I’ve been driving my brother’s XR8 around for about a week and I’ve got to admit to having developed a severe case of engine envy. Not that the Ford motor is all that powerful or particularly sophisticated or even all that fast for it’s displacement but the big surge of lazy torque that is delivered at the slightest pressure on the pedal is pretty nice and definitely addictive. Of course the crackling, popping sound coming from the exhaust when you rev it to around 5000rpm is pretty horny too even though it sounds a lot faster than the speedo actually indicates.
So I started looking for Hemi Conversions on the net but unless you are loaded you can forget it. For a start most kits wont fit Ozy RHD’s. The only dedicated RHD hemi conversion I can find is from Burnsville Offroad http://www.burnsvilleoffroad.com/ but it is $11,950USD just for engine and the conversion kit. As you still need to pay for shipping and installation I reckon you wouldn’t get any change from $20K but while the hemi is out of reach for most of us the U-Tube video’s are still there for all of us with a weakness for “Jeep Porn:”
Check out this 6.1 JK Hemi http://youtu.be/PGXN5q2abm0
A 6.4 JK Hemi http://youtu.be/rl3YPy49IyM
A Hemi conversion down under http://youtu.be/j24PHK_O5xk