2017 SEMA is officially under way and some of the biggest news today came directly from the automakers. Both Honda and Fiat-Chrysler made big news with the engines from some of their best performing new cars are now available as crate engines. Honda showed its 306-horsepower Civic Type R engine crate engine and Chrysler showed off the 707-horsepower Hellcat engine.
Honda’s new Civic Type R’s 2.0-liter DOHC direct-injected i-VTEC Turbo K20C1 engine makes 306 horsepower at 6,500 rpm and a peak 295 lb-ft of torque from 2,500 to 4,500 rpm. The somewhat disappointing news is that the engine is only available through the Honda Racing Line program, which you need to be the member of to buy the $6,519.87 engine. The press release does not say anything about a control module, harness, of the LSD-equipped transmission. Needless to say this is not going into my Integra, but that won’t stop me from asking Honda if they could provide the engine to me “for testing purposes” in my Integra.
Hellcrate is what they nicknamed, and with a good reason, too. You already know everything about this 707-horsepower, 650 torques 6.2-liter engine. Now know that you can get one [legally] without a car. It retails for, hold on to your nickles, $19,530. Opt for the $2195 Crate HEMI Engine Kit and you get the powertrain control module (PCM), power distribution center, engine wiring harness, chassis harness, accelerator pedal, ground jumper, oxygen sensors, charge air temperature sensors and fuel pump control module. The PCM is unlocked and set to the factory 707- horsepower calibration. The engine is optimized for use with manual transmissions.
Sold separately is Front End Accessory Drive (FEAD) Kit. It includes an alternator, power steering pump, belts, pulleys and more, is among additional engine accessory hardware components available to assist in installing the Mopar “Hellcrate” HEMI Engine Kit. Ya kinda need those in most cases. The good news is that the damn thing comes with a three-year/unlimited mileage warranty when purchased together.
I’d put the Civic Type R engine to an Ariel Atom, or my Integra, and the Hellcat engine into… my Lada!
By Kamil Kaluski
East Coast Editor. Races crappy cars and has an unhealthy obsession with Eastern Bloc cars. Current fleet: Ford Bronco, Lexus GX 470, and a Buick Regal crapcan racecar.
Jeff Glucker 
Christopher Tracy
Hellcat Lada is something I would like to see. That’s one hell of a way to make the little Soviet disintegrate.
Twisted like a pretzel after one run.
Only so much unless you can get traction!
So the answer to everything is no longer SBC?
Actually, the LS is the SBC of this era, although the Coyote is pretty popular in the kit car world.
Well there is bound to be a lot of broken trannies and rear ends.
RWD Helltegra.
Upgrading the Lada engine should be done with a way too large turbo you found on an idle tractor.
This would power my ultimate boat build. The main powerplant would be the Hellcrate. The bow thrusters and generator would be the Type-R engine.
Perfect for anyone who doesn’t want to spend a few hours sourcing parts that will produce more for far less.
You’re still a crusty old fart, even in death.
I’ve got an S2000 out here that might take that Hellcrate engine, just for maximum sacrilege.
That’s not a Super 8 engine. This is… https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f30a5c8829172413ff1ff94b19f1d0494965bc52dee0897a1584965527309972.jpg
http://m18hellcat.com/m18hellcat/Home_files/shapeimage_1.png
Did someone say Super 8? https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6f6b30e84019f7dd1c0f03f579d1b95275e1e04c57aeb4d7c1340e7890a80fac.jpg
A Super Eight. That’s what JLR relaunched the Daimler brand with at the ’05 Frankfurt show. When they relaunched the Super Eight name as well, with it’s supercharged V8 and every possible option fitted as standard.
But they don’t seem to have followed it up. Maybe the Daimler part is contentious.
https://images.honestjohn.co.uk/imagecache/file/fit/730×700/uploads/carimgs/1039_1.jpg
It ended up being the last Daimler when the facelifted version was launched
http://www.jaguarclassifieds.org.uk/files/03-2015/ad3966/large_1426849634412903751.JPG
I don’t think the Daimler name had the cachet to succeed, outside of the people who had always bought one since before the Jaguar takeover. Imagine how many that would be!
They were the car suppliers to the British Royal Family from shortly after the availability of cars til the 1950s.(When a failure to proceed had the King switch to the upstarts at Rolls Royce). I dare say the marque has a greater cachet than, (say), Maybach but the problem is the other company that uses the brand name, especially now they’ve decided to become Daimler AG and the British company couldn’t use the name in the USA.
1925 Daimler Royal Limousine for King George V
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3f/Daimler_30hp_1925_5918272390_7ca1a46f82_o.jpg/1280px-Daimler_30hp_1925_5918272390_7ca1a46f82_o.jpg
1914 Daimler State Limousine for The Empress of Korea
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/92/1914_Daimler_%28for_Empress_of_Korea%29.jpg
Yes, but how many people know that, and how many would care about what is now fairly ancient history if they included it in advertising? It would almost be a negative, that they had to reach back so far to find things worth crowing about.
On the switch to R-R, I gather the Docker Daimlers also played a part?
My “win the lotto” car for a while has been a Factory Five 33 Hot Rod with the drive train from a salvage Hellcat. This greatly improves the windfall car dream, because now I can just get a crate engine instead of trying to find just the right wrecked car at an auction.
For the Civic engine? They won’t just sell it to me… And I don’t want to join their program. So… Uh, nothing?
Do you work on the Groucho Marx theory, ie won’t join a club that would let you?
I’d still go for a Coyote or Voodoo engine for my imaginary Factory Five 33, if only to be able to get traction at full throttle eventually
Since the Type R is a K series engine, does that mean that it’ll drop right in to my RSX?
It might depend on what height you plan to drop it from?
THe K1 Attack kit can be built with a K series four, so I imagine that Type R engine would work. They are a pain to build (kit is incomplete and the “manual” is 20-some how-to videos with no narration), but what a car that would be.
http://www.k1-attack.com/wp-content/themes/k1-attack/dist/img/slider-1.jpg
the honda would work in a FFV 818. squeal, snort. 818Kg and 295lb/ft torque…OOOOoooo…..