At the SEMA performance industry show in Las Vegas this week, Mopar reset the bar for factory crate engines—at 1,000 horsepower. Behold the Hellephant 426 Hemi V8.
Once upon a time, the 1,000-hp street engine was as much fantasy as reality, a castle in the air. Sure, it was possible, but it required a top-notch engine builder, along with a tall stack of cash and an endless supply of patience. And often. the results were still problematic (believe us). But that was then, and this is now. Very soon, we will be able to purchase a 1,000-hp crate engine straight over the counter, and its bona fides are solid enough that a major global automaker—Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, through its Mopar performance brand—is willing to put its name on it. Oh, and it runs on 93 octane pump gas.
Preliminary info is incomplete, but here’s what we know so far: Unlike FCA’s Hellcat and Demon V8s, which use cast-iron blocks, the 7.0-liter Hellephant employs an aluminum cylinder case for reduced weight. (The Challenger factory Drag Pak race cars also use the lightweight piece.) With a bore of 4.125 inches and a longish stroke of 4.00 inches, the displacement works out to 427.65 cubic inches, which Mopar has rounded down to 426 for marketing juice, a callback to the mighty 426 Chrysler Hemi of 1964.
Of course, the four-figure power number and 950 lb-ft of torque are generated via yards and yards of supercharger boost, it’s safe to say. It almost goes without saying. Specs have not yet been disclosed but as a benchmark, we note the 6.2-liter SRT Demon V8, the automaker’s previous power champ at 840 hp, uses an IHI 2.7-liter twin-screw compressor to produce 14.5 psi boost. We presume the Hellephant’s combination resides somewhere north of there, with peak power achieved somewhere in the 6,000-to-6,500 rpm range, as with other current-gen Mopar V8s. Valvetrain gear, Mopar reports, is the same hardware developed for the Demon V8. As more information develops, we may circle back with a complete feature.
No list price has been announced yet, but for reference we note that the Hellcrate, the crate-motor version of the Dodge Hellcat supercharged V8 that launched at last year’s SEMA show, carried an initial price of $19,530, with speed retailers such as Summit Racing and Jeg’s offering discounts into the $16,000 range. With the aluminum block and other trick pieces, we may expect the Hellephant to be somewhat more pricey but somewhere near that general neighborhood.
Mopar offers a complete wiring harness and ECU package, complete with fly-by-wire throttle control, for around $2,000 (above). And for another two grand, there’s a FEAD (Front End Accessory Drive) kit with serpentine belt and hardware. With the addition of these two kits, the Hellephant is a drop-in, plug-and-play horsepower monster, Mopar says.
So what kind of road car uses a 1,000-hp Hemi V8? What do you do with it? To stimulate our imaginations a bit, the company put together the Mopar Super Charger, a high-end street machine based on an original ’68 Dodge Charger (below). FCA’s Product Design Office (PDO) performed the restyling duties, creating a widebody look with meaty fender flares to cover the 21-inch wheels and tires. There’s a full roll cage inside, and in this installation, the Hellephant is coupled to a Tremec T-6060 six-speed manual transmission. Yikes, that sounds like fun. Mopar says your Hellephant crate engine will be ready in the first quarter of 2019.
