The Hellcat Jeep Trackhawk: Quickest, Fastest and Most Powerful SUV in the World

FCA has announced all of the official information on the 2018 Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk, which uses the supercharged Hemi from the Hellcat Dodge cars to stake its claim as the quickest, the fastest and the most powerful sport utility vehicle in the world.

We have been talking about the possibility of a Jeep Grand Cherokee packing the Hellcat Hemi, but ahead of Wednesday’s Big Apple debut – the supercharged Trackhawk has made its online introduction.

Strongest, Quickest, Fastest in the World
The 2018 Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk is everything that we had hoped, with the supercharged 6.2L Hemi delivering 707 horsepower and 645lb-ft of torque, making this Hellcat-powered beast the world’s most powerful gasoline-powered production SUV – beating every other SUV in the world by a massive margin.

That power is channeled through a high strength transmission and a high strength transfer case to all four wheels so efficiently that the Trackhawk Jeep is able to blast from a stop to 60 miles per hour in just 3.5 seconds while covering the quarter mile takes the newest Grand Cherokee just 11.6 seconds at 116mph. This is quicker than any gas-powered SUV in the world, and each of those measures are just a few clicks slower than the lighter Hellcat Dodge cars. Helping this SUV get off of the line and down the track so quickly are the Torque Reserve system and the intercooler chilling system from the new Dodge Demon. With this new technology coupled with the advanced all-wheel drive system, the supercharged Jeep is capable of launching much harder and much more quickly than the RWD Hellcat cars.

Also, in addition to making the Trackhawk crazy-quick from a stop, the Hellcat Hemi also makes this Jeep the fastest SUV in the world, with a top speed of 180 miles per hour.

For comparison, the next closest competitor for the 2018 Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk is the 2017 Porsche Cayenne Turbo S, which uses a twin turbocharged V8 to produce 570 horsepower and 590lb-ft of torque to run from 0-60 in 3.8 seconds while reaching a top speed of 176 miles per hour.

We do not yet have any pricing for the 2018 Jeep Trackhawk, but the 2017 Porsche Cayenne Turbo S starts at $161,600 and with the current SRT Jeep starting around $66k – it is almost a surefire guarantee that the supercharged Jeep will be far less expensive than the Porsche which it will beat in pretty much any race.

Best of all, in addition to being the quickest, the fastest and the most powerful production SUV in the world, the 2018 Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk will still tow 7,200lbs – so this SUV could tow a car to the drag strip and the odds are good that this tow vehicle will be quicker than many of the cars in the street class…maybe even with the trailer hooked up.

Suspension, Braking and Tire Tweaks
While the 2018 Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk doesn’t look all that different from the SRT 392 models, this SUV is more than just a big engine in the big Jeep. The transmission, transfer case, driveshaft and axles shafts have all been strengthened to handle the combination of 707hp and 645lb-ft of torque, especially when launching hard with the Torque Reserve system.

Next, after making this Jeep incredibly quick and fast, the team turned to making sure that it could handle with the extra power and the extra weight (Trackhawk weighs 250+ pounds more than the current SRT 392 models) when it hits a turn. The adaptive suspension dampers have been retuned and the springs are stiffer all around (9% in the front, 15% in the rear), allowing the Trackhawk to hit 0.88g on the skidpad.

Finally, the lightweight wheels are one of the few unique exterior design cues of the Trackhawk, wrapped in 295-wide high performance tires which help the big SUV accelerate, corner and stop like a world class performance car. The Trackhawk has the biggest brakes of any production Jeep ever, with 15.75 inch rotors and 6-piston calipers up front and 13.75 inch rotors and 4-piston calipers out back – allowing the 5,300lb SUV to get stopped from 60mph in just 114 feet.

We don’t get any production numbers or prices with the online arrival of the vital information, but with the grand debut of the Trackhawk set for the New York International Auto Show on Wednesday, we could learn more about this incredible high performance Mopar SUV later this week.