SYDNEY: The 300 SRT is expected to continue in Australia – where it has proven comparatively more popular than in its home market – Jeep is understood to be moulding a set of new ‘Trackhawk’ badges for the flagship in its Grand Cherokee range.
It’s a bold move, what with the Grand Cherokee SRT understood to be the most popular SRT of all.
The Trackhawk name was first revealed last year, when it was revealed that FCA had trademarked the name for a new performance companion to the off-roading Trailhawk badge that already features in the Grand Cherokee range.
A new report this week, however, suggests that the SRT-replacing Trackhawk won’t be the only performer in the big SUV’s line-up. It won’t even be the meanest.
That honour, according to US website Car & Driver, will go to another variant, driven by the same 527kW/880Nm supercharged 6.2 litre V8 that powers the special Hellcat versions of the Dodge Challenger coupe and Charger sedan.
In its current SRT-badged form, the top-shelf Grand Cherokee draws power from 344kW/624Nm 6.4 litre V8 and already claims a 0-100km/h time of just 4.8 seconds.
With the huge boost in power and torque that a Hellcat model would deliver, we could see the hi-po SUV’s sprint time drop to four seconds dead.
That might give owners of BMW’s 423kW X5 M something to think about…
