Last year, the Mopar crowd was all about the Hellcats, and with the recent announcement that the Hellcat-powered Grand Cherokee Trackhawk is a go, the excitement continued. Of course, speculation is that, with dealer markup, the Trackhawk could run upwards of $80,000 – quite a bit even for a 700 horsepower SUV.
Or you can forego the Hellcat excitement and get your own Hellacious Jeep Cherokee from this seller in Long Beach, California, and finish his build yourself for under $25 grand. The Jeep has been started, and needs someone with a trailer and some room to finish it, but when you start adding up the components, you’ve got one helluva Jeep that’s ready to pounce.
It began life as a 1985 Jeep Cherokee two-door, and now resembles something you might see on Street Outlaws. The Jeep has been stretched a foot, and sports a full mild steel custom chassis. The 440 cubic inch Chrysler mill is a Stage IV Indy motor that gets some serious boost from a 14-71 Littlefield Retro High Helix blower.
The Jeep’s set up for alcohol with a Big Ugly injector setup, and runs a Hughes Glide automatic to transfer the power to the 10.5-inch wide slicks mounted to the Ford 9-inch, braced rearend. Disc brakes help do the stopping, but the brake work will need to be completed, also.
The good news is that everything is new with zero hours on the engine. The bad news? The wife may disown you when you bring this one home. But that just gives you more time to finish your own Hellacious Jeep Cherokee, right? Now let’s hear the Ford and Chevy fans chime in: “fat cat can’t handle.” But does it need to?