Two weekends ago, the 5thGenRams.com staff traveled to Grand Bend Motorplex in Grand Bend, Ontario for some drag racing fun at our friend Dave Hayes’ SRT Hayes event. While we were there we had to catch up with our friend Charles, a 5thGenRams forum member who has been working a very unique 2019 Ram 1500 Rebel. By unique, we mean insane.
While some might be fine with the performance of the legendary 5.7-liter HEMI V8, it wasn’t enough for Charles. Instead of waiting for Ram to bring their upcoming Rebel TRX to market, he decided to create his own 707 horsepower HEMI HELLCAT V8 monster. That’s right, this is a HELLCAT-powered Ram Rebel! Charles is no stranger to building awesome trucks, he created an amazing lifted 2000 Dodge Dakota Quad Cab with a 5.9-liter Cummins turbo diesel under the hood. But with this project, he needed some help with the transplant, that’s when he reached out to America’s Most Wanted 4×4 in Holly, Michigan.
America’s Most Wanted 4×4 is known for HEMI swapping Jeep® Wranglers and Gladiators, so it made logical sense for them to help fit the massive supercharged HEMI under the hood of the Ram 1500 and it wasn’t easy. 5thGenRams got a chance to see the truck for its first startup at America’s Most Wanted 4×4 a few months back. Trying to fit the HELLCAT in the engine bay required a lot of modifications and relocating components.
Another issue was upgrading the cooling system for the engine, which relied upon a lot of Grand Cherokee Trackhawk parts to make everything work flawlessly. There was also a Challenger SRT Demon cold-air-intake installed for extra breathing power for the big HEMI. Charles also had a lot of help from HP Tuners, to help get the HELLCAT running smoothly in the Rebel.
Swapping the powertrain wasn’t the only thing Charles did to his Rebel. He installed the very first Fiberwerx widebody kit for the 2019 Ram 1500 (DT) trucks that were available to the public. This gives the truck a very bold and menacing appearance compared to the average Rebel and looks more in line with what a real production Rebel TRX would have. The truck also currently sits on the stock Ram four-corner air suspension and sits on a set of 18-inch Method 305 wheels wrapped in 37-inch x 12.5-inch Nitto Ridge Grapplers tires. The truck also features hand fabricated Rebel bumpers which are made to align the 4-inch wider widebody kit, Carven Competitor exhaust, and fabricated Dodge Charger SRT HELLCAT grille intakes.
While the Reb”HELL” has Charles likes to call it, is still an ongoing work in progress, he brought the truck to the event to lay down some laps and get some data. Without any modifications from his street tune, he went up for the first run. The truck loves the burnout box and with Line Lock feature from the ZAutomotive Tazer, the truck provides an awesome smoke show. After doing some tuning with the laptop the fastest pass of the day was a 13.244 @ 106.10 mph. Not bad for a massive full-size pickup on huge off-road tires. It was on that fast pass, that Charles wanted to hot lap the truck and both he and 5thGenRams Co-Editor Jared Balfour in his 2018 Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk did back to back passes, which turned out to be costly.
To see what happened and to see a walk around the truck, be sure to watch the video above. Also be sure to subscribe to the 5thGenRams YouTube channel, to see content before it hits the front page of the site. We also have a lot more coming in the next upcoming weeks on the channel so stay tuned.
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