When you think about the Jeep Renegade, the last thing coming to your mind is a HEMI engine. In fact, the tiny crossover has anything but a powerful engine. YouTuber Mike Martin decided it was time for the people to look at this small vehicle in a different way, so he took a bland Jeep Renegade and a donor Dodge Charger R/T from a salvage auction and transformed what used to be a very boring car into an insane project. If you ask yourself why did he do that, the reason is very simple: why not?

When you go to a dealer to order a Jeep Renegade you have just one, not very potent engine to opt from. We are talking about a 1.3-liter turbocharged inline four-cylinder engine that delivers a total of 177 horsepower and 210 pound-feet of max torque. While we know we are talking about a very small vehicle, 177 horsepower is still not enough. Even the previous model year was not very impressive: it was powered by a 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine that delivered a total of 180 horsepower and 175 pound-feet of torque. And no, those extra 3 horsepower did not make a difference.

Mike Martin wanted a lot more from its Renegade, so it replaced this boring engine with a 5.7-liter HEMI V-8 engine taken from the Charger RT. While he says nothing about how much this engine delivers in the Renegade, we know that in the Charger it makes 370 horsepower and 395 pound-feet of torque. Also, while the standard Renegade sends all its power to the front wheels, this HEMI-powered version was also modified to send all its power to the rear wheels.

Other than the engine swap, which required some serious engineering and modifications, Mike also installed a custom front sub-frame, revised the suspension, and threw on a set of BC Coilovers. There is also a new set of very big golden-painted wheels and a more aggressive body kit. The work is far from being done, but according to Mike this video was shot the first time the Renegade was back on the ground supporting itself. One thing is for sure: the car starts coming out nicely and when done it will be one of the most insane Renegade you will see on the road.