Dub magazine's custom vehicle team has created preliminary renderings of how it might whipify the 2006 Dodge Charger. And there's no more highly anticipated vehicle in need of an aftermarket makeover than the new Charger.

Put aside whatever visions you've had of the new Charger recalling the Charger coupes of old. The new model is an exersize in beer gogglery: From certain angles it's alluring enough to make time with, from others it appears as sexless as mom's dowager aunt Jolene. With Charger enthusiasts seemingly in shock, Dub's design team is the first to accept the sedan as an inalienable fact, and apply its own brand of aftermarket magic to salvage the Charger's mojo.

We're particularly taken by the Dub edition's posterior. Its lowered stance serves to accentuate the car's stockiness. That tightened clearance also accents the curve in its sloping fastback, which is the only true design homage to Chargers of yore. Nonetheless, the stock model's sculpted rear deck, extending midway into the back doors, can't quite unhook the sense-datum "cop car" from onlookers' forebrains, despite Dub's best efforts.

From the front, the good news is that the big-ass (are those 24"s?) jewelry deemphasizes that misguided Dodge-branded nose cone. The bad news is that where Dub's smooth, bad-boy style sexes up the Chrysler 300C significantly, on the Charger, it calls out the car's more mundane lines, like aunt Jolene in a little black dress. Not helping matters is the car's tedious middle third, which looks as if designers lifted it, wholesale, from a 1972 Dodge Dart sedan.

The verdict: Build it, Dub guys, but we'd suggest some additional custom grille work (lose the quadrants), and if you're willing, try some flip-up headlights like on the 1969 Daytona. Also, maybe try a less spidery hub design — something that echoes the C-pillars — and (dare we say) try higher-profile tires to add a touch of muscularity. God knows, aunt Jolene was once someone's paramour. Her best days don't have to be behind her.

Related:
Charger Returns [The Detroit News]

More on the 2006 Dodge Charger [internal]