How quickly can you get your kids to school? Come this fall, probably not as quickly as Freddy Hernandez, known to YouTubers as Tavarish. Hernandez has found one of the few current Chrysler products not to get a Hellcat engine—the humble Chrysler Pacifica—and plans to correct Chrysler’s FCA’s Stellantis’ obvious oversight in time for this year’s SEMA show. Ladies and gentleman, meet the future (hopefully) Pacifica Hellcat.
We’d love to go into great technical detail about this build, but really, “He’s putting a Hellcat in a Chrysler Pacifica” pretty tells you all that you need to know. Hernandez is working from a concept drawing by Abimelec Arellano, starting with a front-drive Pacifica (currently wrapped in Chrysler’s Frostbite blue) that seems a bit tired from 200,000 miles’ worth of family chores.
It’ll be awake soon. Hiding behind a garage door is a Hellcat engine which, for those unfamiliar, is Chrysler’s monster 6.2 liter supercharged V-8. It produces between 707 and 807 hp in its various stock iterations, and while we don’t know what the final figures will be for Hernandez’s build—800 is the figure he’s bandying about—it’s bound to be an improvement over the car’s current 287-hp 3.6 liter V-6.
Hernandez doesn’t expect too many headaches for the installation. The fit will be snug, for sure, but Hernandez is confident that a bit of adjustment to the firewall is all he’ll need to accommodate the V-8—well, that and a bulged hood with a (single) scoop. There’s no need for a new tunnel, as the Pacifica’s Stow-n-Go storage wells should provide plenty of empty space for driveline bits. Pacificas already have space for a propshaft, and Hernandez figures that using the rear subframe from an all-wheel-drive Pacifica will save him a lot of fabrication time.
Once the engine is in, the plan is to finish the car with Redeye-spec Brembo brakes and OEM Redeye wheels painted matte bronze (and, we assume, affordable tires, since he’ll be going through a lot of those). Whether the car will keep its Frostbite color is up for debate; he’s also considering Hellraisin Purple.
We caught up with the Pacifica Hellcat-To-Be at eBay’s New York Auto Parts Show, a display of project builds using bits and pieces that builders picked up on the well-known auction site, which also has a blog where you can read more about the Hellcat Pacifica project. Hopefully Hernandez keeps that PayPal account warmed up, because we can’t wait to see how this tire-smoking mommymobile turns out.
Keyword: Youtuber Tavarish Is Building the Hellcat-Powered Pacifica Minivan Chrysler Won't