Photo: Mopar
Available to pre-order since Hemi day (April 26th), the Hellephant is sold out. Mopar hasn’t given production numbers for the 426-cu.in. leviathan of an engine, but chances are the supercharged V8 is limited to 100 examples of the breed in the first instance.
Presented with great pomp and circumstance at the 2018 SEMA Show in Las Vegas, the Hellephant “sold out in just two days” according to a representative from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. “Given the high demand and the hand-built, time-intensive build process, we have closed preordering” for the time being.
Allpar.com believes that “it would make sense for the company to figure out a way to make more examples of the 1,000-horsepower crate engine.” The $29,995 starting price makes the 7.0-liter blunderbuss more expensive than the Charger ($29,220 excluding destination) and Challenger ($27,845) with the 3.6-liter Pentastar V6 workhorse.
In the meantime, Mopar offers three alternatives depending on the customer’s needs. The 6.2-liter Hellcat is $20,020 from the get-go, followed by the 6.4-liter HEMI at $9,960. The 5.7-liter HEMI is also available for a much more reasonable $6,480, to which the Engine Kit adds $1,795 to the price. In the case of the Hellcat and Hellephant, make that $2,265.
The good news for those who missed out on the Hellephant is that “at least a couple of the people who were able to order one will be looking to flip it.” Allpar.com suggests these individuals will charge more than the list price of $29,995 because that’s how exclusivity works in the automotive industry.
Hellephant comes from the 426 HEMI that Plymouth used in the 1960s to win NASCAR events. The “Elephant engine” used to be offered in the Dodge Coronet, Dart, Charger Daytona, Plymouth Fury, GTX, and Superbird. In street-legal configuration, the 426 HEMI was offered from 1965 through 1971.
In these applications, the Gen 2 HEMI with 426 cubic inches of displacement used to crank out 425 horsepower (431 PS) at 5,000 rpm and 490 pound-feet (664 Nm) of torque at 4,000 rpm. Actual testing on the dyno, however, revealed more suck-squeeze-bang-blow than the SAE gross output.
Allpar.com believes that “it would make sense for the company to figure out a way to make more examples of the 1,000-horsepower crate engine.” The $29,995 starting price makes the 7.0-liter blunderbuss more expensive than the Charger ($29,220 excluding destination) and Challenger ($27,845) with the 3.6-liter Pentastar V6 workhorse.
In the meantime, Mopar offers three alternatives depending on the customer’s needs. The 6.2-liter Hellcat is $20,020 from the get-go, followed by the 6.4-liter HEMI at $9,960. The 5.7-liter HEMI is also available for a much more reasonable $6,480, to which the Engine Kit adds $1,795 to the price. In the case of the Hellcat and Hellephant, make that $2,265.
The good news for those who missed out on the Hellephant is that “at least a couple of the people who were able to order one will be looking to flip it.” Allpar.com suggests these individuals will charge more than the list price of $29,995 because that’s how exclusivity works in the automotive industry.
Hellephant comes from the 426 HEMI that Plymouth used in the 1960s to win NASCAR events. The “Elephant engine” used to be offered in the Dodge Coronet, Dart, Charger Daytona, Plymouth Fury, GTX, and Superbird. In street-legal configuration, the 426 HEMI was offered from 1965 through 1971.
In these applications, the Gen 2 HEMI with 426 cubic inches of displacement used to crank out 425 horsepower (431 PS) at 5,000 rpm and 490 pound-feet (664 Nm) of torque at 4,000 rpm. Actual testing on the dyno, however, revealed more suck-squeeze-bang-blow than the SAE gross output.
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