is remarkable.
Yevhen’s Dodge Challenger was imported to the Ukraine in 2020, having been purchased at an auction with a salvage title and labeled as a total loss. However, to make it marketable in the country, the importers repaired it well enough to sell, but Yevhen points out that it was not repaired very well. Fortunately, he had the means and ability to repair the car correctly while he transformed it into the slick classic-look muscle car that you see here.
This 2016 Dodge Challenger R/T is powered by the 5.7-liter HEMI® V8 engine mated to a 6-speed manual transmission, and it is that combination that made the car less desirable in his market – thus making it more affordable. He explained that most people who want an American muscle car to drive are more likely to seek out a V6 model with the standard automatic, making the manually-shifted model a bit less desirable. However, it was exactly what he had dreamed of owning, right down to the manual transmission, so when the car became available to him in late 2023 – as a war with Russia is raging all around him – he bought his white Dodge Challenger R/T.
“It happened in the end of 2023, and most will say it was not a good time. I totally agree. People are getting killed in all corners of my country, a hell of a medieval chaos grows from day to day – it’s definitely not a best time to buy a car,” said Yevhen.
“On the other hand, when is the right time to do it? Tomorrow? If it ever comes. When each of your days seems like the last one, you decide faster, although not all your decisions seem right in the eyes of witnesses. But for each his own, and now I can honestly declare that this car became a real cure for me, as working on it really helps me to keep up with all that mess around. Besides every part of it is a reason for a small talk with an occasional gearhead that noticed. And that is the best part of being misunderstood by most, while appreciated by ones.”
Yevhen Kovalchuk went on to explain that, growing up a gearhead, he would love to own a classic American muscle car, but it is nearly impossible to do so in the Ukraine and even if he could, he would not want to drive it. Instead, he found his 2016 Challenger and transformed it with the 1971 look, allowing him to showcase the classic style with his daily driver. He even uses this car to haul parts for his shop, thanks to the massive trunk. When he got this car, he knew that he wanted to add the classic look, specifically considering a modern take on the Vanishing Point Challenger. However, since that car is a 1970 Challenger and his 2016 is more closely based on the 1971 design, Kovalchuk decided to create the ultimate modern tribute to a 1971 Dodge Challenger.
Now, before getting into the extensive list of modifications made to this 2016 Dodge Challenger R/T, we should remind you that this car has reached this point from stock in about 8 months – in an area that has literally been bombed by Russia with some regularity. During one of my talks with Yevhen, I pointed out that we had harsh storms here that knocked out our power and he explained that Russia had been bombing his region the night before and his power was out as well. He still gets up and goes to work at his shop each day, offering all sorts of services from basic repairs to local market vehicles to customizing other muscle cars.
“I dreamed about some custom work on interesting cars, but reality sometimes is cruel. As the war escalated and I lost 80% of my customers by different reasons, my job transformed into regular maintenance and repair. Everything I do, I do with my own hands. I can repair brakes on some Lada in the morning and put on performance suspension on a GT500 in the evening, and then spend a couple of days wrapping some fresh SUV. Also it takes time and effort to help our army, those heroic men and women who give us an opportunity to live our lives and still breath the air. In my work, as long as my personal preferences, I don’t focus on any specific brand, I just like cars and like to talk to people who like them as much as I do. You know, being a car guy in Ukraine doesn’t mean you even have a car. While being a millionaire with an expensive road missile doesn’t make you a car enthusiast also. So it is rather hard to find like-minded [individuals] and it seems more easy to find in some old rusty [Toyota Corolla] circles than among supercar owners community.”
He went on to explain his inspiration for his vintage styling.
“I started with a plan of making a tribute to Vanishing Point car, as my surname just prayed for that (Kowalsky – Kovalchuk). But I didn’t manage to find a pre-facelift car that mimics that glorious white 1970 Challenger. Creating my facelifted model, Dodge had 1971 model in mind with those grill nostrils and separate taillights. So, being a nerd, I refused from any VP cosplay, while it could be a rather easy task to mimic that sleek ’70 style. On the other hand, going ’71 really untied my hands, as choosing 1971 R/T as a marker, I got a bunch of options to review, rethink and bring to life. I’m very short on budget and besides I’m very precise in terms of details. Every touch is overthought numerous times. I know that there’s no one to judge me, hence there are no rules for that (come on, it’s not a restoration of classic, not a real thing, and it doesn’t even pretend to be) but I have a task in my head with my own rules, boarders, requests and final approval, hence I just try to nail it.”
After starting with the 2016 Dodge Challenger R/T, Yevhen added an extensive collection of exterior upgrades to recreate the 1971 look. Keep in mind when looking over this list that all of these items were ordered and installed in the Ukraine during the war with Russia, which obviously complicated the process. In addition to the items, he included details on each item.
