Your 1,000-hp Gladiator is here: The Hennessey Maximus hits SEMA in production form

It seems like the Hennessey Performance business model is something along the lines of “If something is worth doing, it’s worth overdoing.” Their latest — the Maximus — is no exception. Hennessey announced its 1,000-hp Jeep Gladiator earlier this year and will debut the production version at this year’s SEMA show.

If you’re unfamiliar with the Maximus, let’s catch you up: Hennessey Performance takes the popular Jeep Gladiator pickup and stuffs a Hellcat supercharged 6.2-liter V8 under the hood. The 707 hp from the Hellcat mill would be good if you’re Jeep, but not Hennessey. The team at Hennessey Performance turned up the power dial on the force-fed Hemi, which now produces a whopping 1,000 hp and 933 lb-ft of torque.

Power isn’t everything, of course. Hennessey also lifted the Gladiator 6 inches, threw on a set of Hennessey-branded wheels wrapped in BFGoodrich off-road rubber and special Maximus front and rear bumpers with LED lighting. Heavy-duty axles handle the power fed to them from the Dana 60 front and rear differentials. Power hits the driveline compliments of an eight-speed automatic.

Hennessey claims that the Maximus can scream to 60 mph from a standing start in 3.9 seconds, which should cut down all that travel time to your local Home Depot by a few minutes. Now, here’s the bad news. Sure, it’s production-ready, but it’s not cheap. Snagging one of these Maximus pickups will set you back $225K. That does include the price of the Gladiator if that helps with anything. If you do snag one, you’ll own one of just 24 Maximuses (Maximi?) Hennessey says it’s going to build.

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