Cheap Stolen Charger Hellcat Gets Some Beefy Upgrades

By Brett Foote - December 26, 2024

Charger Hellcat was stolen twice before landing in good hands, and now, it’s getting a widebody kit, new wheels, and other upgrades.

As many Mopar fans are already painfully aware, cars like the Charger Hellcat are quite popular with thieves – meaning that we owners of such models have to think about that particular problem any time they drive somewhere, or even park one in their driveway. On the flip side, recovered stolen Charger Hellcat models can also be had for pennies on the dollar at auctions, which was the case with this 2016 example that Alex Palmeri of the Legit Street Cars YouTube channel managed to score for cheap recently. Now, that same machine is getting a variety of upgrades.

Palmeri wound up purchasing his twice-stolen and recovered Charger Hellcat for $23,300 with relatively low miles on the clock, though it was quite nasty as the person that last stole it used it to transport drugs and even lived in it for some time. Other than a good cleaning and a loose sway bar that needed tightening, this Charger Hellcat was in pretty solid condition, however, and even put down 691 horsepower on the dyno. Since then, Palmeri has added some upgrades including larger fuel injectors, an air intake, and a new supercharger pulley that upped that total to 791 horsepower.

After removing some tacky bolt-on bits and pieces, Palmeri reveals his next upgrades for the Charger Hellcat – a widebody kit, along with a new and massive set of wheels and tires to fill up the new heavily-flared bodywork. Before painting all of those bits and pieces to match, Palmeri first test fits them to ensure they match up nicely – which turns out to be wise, as the parts do need a little bit of work to make them fit flawlessly.

In the process, Palmeri completes a few other items on his to-do list, such as replacing the A/C lines, and ensuring that everything is going to function as it should from the factory. He also wires up a switch for the fan before all of his shiny new bodywork returns from paint – at which time he proceeds to put it all together. The results of all that work, well, they speak for themselves, and this Charger Hellcat is looking and running better than ever – though we’re fairly certain that Palmeri isn’t finished tinkering with it just yet.