Engineered to exhilarate, the Trackhawk is the most powerful Jeep to enter production thanks to a supercharged HEMI with segment-leading performance. 707 horsepower and 645 pound-feet at the crankshaft, to be more precise, translating to 3.5 seconds to 60 miles per hour.
A tuning shop in Texas can do better, though, and the upgrade in question is also covered by one year or 12,000 miles of warranty. Hennessey Performance Engineering is much obliged to extract 1,012 horsepower and the kind of torque that you would normally expect from a heavy-duty pickup with a turbo diesel under the hood. 969 pound-feet also help with acceleration, as you can tell from the following video uploaded by HPE.
2.7 seconds to 60 is Turbo S territoryindeed, but Hennessey actually quotes 2.6 seconds and a quarter-mile time of 10.2 at 133 mph. To understand how insane those figures are, remember that Ford expects the Shelby GT500 with the Predator V8 to cover 440 yards in 10.6 seconds while the C8 Corvette does the same thing in 11.2 seconds with bone-stock tires.
As you can tell from the tread pattern, those aren’t the factory Pirellis but drag radials that aid the HPE1000 launch hard. The clip at the end of this story also shows the Jeep hunker down for extra grip, which is natural from a high-riding SUV with strip-slaying credentials.
Hennessey turns the Grand Cherokee in Trackhawk specification into a drag racer by upgrading the supercharger, switching to stainless-steel long tube headers, and with the help of high-flow cats. The fuel system, engine control unit, and air induction are also improved, and the HPE1000 Supercharged also boasts serialized plaques and Hennessey insignias.
These being said, let’s talk pricing. At $34,950 not counting the cost of the car – namely $87,895 before freight – you are looking at eye-watering money for this kind of performance. For reference, $122,845 is enough to get you a Porsche 911 Carrera 4S or a Mercedes-AMG GT.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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