With the Firepower concept, Chrysler designers set out to transform the thuggish Dodge Viper into a sleek and elegant luxury GT.

Chrysler’s 2005 Firepower concept immediately brings to mind that time-honored auto writers’ cliche: the iron fist in a velvet glove. Designed by Brian Neilander, the Chrysler stylist who created the company’s ME Four-Twelve mid-engined hypercar and the reborn Dodge Challenger, the Firepower combined the brutish Dodge Viper chassis with refined Euro-GT bodywork, a silky V8 coupled to an automatic transmission, and a luxurious, leather-lined cabin. In all the official Chrysler literature at the time. the car’s name was rendered as Firepower!, tacking on an exclamation point, but here we are going to spare you the punctuation drama.

While the Viper’s cockpit was spartan—practically a kit car, some will say—the Firepower went over the top with its interior appointments. There’s sumptious two-tone leather everywhere, and much of the hardware is crafted in custom CNC billet. The instrument panel houses three classically styled gauge dials, and this visual theme is repeated in the auxiliary gauges and air-conditioning vents. The total effect was chic and expensive looking, and no doubt it was indeed expensive to create. The bulk of the construction work on the one-of-one concept was performed by Metalcrafters Inc. of Fountain Valley, California, leading specialists in high-end customs and factory prototypes.

In place of the hairy 505 CID, 500 hp V10 featured in the Viper, the Firepower employed a more restrained 6.1 liter Hemi V8 rated at 425 hp and 420 lb-ft of torque, paired with a Kokomo 5-speed automatic transmission. This was the same drivetrain combo used in the Chrysler 300C SRT at the time, and in the Firepower with its curb weight of around 3400 lbs, the power-to-weight ratio should be sporting enough.

The Firepower made its debut in January of 2005 at the North American International Auto Show, to some acclaim. And as late as 2010, there was still talk among the Chrysler brass about putting the car into production, but in the end it never came to anything. We presume that the target market was simply too small to justify a showroom version. It’s also been said that the Viper’s production scale was such that adding platform variants and increasing the volume would actually raise the per-unit cost rather than reduce it. In any case there is only one Chrysler Firepower in existence, and today it resides in the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles collection of historic vehicles.