SpeedKore's new concept is a mid-engined Dodge Charger Daytona

What's in a name? That which we call a custom Charger Daytona by any other name would still seem sweet.

And if starting an article on a car like this with some butchered Shakespeare seems like an odd choice, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. This is a conceptual drawing of an idea we couldn’t even conceive: a restomod of a NASCAR legend, just mid-engined and with a mind to take on Le Mans. Yep.

Digital artist Abimelec Arellano, a master of ‘Wait, that’s a drawing?’ renders, started with SpeedKore’s already bonkers mid-engined Charger – created for some movie about being fast, furious and family. So, as per the somehow actually real cars, there’s 700bhp worth of Hellcat V8 mounted just ahead of the rear wheels, powering a rear transaxle through a Lamborghini six-speed manual.

Design-wise, you may have noticed the shorter front overhang, lengthened rear window... or the gigantic Daytona-spec wing and nose cone. There’s real racing pedigree in every part of that design, just from a series that feels like the punk rock version of Euro endurance events. And, just joining a few dots here, we think the idea behind this motorsports crossover might have come from the man who spawned a mid-engined Mopar in the first place. We’ll explain.

When the time came for Fast 9, car coordinator Dennis McCarthy did “something I’ve always wanted to do". And that, apparently, was a mid-engined muscle car, telling us he’d “give the nod for that concept to the Ford GT40... I really like that Sixties feel, the Le Mans feel". And there we have it: the (possible) genesis of genius.

As for its name, the folk at SpeedKore are apparently still mulling over what to call their potential creation. But, seeing as they’ve given us cars with Hellcat-pun names like Hellacious and Hellucination, surely the obvious would be the Helle Mans? OK, that maybe wasn’t the best name. But the car would still be sweet.