When you think of a Toyota Prius what’s the first thing that pops into your mind? Eco-friendly? Tree-hugger? Leonardo DiCaprio? Whatever the Prius makes you think, we’re going to guess it’s not ‘fast’.
American Racing Headers looks to solve that. After getting its hands on a spare Challenger Hellcat engine, the Long Island company stuffed it into the most unlikely car imaginable. In doing so, the performance exhaust and header specialist created the PriuSRT8.
Typically the second gen Prius comes with a 1.5-liter gas-electric hybrid engine good for 110hp. Performance is pretty weak with a 0-60mph time around 10 seconds. The quarter mile figures are equally pedestrian, at around 18 seconds and 78 mph.
The boys at American Racing Headers set their sights on 1,000 hp with the Hellcat swap. This is thanks to an upgraded Whipple supercharger and a whole host of other performance upgrades. When it’s all said and done, the PriuSRT8 should hit 60mph in less than 4 seconds. The quarter mile could be in the nine-second range at over 150mph.
While this may just be a Prius body covering a race car chassis, it still will very much look like the hybrid Toyota. The beefy drag slicks in the rear might ruin the sleeper look though.
It’s not a finished project yet, with ARH hoping to complete the PriuSRT8 by early next year. Its first event is the TX2K at Royal Purple Raceway in March 2018.
Check out American Racing Headers on Facebook to see the build progress.
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