The drag strip (not the street) is always the correct setting for venting steam. And we all know that with all the little niches out there, there’s always somebody ready to demonstrate the rest don’t have the same amount of panache. This time around, though, it’s basically a war of ages.
We all know that today most of the automotive world is all about anything even remotely connected to SUVs, crossovers, and trucks. There are a few great exceptions, though. And most of them are present in this video (embedded below) from the Drag Racing and Car Stuff channel on YouTube.
While everyone is all the rage about the 2021 Ram TRX and Dodge Durango SRT Hellcat, the quarter mile battles are best fought with something that has a little more experience, such as the Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk. Case in point, there’s a trio of these monsters ready to wage war on the former stars.
Of course, the fact that America’s quarter-mile sun has already set for the traditional coupe form is always up for debate, especially since the Detroit Three still have a bunch of models to signal the battle isn’t over yet. And, as long as Ford churns out Mustangs, Dodge continues to instill the Demon spirit into the Challenger, and GM allows Chevy to play with the Corvette as it pleases, it probably never will.
Still, this feature gives us a series of SUV vs coupe thrills as the high-performance armed forces line up. The initial battle sees a silver Trackhawk (with a Texas plate, of course) face off against a blue S550 Mustang GT and we can easily feel it’s just the warmup round following their tame 12.33s to 12.75s results (SUVs one, coupes zero).
Next up (from the 1:10 mark) comes a fully camouflaged Grand Cherokee that goes up against a stealthy-gray Mustang to try and solidify the lead. The Blue Oval does its best to recoup the initial loss but its 11.53s run is nowhere near the level of performance exhibited by the 10.45-second Jeep (so, it’s two nil).
From the 1:53 mark we see the coupe team cycle through the warriors and the next two rounds have the Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye take the spotlight. They do so with elegance and poise. Kidding, they’re furiously out for a vengeance, which is swiftly enacted via a couple of great ETs (10.49s and 9.72s, respectively).
Because you can’t have an equality result when an all-out war is involved, the bonus battle sees a black Trackhawk race Chevy’s C7 Corvette from the 4:30 mark... and this run finally settles the case for the SUV faction with an 11.46s to 11:65s victory.
Aurel has aimed high all his life (literally, at 16 he was flying gliders all by himself) so in 2006 he switched careers and got hired as a writer at his favorite magazine. Since then, his work has been published both by print and online outlets, most recently right here, on autoevolution. Full profile
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