Hellucination: Story behind the customized 1968 Dodge Charger from SpeedKore and Ralph Gilles

From the grit and heat of the Deep South to the expertly coiffed putting greens and cool ocean breezes of Monterey, Calif.; from dirty hands and blue collars to pink and baby blue sport coats; from service techs and automotive enthusiasts to the titans of industry; Hellucination doesn’t discriminate.

The latest creation from Grafton, Wis.-based custom car builder SpeedKore Performance Group welcomes all. The reimagined 1968 Dodge Charger is equally impressive to a 6-year-old girl seeing the alluring weave of exposed carbon fiber for the first time as it was to Horacio Pagani, who himself knows a thing or two about working magic with carbon fiber. It makes sense considering the man whose dream this car realized: Ralph Gilles. He has worked for Stellanis for 30 years and is currently their head of global design.

Gilles is bold. He's high-level exec who isn’t afraid of wearing a jacket over a red Ferrari F40 T-shirt to deliver a speech at a black tie dinner. And he's as well known for racing a minivan in the One Lap of America competition and doing the most ridiculous two-part epic Hellcat burnout at the Chrysler Nationals in Carlisle, Pa., as he is for championing groundbreaking designs. His work has captured the imaginations of urban youth and the respect of the establishment during a time when anything less would have likely rung the demise of Chrysler.

His car collection is as eclectic as he is, and many of Ralph’s recent builds are tastefully understated Italian classics from Alfa Romeo and Peugeot. But the '68 Charger been his dream car since he was a young boy, even before it found worldwide fame as Bo and Luke’s dirt road devil on the "Dukes of Hazzard."

Then a few years back, he got up close and personal with SpeedKore and its carbon fiber-bodied, Demon-powered 1970 Charger Evolution while at Spring Festival of Lx in Southern California. His vision also evolved: From a dream to a blueprint; then quickly from ink and paper to metal, carbon fiber, and leather. The collaboration of SpeedKore’s experience in crafting hypercar-level muscle cars mixed with Ralph’s iconic design touch gave rise to an instant legend in Hellucination.

Last summer as Ralph was filling me in on the progress of this 1,200hp Hellephant packing project, I suggested that when Hellucination was complete he should take it on the Hot Rod Power Tour. "Hell yes," he said. "And you can be the co-pilot."

So, on the working-class Power Tour, Ralph and I took the freshly-built, bespoke, one-off monster 1,400 miles from Gatlinburg, Tenn., then a detour into the Blue Ridge Mountains, on to Memphis, then to Nashville and back to Gatlinburg. At the tour stops, Hellucination was a rock star, gathering hordes of admiring fans as soon as we’d pull in. Most assumed the carbon fiber was a wrap, because who the hell is crazy enough to drive a real carbon fiber car on the street? The temperatures were into triple figures and we did not take it easy on the roads between stops. It was a successful maiden voyage.

Back in Michigan, Gilles and his wife, Doris, cruised Hellucination around Detroit this summer before SpeedKore scooped it up to be shown at the prestigious and exclusive The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering in Monterey, Calif. And just like its owner, it looked as at home at a luxury resort next to Pagani’s collection of Huayras and Zondas as it did chilling in a NASCAR track’s infield surrounded by big block Camaros and lifted pickup trucks.

After my tour with Gilles and Hellucination, I needed to speak with the fabrication team at SpeedKore to learn more about their most intensive carbon fiber build to date. So I jumped on a Zoom call with senior project manager Tom Porter, lead fabricator Bill Jakum, and carbon fiber specialist Corey Lake.

Watch the interview. The passion, soul, and ingenuity poured into this project are second to none.

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