With the advent of the compact-sized Ford Maverick and Hyundai Santa Cruz trucks, this segment of the market relives another rise after a few decades of stagnation. Back in the time, smaller pickups like the Dodge Dakota were quite popular in the USA and beyond. For today, let us watch a video by BoostedMotorsports featuring one such pickup as an engine-swapped restomod.
Basing their reasoning on the fact that the Dacota is still technically a Dodge, the owner outfitted it with a steering wheel, dashboard and infotainment system taken from modern Dodge cars. The wheels and enormous brakes in particular were stripped off a Dodge Viper. The headlight units are an aftermarket model, but they look like something that could be there straight from the factory.
Powering the ride is a supercharged eight-cylinder engine of the Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat. The tests have shown that the pickup handles nicely with the new drivetrain, although the load distribution with an empty bed is quite biased toward the front. Aside from that, the new odometer does not function due to a missing ABS system, but this should be fixable.