The Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk is the third Fiat Chrysler vehicle to have the unhinged supercharged V-8 stuffed under its hood, and it’s the quiet Hellcat next door. Not literally, of course—have you heard a blown Hemi V-8 at full whack?—but with standard all-wheel drive mitigating the engine’s tire-spinning proclivities, plus its under-the-radar looks, the Trackhawk can at least pass for an upstanding citizen. With more traction than any Hellcat yet, the Trackhawk has quite a lot of poke despite its pork—the engine adds 259 pounds over the already heavy 475-hp Grand Cherokee SRT. Nonetheless, Jeep claims it can reach 60 mph in 3.5 seconds. That time is on par with the nearly 1000-pounds-lighter, automatic-equipped Dodge Hellcats we’ve tested. (The quickest was the Charger, which reached 60 mph in 3.4 seconds.) Per Jeep, the quarter-mile is expected to fly by in 11.6 seconds (at 116 mph!), and, with no electronic governor, the Trackhawk is said to surrender to atmospheric resistance at 180 mph.
