Speedkore's 1970 Dodge Charger Hellephant

Looks can be deceiving, they say. And when you see the latest Speedkore 1970 Dodge Charger, you totally understand the meaning behind this saying. What looks like a classic Charger from the 1970s is actually one absolute muscle monster with a modern powertrain and technologies.

The carbon fiber–bodied project retains the vintage looks of the original but hides a lot of secrets underneath the familiar shapes. The build rides on a custom ladder frame with an aluminum floor pan for the chassis, while the body is a mixture of carbon fiber and billet aluminum. There’s also a roll cage installed for additional rigidity.

It's not the first all-carbon Mopar from the company. The first vehicle was first unveiled a few years ago at the SEMA show, powered by a Mopar-delivered 6.2-liter V8 with 966 horsepower (720 kilowatts) at the wheels. It was mated to a Tremec T-56 six-speed manual gearbox. For this Charger build, Speedkore decided to replace the powertrain with a more powerful and efficient one.

A 7.0-liter Hellephant V8 is now under the hood mated to a ZF-sourced eight-speed automatic transmission. It has an estimated output of 1,000 hp (746 kW) and 950 pound-feet (1,288 Newton-meters) of torque. Of course, power reaches the rear wheels.

While this video doesn’t provide a look at the actual numbers measured by the dyno, it’s nice to see there's a working prototype with the new engine. It delivers an amazing sound and we can’t wait to see the final output figures and the car in action.

Bear in mind that Speedkore’s retro Charger doesn’t come cheap. In its earlier form, the starting price was about $400,000 based on client specifications and we expect the new more powerful version to be even more expensive.