Welcome to Sunday Matinee, where we highlight classic car reviews or other longer videos I find on YouTube. Kick back and enjoy this blast from the past.


Very few journalists ever get to drive concept cars. Fewer than that ever get to film it. They can be unfinished and unrefined, not representative of a company's best work when it comes to driving feel. So it's kind of nuts that James May got to drive some back in the day, with a hat.

The Dodge Power Wagon concept debuted in 1999, an era when bigger was still better, so it made no difference that it was ridiculously enormous. Oh, and it was powered by a 7.2-liter straight-six diesel engine, which sounds akin to something you'd find in an 18-wheeler. Ironically, it was intended to probe the limits of efficiency, as it featured a natural gas-derived synthetic fuel, which was low in sulfur and which was supposed to improve emissions.


Obviously, since Dodge re-used the Power Wagon moniker for something else entirely a few years later, it never saw production.

The 1999 Dodge Charger concept featured a supercharged V8, this time powered entirely by compressed natural gas, and it's face reminiscent of the Intrepid should be one clue that it never went into production. Also, unless you've been living somewhere that isn't near the Western Hemisphere for the last 9 years or so, you should know there's a completely different Charger around.

It does not have an Intrepid face, and it is not this thing.

But hey, they're still cool to see actually out and driving.

Also, James May has short hair. That's weird.