Free Republic

Dodge has summoned another monster from the underworld. The latest is a new 1,000 hp engine called the “Hellephant” that’s based on the brand’s Hellcat supercharged V8 and will be offered as a crate motor for custom car builders next year. Its name is a tip of the hat to the original “Elephant” 426 Hemi V8 from the 1960s, and the new engine features an aluminum block with a bigger bore and stroke than the 376 cubic-inch Hellcat’s that brings it up to a historically appropriate 426 cubic-inches. The engine mixes parts from the engines found in the Dodge Challenger...

Update: At the 2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Toyota announced that the company is now developing the GR Super Sport Concept as a road car, effectively bringing Le Mans tech to the streets, a first since the GT1 era. What a time to be alive. Our original story on the concept, published 1/12/18, appears below. ______________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ Last year, Toyota boss Akio Toyoda said that as the auto industry approaches times of tremendous change he is "strongly determined to make sure that cars will be fun for the next 100 years." One small step towards that honorable goal would...