The three parts of the description of the engine you are about to hear individually have merit. Hemi, by itself, needs no introduction. While primarily thought of as a Chrysler mill that has been putting the fear into racers since the 1950s, the truth is that any engine with a hemispherical head design is a hemi by nature. So yes, those K-cars with the 2.6L four from Mitsubishi are legit. So are Boss 429s. The V6 has been very common since the 1980s for a wide variety of applications, from workhorse mill (the GMC V6 line), to performance screamers (the turbocharged 3.8L Buick and 4.3L LB4 found in the Syclone/Typhoon) and to just about every other vehicle out on the market that uses them in a more pedestrian manner. And then, there is the name Arias. Nick Arias, Jr. was involved in engine building and speed parts for the better part of his life. Known for his hemispherical Chevrolet heads and piston offerings, a few other interesting bits were attributed to the man.

You are about to see two of the six produced Hemi V6 engines that came out of Arias. And as far as anybody knows, these are the only two that still exist. What little information we can find on the engines themselves is courtesy of Bill Stepanek, the gentleman who will explain how he came to be involved with two of these engines. What little is known is that this was an in-house Arias project that was started sometime towards the end of the 1980s or possibly the very early 1990s, possibly as a reaction to the success that the turbo Buicks had enjoyed. (Another builder, Ryan Falconer, was also messing with V6 engines at this time.) The Arias build looks to be a Chevy-style block with two cylinders missing and Arias Hemi heads to match on the surface, but until we have more concrete proof of what was going on, consider that an educated guess and nothing more. What we do know is that is is one evil sounding little bastard and to see one shoved into a Willys pickup…that’s just too cool.