Hellcat Jeep Could Pack Less Power, Will Still Dominate SUVs

While the Chrysler Group still hasn’t formally recognized the future existence of the Hellcat powered Jeep Grand Cherokee, it is widely expected that there will be an ultra-high performance SUV coming from the Jeep brand in the coming years and it seems likely that it will be called the Trackhawk. This high performance SUV was allegedly on display at the recent national dealership meeting in Las Vegas and in all reality, it will be more of a shock if we DON’T see a Hellcat Jeep in the next few years.

The newest bit of information that leads us to believe that the Hellcat Jeep Trackhawk is on its way comes from Allpar, where insider information shed some light on what most will consider to be an unfortunate bit of news.

The Hellcat Jeep might not have 707 horsepower.

All Wheel Drive, Less Power
While our expectations for the Hellcat powered Jeep Grand Cherokee are purely based on speculation, rumors and insider information, everything that we expect from the Trackhawk is pretty reasonable. It should have an advanced four wheel drive system, the heavy duty 8-speed TorqueFlite automatic transmission and it should have the Hellcat Hemi with 707 supercharged horsepower. It all seems simple enough, right?

Well, the problem is that if the Hellcat Hemi in the Grand Cherokee produces the same power figures as the Hellcat Charger and Hellcat Challenger, it will have well in excess of 707 horsepower and 650lb-ft of torque. By now, it has been proven over and over that those numbers are very low, with the real world numbers being closer to 720hp and 670lb-ft of torque. Why is that a problem? Because putting that much power into the transfer case and the other four wheel drive components is going to be very hard on those items.

According to Allpar’s insider, that amount of stress on the 4WD drivetrain components will likely lead to a Jeep with less power than the Charger or Challenger with the blown Hemi. There is no exact figure, but it is speculated that power numbers could fall as far as the low 600 range. A Jeep with, say, 625 horsepower would still be a beast in the segment, but there is no denying that 625hp has less marketing pizzazz than 707hp.

625hp VS the Competition
Let’s say that the 2017 or 2018 Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk with the Hellcat Hemi “only” has 625 horsepower and 580lb-ft of torque. The nearest competitors would be the BMW X5M and X6M, both of which have 567 horsepower and 553lb-ft of torque, the Mercedes Benz AMG GL63 with 550hp and 560lb-ft of torque and the Porsche Cayenne Turbo S with 570hp and 590lb-ft of torque. The Jeep would obviously have a big advantage in horsepower over all of those high priced European SUVs, but the Cayenne’s twin turbo V8 will give the Hellcat Hemi a run for its money in terms of torque output – unless the company gets that second figure up over the 600 level.

Simply for the sake of marketing advantages, I would like to think that the Hellcat Jeep will have enough power to make it the most powerful it the world with regard to both horsepower and torque. With that in mind, I would expect the Trackhawk to have at least 625hp and 600lb-ft of torque, but so long as the Jeep will outrun those expensive competitors, the Chrysler Group might not worry about who has more torque.

Source: Allpar