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."

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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