No, this isn’t the setup to a joke. Somebody actually wanted to see which compact crossover was quicker in a straight line between the Ford Escape, Jeep Cherokee and Chevrolet Equinox.
While their engine displacements don’t match up across the board, horsepower figures are comparable, which makes this rather unspectacular drag race at least semi-relevant to prospective buyers.
We’d rather play this one close to the vest and not give away the winner, but that doesn’t mean we can’t tell you how the three crossovers compare on paper, does it?
We will start with the Cherokee, because it’s the only one powered by a 3.2-liter V6. It has a nifty 271 HP and 239 lb-ft (324 Nm) of torque at its disposal. The other two models are more in tune with the times and powered by 2.0-liter turbocharged engines, with the Equinox producing 252 HP and 260 lb-ft (352 Nm) of torque, while the Escape is good for 245 HP and 275 lb-ft (275 Nm).
The folks over at Kunes Country TV decided to have two races in total, both of them featuring slow motion replay at the end, in case you want to judge the distances between the cars more precisely.