‘Rich Rebuilds’ Hellcat Minivan Is (Mostly) Finished and It’s as Incredible as We Hoped

Rich Rebuilds has his wild Hellcat minivan running and driving, and its equal bits terrifying and amazing, as expected.

Roughly a month ago, Rich Benoit of the mega-popular YouTube channel Rich Rebuilds announced that he was going to build something that, well, we’ve been waiting for someone to put together for a while now – a Hellcat minivan, which is about the only thing that Dodge didn’t stuff that particular powerplant in during its long and illustrious run. Benoit was keen to set out and right that particular oversight, a desire he gained from the simple fact that, well, he’s a massive Hellcat fan, having owned several vehicles with that powerplant. Now, that insane build is officially finished – well, almost – and terrorizing the streets.

Rumors of a Chrysler Pacifica variant being sold with Hellcat power swirled years ago, and later became a bit of a meme, given the fact that for a few glorious years, it seemed like Dodge was eager to stuff a supercharged V8 in everything it sold. Many of us had dreams of hauling the family to soccer games or the local big box store and smoking sports cars at stoplights along the way, but alas, a Hellcat minivan never came to be. Benoit already had a Charger Hellcat in his possession that was churning out 850 wheel horsepower, so all he had to do was purchase a clean Pacifica and mate the two things together.

Of course, the process wasn’t quite that simple – Benoit had to hack the entire top portion of the Charger off and basically lower the Pacifica’s body on top of it, which wasn’t exactly the way he wanted it to go. However, Benoit spent years building the world’s first LS-powered Tesla, so he knew that this was the best way to make things happen a bit faster. When you’re in the business of providing content to folks with short attention spans, well, spending a year on this project just wasn’t good for business.

Amazingly, this seemingly crazy scheme worked, though as we can see from the finished product, it’s, well, a bit sketchy, to say the least. There’s still some work to be done before this project is completely finished to Benoit’s taste – including ensuring that the Hellcat minivan has enough cool air feeding its hungry V8, the interior is mostly missing still, and the electronics and airbags need some sorting to work properly – after which Uncle Rich plans to give it a new coat of paint or vinyl wrap. Regardless, there’s no denying that this is one seriously cool project, and one that we’d say is a long time coming.

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Brett Foote

Brett Foote has been covering the automotive industry for over five years and is a longtime contributor to Internet Brands’ Auto Group sites, including Chevrolet Forum, Rennlist, and Ford Truck Enthusiasts, among other popular sites.

He has been an automotive enthusiast since the day he came into this world and rode home from the hospital in a first-gen Mustang, and he's been wrenching on them nearly as long.

In addition to his expertise writing about cars, trucks, motorcycles, and every other type of automobile, Brett had spent several years running parts for local auto dealerships.

You can follow along with his builds and various automotive shenanigans on Instagram: @bfoote.