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The Jeep Grand Cherokee, already available with a stratospheric SRT power plant, is about to get an even faster sibling. Although Fiat-Chrysler Automotive tried its best not go give away the new Grand Cherokee before it was due, Jeep CEO Mike Manley wasn’t quite as tight lipped, and we’ve been eagerly waiting for this massively powerful wagon ever since.
The Jeep Grand Cherokee ‘Trackhawk’ (as it’s rumoured to be called), will see the supercharged 6.2-litre HEMI V8 from the Dodge Hellcat cars shoehorned under the bonnet. MotorAuthority in the US also reports that the Grand Cherokee Trackhawk will be on the road before the year is out, and they have a pretty good idea of how it’ll look like. Now we know that the Grand Cherokee Trackhawk will be making its debut at the New York auto show this coming April, alongside the Dodge Challenger Demon.
The recent update to the Grand Cherokee SRT (the white car featured) is a strong indicator of what we can expect the Trackhawk to look like. The lower bumper sees three distinctive air intakes (like other Hellcat powered cars in the FCA range), while there’s plenty of room on the bonnet for the kind of air-scoops such a powerplant would demand.
Although we’d like to assume that the incoming Grand Cherokee Trackhawk will be endowed with the same 527kW/880Nm as its Dodge counterparts, we have to bear in mind that the all-wheel drive system may not be able to handle all that power. However, should everything be dandy, a Grand Cherokee Trackhawk could do the 0-100km/h dash in something between 3.0-seconds and 3.5-seconds, with the all-wheel drive system able to put power down more effectively than its rear-driven Dodge cousins.
The Trackhawk, if figures remain unchanged, will trump the existing Grand Cherokee SRT by some 183kW and 256Nm, despite its engine being about 200cc smaller. The SRT currently completes the century sprint in an already-blistering 4.8-seconds, and has been known to leave passengers feeling a little stunned. Not sure what reaction the Trackhawk will garner.
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