Ever since FCA’s ‘Hellcat’ V8 engine won us over by powering the Dodge Charger & Challenger duo, we’ve been itching to see it in action in the Grand Cherokee.
Reports about a possible Grand Cherokee ‘Hellcat’ have been circulating for nearly a year, but now Motor Authority has reported that the project has been green lit and the Hellcat-powered Jeep is on its way as a 2017 model.
The car should indeed be named ‘Trackhawk’ and it will feature the same HEMI V8 as the Hellcat duo, only this time, delivering those sweet 707 horses to all four wheels. Reportedly, a ZF 8-speed automatic transmission will handle all that muscle, while the all-wheel drive system will take care of any lack of grip when accelerating.
Those same sources mentioned a possible top speed of 200 mph (321 km/h) and a 0-60 mph (96 km/h) time of less than 3 seconds! Naturally, none of this is official – but if the Grand Cherokee is to become that quick, it would absolutely demolish any rival SUV brave enough to challenge it in a straight line.
Other people seem to think that the car won’t have that much power, but if that’s to be the case then what would be the point of it?
FCA already has the SRT version, which means that you either build something that will completely blow everybody away, or you just come out with a slightly faster Jeep than the Grand Cherokee SRT, which makes little sense.
As far as we’re concerned, we definitely hope this thing gets to see the light of day, especially because it will force other manufacturers’ hands into building more powerful SUVs of their own or else risk falling behind.
Note: 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT pictured
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