The car community has been masochistically obsessed with the idea of a Hellcat engine stuffed inside of a Jeep Gladiator since the Wrangler-based pickup truck debuted, despite the safety concerns about the swap straight from Jeep. But the Hellcat Gladiator exists nonetheless, and one could be yours for just $150,000.
The 707-horsepower Gladiator is for sale at a dealership in Phoenix called Mark Mitsubishi, as shared by The Drive
last week. The actual list price is $147,992, if the extra $2,008 off
influences your purchasing decision, and it’s listed as pre-owned with
1,456 miles.
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| © Image: Mark Mitsubishi Phoenix |
There are logos for America’s Most Wanted 4x4 all over the pickup,
which is a shop that advertises things like Hellcat, Demon and Hellephant
engine swaps on Gladiators and Wranglers. This particular swap was done
on a Gladiator Rubicon trim, which starts at $43,545 on the
configurator with Jeep’s standard 285-HP, 3.6-liter Pentastar V6 in it.
America’s Most Wanted 4x4 advertises its Gladiator Hellcat conversion kit—the important word there being “kit”—for $58,850.
The
question, then, is whether the extra 422 HP, all swapped, pretty and
ready to go, is worth the extra $100,000. The answer is “maybe if you
use $100 bills as dish towels.” (Don’t do that. They will end up with
more germs than they had when they went into the sink.)
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| © Image: Mark Mitsubishi Phoenix |
But even if it seems like a big price premium, people have been oddly
fascinated with the idea of a Hellcat Gladiator since the truck debuted
last year,
despite Jeep’s North American boss, Tim Kuniskis, saying it maybe
wasn’t the safest idea. Here’s what he told Australian outlet Drive:
“Everybody always asks me that question: it fits. You know that. It fits like a glove,” he said.
“But the problem is that it fits like a glove and there is no air space around the engine and the whole external space of the vehicle so you have no crush space; you have nothing that can be used to absorb energy in a crash.
“It is not a problem to put it in - other than emissions and fuel economy - except it would never pass any crash tests, and that’s a problem.”
Ah, well. Life full of risks—and, so long as no one else is put in danger, it all depends on which ones we decide are worth it to take.
