Turbo-4, or super-8. Ooh boy.
Imagine this: You could go online, fill out a form, pay some money and get one of two incredibly potent engines sitting on your driveway sooner rather than later. You might be particularly interested if you’re one of many people that have a project car sitting in the shed, waiting for an engine to propel it (furiously) toward the horizon. Well, you can now choose between the 6.2-litre supercharged Hellcat V8 from Fiat-Chrysler, or a 2.0-litre turbocharged VTEC engine from Honda.
If you’re eyeing the smaller, lighter Honda Civic Type R engine, we have to rain on your parade. While Honda is selling the engines in the US market to willing buyers, it’s only doing so as part of its HPD Honda Racing Line grassroots racing support program, and is designating the engine to be used exclusively in closed-circuit racing applications, and will not be permitted for road-going vehicles whatsoever.
Honda isn’t even asking that much for it, just US$6520 (plus shipping) for an engine, which works out to roughly $8500 in our money. That’s really very little for what is (we assume) a reliable, stress-tested engine that packs more than 200kW of power from such a small, efficient package. It’s a shame this engine can’t be shoehorned into say, an old Integra or a classic Civic coupe, but at least we can be sure that the applications for this engine in the world of motorsports means that the mill will now get stress tested to extreme degrees, which for regular Civic Type R buyers means that they’ll have reliability to boast about (not that Hondas were ever really suspect anyway), or Honda will be able to identify potential issues with road-engines based on the increased stresses that racing engines are subject to.
On the other hand, that restriction doesn’t exist for the Hellcat V8, which you can buy as part of a “Hellcrate” package for US$20,000 and some change (or $25,500 give or take). FCA will be happy to let you put that engine wherever you’d like it, and the base Hellcrate kit even comes with wiring harnesses, an accelerator pedal, ground jumper, fuel pump controller, oxygen and charge air temperature sensors, along with an unlocked powertrain control module. Out of the box you can expect to see 527kW, optimised for use with a six-speed manual, though there’s a lot more that can be unlocked with some fettling.
Add another $2885 and you can get the Front End Accessory Drive package, which throws in an alternator, power steering pump, pulleys and an assortment of other kit to further simplify the installation of the super-V8 engine into whatever takes your fancy. And with no restrictions insofar as application of the engine, you really can shoehorn it wherever you’d like, but just remember to keep regulations in mind before you attempt to create a V8 supermini.
Pick your poison, petrolheads. It’s a great time to be alive.
Stay tuned to CarShowroom as we bring you updates as they come.
