Craven Performance & Off-Road of St. Peters, Missouri, builds all kinds of radical, late-model creations. As far as Craven’s Tom Mitchell is concerned, the only thing that’s standing in their way is the vehicle of imagination. “We do a lot of really fast car builds, and we do various makes,” Mitchell explains.

In the case of our featured Challenger, Craven Performance went Mopar crazy, by utilizing the resources of one of Indianapolis’ premiere Mopar vendors, Indy Cylinder Head. Indy Cylinder is responsible for supplying the SRT8’s 572-cube, blown HEMI mill, and they build over 1,000 horses using a Blower Shop 10-71 supercharger.

Craven Performance’s blown late-model is street legal in the state of Missouri on 93-octane juice, but as Tom Mitchell explains, the HEMI-stuffed beast is far more than capable of being tuned for the dragstrip. “On race gas, we could probably tune it to put out 1,500 horses,” says Mitchell, “The guy wants something streetable. Not everyday streetable, but show car streetable.”

The blown Dodge pony is also constructed, from underneath, for competitive drag racing. This is largely because of the car’s full-caged, 850 NHRA-certified frame, but the SRT Challenger also makes use of a back-halved, 4-link rear. All of these make for a late-model, Mopar drag car that, within track regulation, is legally capable of running 8.50-second passes in the Super Gas and Super Stock categories.

Craven Performance’s late-model, HEMI Challenger is a street worthy beast with plenty of lung capacity, and with Craven’s hunger for horsepower, combined with an eye for detail, we’re sure that the Missouri shop will be cranking-out a lot more modern classics from here on!