Madmen are Building a 1,000-HP, Hellcat-Powered Prius

Some enthusiasts still view the Toyota Prius as the boogeyman — a car designed to steal your soul and the fun of driving. Its squat, boxy, economical persona compounded by the car’s overzealous, eco-friendly owners doesn’t help that image, either. But is a Prius still uncool if you drop a Whipple supercharged 6.2-liter V-8 sourced from Dodge’s hellacious Hellcat?

The project is being undertaken by American Racing Headers (ARH) in Deer Park, New York. And they aren’t doing things half-cocked either. Instead of just dropping in the Hellcat engine and hoping for the best, the ARH team took the time to fabricate and weld up an NHRA-approved tube chassis. If they hadn’t, the Prius would probably rip itself apart from the sheer torque of the engine. After all, the second-gen hybrid was never designed to handle more than 110 hp. ARH calls its creation the “PriuSRT8.”

Adding to this Prius’ naughty nature is that ARH built up the already ludicrous Hellcat engine. In the end, when everything is plumbed and ready to rock, the supercharged V-8 will put down nearly 1,000 hp through a Tremec-sourced Magnum six-speed manual transmission and a custom Ford 9-inch rear-end built by MidWest Chassis.

Although this Prius may seem sacrilegious to many, we think it’s rad. Who wouldn’t want a 1,000-hp Prius that screams like the supercharged Hellcat and Demon?

Source: American Racing Headers

 

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