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Here’s a fun fact that you might not have known: the award-winning Jeep Gladiator pickup‘s engine bay is, technically, big enough to accommodate parent company Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles’ incredibly powerful 6.2-liter Hellcat V8 engine. Someone was bound to combine them.
That someone, it turns out, is Texas-based tuner Hennessey Performance. The builder of the 775-horsepower Ford F-150 and many, many other souped-up rides has jammed the Hellcat into the Gladiator Rubicon to create what they call the Gladiator Maximus. When debuting the truck at the 2019 SEMA Show, John Hennessey described the Maximus as “badassery on four wheels.” That may be an understatement.
This Gladiator puts out 1,000 horsepower — about 300 more than the Ram Rebel TRX will have — routed through an eight-speed automatic. Hennessey says it will accelerate from 0-60 mph in just 3.9 seconds. It also gets a six-inch suspension lift, among other off-road add-ons.
Here’s the catch: Hennessey has a very limited production run planned. The initial announcement mentioned 24 trucks. Hennessey then pared that down to 12, given the difficulty of the conversion. And should you desperately need one of these to park in your driveway, the time to act is now: the company has just built Maximus number four, which is now on sale.
Oh, and if you’re wondering how much a custom rig like this would cost, the answer is a lot. The original announcement said the trucks would cost $225,000 — more than five times the cost of a stock Gladiator Rubicon. The Instagram post for this particular truck just gives a phone number to call for pricing, so you might need to pay even more.
But still: Hellcat-powered Gladiator.
