There’s no replacement for displacement. Or a supercharger.
After a slow-drip of teases and information, Jeep has finally pulled the wraps off the Grand Cherokee Trackhawk, the most powerful production SUV ever. Under the bonnet lies a massive 6.2-litre supercharged V8 Hellcat engine, which features a supercharger for added muscle.
527kW & 874Nm are the headline figures, with on-demand all-wheel drive as well as an eight-speed automatic gearbox, which are beefed-up versions of the kind you’ll find on vanilla Grand Cherokee variants. Jeep claims a century sprint time of just 3.5-seconds, and a top-speed of 290km/h. The previous reigning champion of lightning-fast combustion cars, the Bentley Bentayga, managed the century sprint time in 4.0-seconds, though it does have a better top-speed at 301km/h.
Keen to capitalise on the American obsession with drag races, the Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk recorded an 11.6-second time to cover the quarter mile, a mere 0.7-seconds off the pace of supercars like the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 and McLaren 570S. It’s not a runway bullet either, with high-performance Brembo brakes (replete with 400mm two-piece ventilated rotors, six-piston callipers up front and 350mm ventilated rotors, four-piston yellow callipers at the rear) stopping the Trackhawk from 100km/h in just 36-metres.
Visual distinctions of the Grand Cherokee Trackhawk are pretty obvious, in case someone can’t hear the distinctive supercharger whine coming from the bonnet. There’s a unique front fascia treatment, four exhausts out back, and 20-inch wheels finished in a titanium hue. There are bi-xenon headlamps with LED daytime-running lights lighting the way, along with ‘Supercharged’ badging on the front doors.
The interior sees things like a 7.0-inch drivers’ display replete wth a centred tachometer, along with a 320km/h-limited speedometer to its left. The central UConnect touchscreen, measuring 8.4-inches in size, sees the inclusion of Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, as well as a unique Trackhawk-theme to the interface. Active noise cancellation features here (though we pray it doesn’t dim the V8 rumble), along with a leather-stitched instrument panel, ‘Berber’ floor mats with ‘Trackhawk’ badging, Nappa leather seats with suede detailing and ‘Trackhawk’ badging, and heating for all seats with ventilation for the front pair of pews.
Driver assistance tech has not been given a miss here, with adaptive cruise control, queue assist, advance brake assist, blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert, full-speed forward collision warning, autonomous emergency braking, all-round parking sensors, ‘Ready Alert Braking’ and lane departure warning featuring here. The SelecTrack terrain system is retained with five modes, working together with Bilstein active adaptive dampers. There’s even launch control. On a Jeep.
The Grand Cherokee Trackhawk will offer nine exterior pain finishings, those being Billet Silver, Granite Crystal, Diamond Black, Ivory Tri-Coat, Bright White, Velvet Red, Redline, and True Blue. Options include a 19-speaker 825W Harmon/Kardon sound system with two subwoofers, ‘Dark Ruby Red’ seatbelts, and a dual-pane panoramic sunroof.
Will the Grand Cherokee Trackhawk make Australia though? Speaking to the media, FCA Australia chief Steve Zanlunghi certainly hopes so. At a press event recently, the local boss said that the Australian office had “two hands up” to bring in the hot Jeep, that will slot above the Grand Cherokee SRT in the hierarchy. FCA Australia can count on two more hands up for the Grand Cherokee Trackhawk, with this writer rooting for it too.
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