Hennessey Performance has been offering its ‘Maximus’ take on the Jeep Gladiator pickup for a while now, and a recent official video highlights its strengths nicely for those who still haven’t got one.
The donor vehicle is a standard truck with a 3.6-liter Pentastar V6, but the engine says goodbye to the bay first thing in the morning. A massive 6.2-liter Hellcat V8 slots in in its place and drives the wheels with a guaranteed 1,014 PS (1,000 hp / 746 kW) ans up to 1,264 Nm (933 lb-ft) of torque. The standard sprint is a matter of 3.9 seconds for the Maximus, which suddenly sounds very impressive when you look at its suspension.
The suspension has almost nothing stock left in it. Both axles are Dana 60, the driveshafts benefit from reinforcements, the ground clearance is 6 inches (152 mm) greater than before, and new aluminum rims wear BFGoodrich rubber into the wild. Those who want the most out of the build can ask the tuner for custom bumpers and retractable running boards, as well as extra lights for nighttime driving.
In the end, the Maximus comes across as no-tradeoffs truck that feels equally at home in the dirt and on the tarmac.