Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk has reached us Downunder with a bang.
Want to buy one? Too bad, because the first batch has already been snapped up.
Only 62 Trackhawks were in the first ship to dock here. The guys and gals at Jeep have a quirky sense of humour – and have gone for 62 because that’s the capacity of the Chrysler Hemi V8 engine – 6.2 litres.
If that’s not large enough a supercharger has been added to pump its apparent capacity to somewhere about 10 to 11 litres, resulting in 700 horsepower and 868 Newton metres.
Honestly, Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk has to take the title of the world’s craziest muscle car. It’s quite simply the most powerful V8 SUV on the planet.
Using launch control it does the zero to 100 km/h sprint in a ridiculously short 3.7 seconds.
With a top speed of 289 km/h, should you be able to take one to a track with a nice long straight. In fact given Eastern Creek’s long, long downhill straight you might be able to just nudge 300 before entering that nerve-wracking high-speed left hander.
Fuel consumption is listed on the combined Australian driving cycle at 16.8 litres per hundred kilometres. Funnily enough that translates to 16.8 miles per gallon in the old money. (Metric and imperial fuel use is measured in opposite directions, so have to cross over somewhere.)
With all that grunt coming out of the back of the blown V8 it’s no surprise that an upgraded high-torque-capacity TorqueFlite eight-speed automatic transmission has been installed behind it. Drive is through Jeep’s Quadra-Trac Active On Demand 4×4 System. Beefed up suspension and Brembo brakes are very much part of the package.
Visually the Trackhawk stands out from the standard Grand Cherokee by using a bolder front fascia with larger air dams, dual vents in the bonnet and widely flared wheel arches
Inside, the Trackhawk’s chrome-and-carbon-fibre cabin has a three-spoke flat-bottom steering wheel with paddle shifters behind it. Naturally the Trackhawk has the SRT Performance instrument cluster.
Nappa leather seats provide good support without compromising too much on comfort.
Jeep’s Uconnect 4 system works through an 8.4-inch high-res touchscreen, giving access to Performance Pages that display lap times and instant readouts for power and torque outputs. There’s also navigation, Bluetooth and access through Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
Trackhawk has numerous safety features, including rear cross path detection; forward collision warning with crash mitigation, and lane departure warning.
“After months of anticipation, I’m elated to announce the Trackhawk has landed,” Jeep Australia president and CEO Steve Zanlunghi told us at Marque Motoring.
“The Grand Cherokee Trackhawk not only sets new standards in the Australian SUV market, but the overall performance car market. In terms of value for money in the performance segment, it will be difficult to find anything else that comes close.”
Grand Cherokee Trackhawk is priced from just $134,900 and it might be an idea to pick up your phone very soon and have a chat with your Jeep dealer before space on the second shipment runs out.
We’ve got our names down to road test a Grand Cherokee Trackhawk and will get back to you as soon as we have done so.
