John Hennessey is known for creating some of North America’s most insane performance cars through his Texas-based tuning company Hennessey Performance. He also has five kids and something of a soft spot for performance SUVs.
Since there was nothing on the market that could offer his desired blend of space and performance, Hennessey decided to create his own. Meet the Mammoth 1000. What you see here is essentially an SUV version of the Ram TRX double cab bakkie – which Stellantis created to rival the Ford F-150 Raptor.
Being Hennessey, you can be sure that what’s under the bonnet is far from standard. Thanks to an upgraded supercharger and software mods, the Ram’s 6.2-litre Hemi V8 now produces 755 kW and 1314 N.m, which is a 232 kW and 433 N.m improvement over the showroom-spec Ram TRX.
According to the tuner, the Mammoth 1000 SUV will flatten the quarter mile in 11.4 seconds, while the 0 – 96 km/h sprint is covered in just 3.2 seconds.
As for the practicality aspect, the SUV body conversion has allowed for a complete reconfiguration of the interior, which now boasts second row ‘Captain’s Chairs’ and a folding third-row bench seat. However, according to Hennessey, owners might never need to use the fold function as there is said to be ample luggage space behind the back row.
The big off-roader also receives custom bumpers, 20 inch Henneseey wheels with off-road tyres and a front suspension levelling kit.
“I have a big family with five kids and have always enjoyed owing big, powerful SUV’s,” John Hennessey said.
“In 2012 we converted the first-generation Ford Raptor into our VelociRaptor SUV – I still own one today and love it. Now, we are excited to offer something very similar, but with a lot more horsepower, using the new Ram TRX truck as our base vehicle.
“Creating this king of SUVs offers our customers the ultimate combination of space, power and exclusivity,” Hennessey added.
The company is planning to build just 20 Mammoth 1000s, with prices starting at $375 000, which equated to around R5.4 million at the time of writing.
