Car builders pour their heart, soul, and countless hours into a wild car project, only to have it try to disassemble itself on the first real test. YouTuber Westen Champlin knows that feeling all too well after finally taking his absolutely insane, custom-built 4×4 Dodge Challenger Hellcat off-road.

After over a year of work, Champlin and his team created what he calls “the first off-road Hellcat in the world” – a monster packing Hellcat power, a full custom frame, solid axles, and 35-inch tires. The mission wasn’t just to build something cool-looking; as Westen put it, “We wanted something that would work.” The proving ground? Crossbar Off-Road Park.

Initial drives revealed terrifying handling, even after adding a sway bar. “Maybe it needs two sway bars,” Westen mused, adding, “It looks cool… but it’s trying to constantly kill you.” The real drama unfolded off-road. The four-wheel drive, never tested before, promptly failed due to a broken factory Ford locking hub — a failure Westen had actually predicted.

A daring road trip in the wounded 4×4 Hellcat to get parts followed, only for disaster to strike again at highway speed. “Dude that was terrifying,” Westen recounted, “You haven’t lived until the steering’s come off your off-road Hellcat at 65 mph.”

Miraculously avoiding a major crash, they performed a roadside repair using pliers’ handles and returned to the off-road park, only to face the next challenge: water. After plunging into some mud, the Hellcat stalled.

“‘I forgot it sucks air through the headlight,’ Westen realized. While it didn’t seem hydro-locked initially, the engine later developed a “really weird tick,” leading Westen to conclude, “We might have just blown up the off-road Hellcat.”

Westen summed up the brutal test: “We broke the steering and the four-wheel drive… fixed that, came back, and then damaged the engine.” Yet, he remains optimistic, viewing the failures as part of the process. “We’re testing out to see what’s not good,” he explained. It was a chaotic debut, highlighting several “design flaws we got to fix.”

It’s a wild ride watching creative minds bring such ambitious projects to life, even if, as Westen joked, they might lack the sense “to know better not to build it.”

What are your thoughts on this insane 4×4 Hellcat build and its destructive first real test drive?