Grand Cherokee Trackhawk

Make
Jeep
Segment
SUV

In racing, weight is everything. That fact was perfectly demonstrated just a couple of weeks ago when Hennessey took a bone-stock Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk and pitted it against the new mid-engine Corvette in a drag race. The Trackhawk is more than 200 horsepower up on the C8 Corvette Stingray, but that alone wasn't enough to make up for its comparatively high curb weight.

Not that the Grand Cherokee was ever favored to win. It is, after all, a rather big mid-size crossover.

But keep throwing power at a heavy vehicle and it will, at some point, come out on top. Knowing that, Hennessey recently took both the Trackhawk and the Stingray back to the track this month, after the former underwent some performance enhancement surgery.

The Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk now features Hennessey's HPE1000 upgrade package, which leverages a 2.65-liter supercharger, a pulley upgrade, high-flow cats, stainless long-tube headers, and some other tweaks to put out a heart-stopping 1,012 horsepower. At that level, the Trackhawk is capable of a blistering 2.6-second sprint to 60 mph, Hennessey says, and it can run the quarter-mile in 10.2 seconds at 133 mph.

For comparison, the Chevrolet C8 Corvette with optional Z51 package will jet to 60 in 2.9 seconds, completing the quarter-mile in about 11.3 seconds at 121 mph. Those are astonishing figures for a naturally aspirated Corvette, abetted by the superb launch traction afforded by the sports car's rear-mid-engine layout. Still, as you may have noticed, they can't touch the Trackhawk HPE1000's blistering numbers.

Unsurprisingly, it's the Trackhawk that wins this time around, although with AWD and more than twice the power, that's hardly surprising.

The story might change in the future if Hennessey manages to gain access to the C8 Corvette's high-security engine control unit so they can release their planned twin-turbo kit. As it stands, the best Hennessey has been able to do is to strap a pair of turbos onto a development car and keep the boost limited to what the factory tune can safely compensate for. Even so limited, Hennessey's twin-turbo Corvette has managed to produce some 650 peak horsepower.