Hemi-Swapped Toyota Supra Will Trigger All the Purists

A80 Toyota Supra fans—who largely live and breathe the iconic 2JZ—will lose their marbles seeing a monster 7.0-liter Hellephant Hemi V-8 stuffed into the engine bay. Meanwhile, the Hemi faithful are wincing at the thought of God’s own engine powering a Japanese sports car. If there was one build to anger everyone, it’s this machine.

This particular version of the engine is a Hellcat on steroids, making 1,000 horsepower right out of the box it was shipped in. The Hellephant crate engine is designed to be a turn-key supercharged V-8 for custom projects, though we suspect the Mopar engineers who created it envisioned Hellephant-powered Plymouth Road Runner restomods. Dropping this engine into a 1990s Supra isn’t remotely close to being a turn-key build.

This project, as chronicled in the above ScrapLifeLee video, takes us through what is likely the hardest part of the swap—simply getting the engine in there. The crew used a placeholder block to suss out all the engine mounts, which required cutting up the stock front subframe. Truth be told, the initial fitment didn’t look that bad. And with mounts welded into place, the Hellephant settled into place like butter. It even sat back far enough to balance weight out of the nose.

The automatic (yes, automatic) transmission also went in rather easily, but the custom headers were a different story. There were clearance issues on the passenger side, and the steering shaft on the driver’s side required some prybar action to get everything situated. But it worked. This A80 Toyota Supra officially has a Hellephant V-8 with all its accessories and a pair of humongous headers bolted up.

The video continues with the installation of a Supra-specific fuel cell and the piping to the engine, but sadly, that’s where this portion of the story ends. It seems like the hard work is done, but bonkers builds like this always manage to drop a surprise or two before the end. For what it’s worth, we can’t wait to see what happens next.