Mopar's 1,000-hp Hellephant crate engine sold out in just two days
At $29,995 before the optional wiring harness, it certainly wasn't cheap.
Given the way the automotive industry is moving, I feel pretty comfortable saying that there probably won't be too many 1,000-horsepower engines coming directly from automakers in the future. Therefore, the people who managed to get an order in for Mopar's Hellephant crate engine should consider themselves quite lucky.
Mopar's 1,000-horsepower Hellephant crate engine sold out in just two days, Allpar reported Thursday, citing confirmation from a Fiat Chrysler spokesperson. FCA didn't specify exactly how many engines were sold, but as Allpar notes, it's likely not a very large number, given that each engine is hand-built. Allpar also pointed out that this single run of crate engine may not be the last, so people still looking to pick one up can hold on to some hope for the future.
The Hellephant is, in a word, bonkers. Originally unveiled ahead of the SEMA show last year, this 7.0-liter (426-cubic-inch) engine has a 3.0-liter supercharger shoving 15 pounds of boost into the Hemi III's combustion chambers. The result? 1,000 horsepower and 950 pound-feet of torque.
At $29,995 per engine, the Hellephant sure wasn't cheap. But that's just the base price. Folks looking for a little plug-and-play action could drop an extra $2,265 for an optional kit that included a wiring harness, a powertrain control module and a by-wire gas pedal. None of those extraneous bits are necessary, per se -- if there's enough space in the engine bay for it, a talented person can make it work in just about any car or truck body, so long as the underlying chassis can handle the torque. A 1,000-horsepower car is no good if it twists the frame on its first outing, after all.
To give an idea of what could be done with the Hellephant, Dodge also introduced its Super Charger concept, a highly modified version of a 1968 Dodge Charger. Sitting 2.5 inches lower than usual, with massive fender flares, a stretched wheelbase, exhaust tips in the taillights and a veritable Mopar catalog's worth of modern parts, it was never meant to be street legal, but it was definitely meant to be an absolute monster.
