There was a time when the Dodge Dakota R/T still reigned supreme in the mid-size truck segment of the market, but Ford and Chevrolet have taken it over since then. Holley Performance chose to remind everyone what it felt like to drive one back in the time.
The tuner picked a model year 1999 R/T pickup that came equipped with a 5.9-liter V8 rated at 250 PS (247 hp / 184 kW) – it didn’t get much better than that two decades ago. The team then swapped the engine out for a 6.2-liter Hellcat V8 mated to a convenient modern eight-speed A/T.
The exterior was allowed to stay stock, more or less, while the interior borrowed several things from the Charger Hellcat, including the center touchscreen, the drive mode selector and the fully functional paddle shifters.
There is no mention of power or acceleration yet, because the project is still far from finished. You can see the truck cook up some smoky donuts in the attached three-minute video, however, and Holly Performance should take it to the dyno stand and the drag strip soon.