Ever felt like traffic was standing still around you?
That spooky feeling when your car is just exploding with power from all four wheels.
Ready to pounce and snarl.
You have to actively hold this truck back 99% of the time.
But then what happens? You find a clear spot on the horizon.
You are about to learn what it feels like to floor this Hellcat Jeep.
Find out in this re-edited Trackhawk video. No donuts or wheelspin whatsoever in this version of the performance drive review.
INTERIOR
The Trackhawk cabin is certainly a special place to be. Our tester came in with a price only slightly above its $90k base price and therefore was missing the leather lux package, the giant moonroof and many of the active safety kit that is offered.
We didn’t miss much of this except for the moonroof. Grand Cherokees are just much more convincingly premium with an alcantara headliner and that glass roof. But for ultimate track center of gravity and seat grip, there is nothing wrong at all with a metal roof and sticky cloth SRT buckets.
PERFORMANCE
How insane is the Trackhawk off the line?! You can’t say it enough… but as the only 4WD vehicle running the Hellcat engine… the Trackhawk is clearly quite gifted when it comes to stump-pulling power and huge ANYTIME torque.
Where even the Demon struggles with wheelspin, the Trackhawk just simply rockets itself forward like a steam catapult. This Trackhawk feels like it could double for an aircraft carrier’s internal gubbins to shoot planes to 150MPH in seconds.
The 5-60MPH rolling start is savage enough to recalibrate your internal gyroscope after just one or two blast-offs.
So now let’s try the actual launch control! We did, a few times.
With each time leading to wilder hoots and hollars at the end of the run. Simply unbelievable in so many ways. A rip-snorting beast.
And it turns out we didn’t even activate the real-deal launch control! You have to STAND on the brake pedal while the supercharger primes itself to max boost. We always ripped foot off brake out of sheet mechanical mercy as the beast really started to snort and rip its hooves into the dirt like a fighting bull.
The actual launch-control start is even more shockingly intense.
And for the most part, that launch thrust is one of the main reasons that Hellcat with 4×4 is genius. No SRT GC ever felt slow off the line, but this Trackhawk is in another league. It feels quicker to 30-mph than even a Porsche 911 Turbo S.
And THAT, my friends, is saying something serious.
What about handling, mid-range passing power or confidence on rbakes?
Here the Trackhawk is insanely good for an SUV but perhaps not the world-beater it is off the line.
Tom Burkart is the founder and managing editor of Car-Revs-Daily.com, an innovative and rapidly-expanding automotive news magazine.
He holds a Journalism JBA degree from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Tom currently resides in Charleston, South Carolina with his two amazing dogs, Drake and Tank.
Mr. Burkart is available for all questions and concerns by email Tom(at)car-revs-daily.com.