An 825-horsepower Dodge Viper V-10 shoehorned into a 1979 Jeep Cherokee two-door is currently sitting on Bring a Trailer, and the bidding war ends June 18. That sentence alone should tell you everything about where the restomod market has gone — and how far one Texas shop is willing to push the formula.
Vigilante 4×4, based in Texas, built this thing from the frame up. They stripped the Cherokee to bare metal, laid down a two-tone white and sky-blue paint scheme that nails the late-1970s AMC vibe, and then dropped in 9.0 liters of Prefix-built Viper fury mated to a Tremec six-speed manual and a two-speed transfer case with manual locking hubs.
That’s 750 pound-feet of torque routed through a stick shift to Dana axles front and rear. On BFG K02 all-terrain tires. In a vehicle that originally rolled off the line with something closer to 150 horsepower.
The mechanical brutality is the headline, but the details underneath are what separate this build from the usual restomod cash grab. The seats are wrapped in denim — a deliberate nod to the Levi’s interiors AMC offered in the Gremlin, Hornet, and Pacer during the mid-1970s. The side accent decals mimic 1975-era Cherokee graphics, and Vigilante’s own billet aluminum wheels complete the look without screaming aftermarket.
Inside, it’s a careful blend of period-correct spirit and modern livability. Power windows, Bluetooth stereo, air conditioning robust enough for a Texas summer. Nothing overwrought, nothing garish.
Most restomods follow a tired playbook: LS swap, big brakes, coilovers, a six-figure invoice, and a press release that uses the word “bespoke” at least twice. The builds blur together after a while — competent but soulless, expensive but interchangeable. This Cherokee stands apart because the people who built it clearly understand what made the original interesting in the first place.
AMC was always the scrappy underdog of the American auto industry, building weird, wonderful machines with limited budgets and maximum personality. A proper AMC tribute should feel exactly like this — a little unhinged, deeply knowledgeable about its own lineage, and completely unwilling to play it safe.
The Viper V-10 is itself an endangered species. Dodge quit building the engine when the last Viper rolled off the line in 2017, and the remaining supply of blocks and internals shrinks every year. Prefix’s 825-horsepower tune suggests serious internals and careful calibration — this isn’t a junkyard pull bolted in with zip ties.
Whether the final bid reflects the craftsmanship remains to be seen. Bring a Trailer auctions on high-profile restomods can swing wildly depending on the week, the weather, and how many collectors are paying attention on a Wednesday evening. Vigilante’s work has a following, though, and a Viper-powered Cherokee with a six-speed manual and denim seats isn’t competing against anything else on the market. There is no comparable vehicle.
Car and Driver flagged one thought buried in its coverage: Stellantis might want to ring up Levi’s and put out a denim-trimmed Wrangler special edition. It’s a throwaway line, but it lands. In a Jeep lineup that has ballooned into a dozen trim levels and special packages — most of them differentiated by little more than badge color and wheel finish — a genuine heritage play with real texture would be a welcome change.
For now, though, there’s only one denim-seated, Viper-powered Cherokee in the world, and somebody gets to own it next week. The rest of us just get to watch the counter climb.
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