NY 2011: The New Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT-8

Predictable, yes.  But still awesome. Frankly, the Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT-8 has never made a whole lot of sense.  It's always been seriously cool, sure - a Grand Cherokee stuffed with all-wheel-drive, a huge Hemi V8, a body kit, absurdly stiff suspension, and 20" chrome wheels wrapped with performance rubber.  I mean sure, it would do 0-60 in about 5 seconds.  But it's a Jeep that can't go off-road (20" performance tires, no transfer case) and can't tow anything (center-exit exhausts!) despite having a 6.1L V8.

But still, let's not bitch - the GC SRT-8 was a modern hot-rod in a world where that's becoming an unfashionable thing.  It was like a GMC Typhoon resurrected with Mopar parts, 2 decades later.  I loved it.

When the new Grand Cherokee debuted last year, everyone who reviewed it loved it.  Improved in basically every way over the old model, which was admittedly a pretty damn good truck.  But where's the SRT-8?  We need our Hemi hot rod, dammit.

Well, it turned up at the New York Auto Show.  And it's just about exactly what you'd predict it'd be: a new Grand Cherokee with a huge engine, all-wheel-drive, huge chrome wheels, and a body kit.  But there are some improvements in the new SRT-8 worth noting.

First off, as we've discussed previously with the Challenger and Charger SRT-8 models, the SRT Hemi V8 is new for 2012, and it's improved in every way.  Displament jumps from 6.1L to 6.4L, and power is increased from 420bhp to 456.  Torque takes a similar jump, from 420lb-ft up to 465 lb-ft.  The neat trick is that with the new 6.4L Hemi, Chrysler has also included a cylinder deactivation system to allow the big V8 to run on 4 cylinders under light load - previously, only the smaller 5.7L Hemi could do this.  This means despite the extra displacement and power, the new SRT-8 should return 13% better fuel economy on the highway, despite being faster.

How fast is it?  Well, Jeep says the new SRT-8 will peg the 0-60 run in 4.8 seconds (thanks to the traction of it's permanent 4WD setup) and will cross the quarter-mile in the mid to low 13-second range, making it about a half-second faster in both metrics than the old SRT-8.

Besides being extremely fast (which is expected), there are other marked improvements to the SRT-8.  With the new Grand Cherokee being based upon the Mercedes ML, the chassis has fully independent suspension - compared to the old Grand Cherokee, which had a solid rear axle.  Further improving the handling is an adaptive chassis, with electronically adjustable dampers at all four corners, managed by Jeep's integrated Selec-Trak system.  Along with the damping rates, Selec-Trak also controls the stability control system, shift patterns, throttle response, torque distribution front to rear and side to side, and other little things.  Braking hardware is especially impressive: 15.0" ventilated rotors up front squeezed by 6-piston Brembo calipers, with 13.8" 4-pistons at the rear, allowing a 60-0 stop in 116'.

Result?  Chrysler claims the Grand Cherokee SRT-8 will pull 0.90g of lateral acceleration.  Which is about the same as a C4 Corvette or a Lotus Esprit from the 90's was capable of.  And neither of them could tow 5,000 pounds, if I remember correctly.

Ahh, yes - which brings us to seemingly the only downside of the new SRT-8: the sweet double center-exit exhausts are no more.  This was to allow for the mounting of a trailer hitch, something the old SRT-8 lacked.

The outside is a bit of a mixed bag, but it's definitely going to be hard to miss.  The SRT-8 gains a set of  interesting hood gills to allow heat from the big 6.4L V8 to escape, giving it a sort of 13/10ths' Lancer Evo look from the front.  There's a storm of LED lights and side markers going on, and a set of really interesting-looking chrome wheels covering the aforementioned huge brakes.  The interior is a much nicer place to spend time, with leather and alcantara-trimmed seats, carbon-fibre trim on the dash, push-button start, and most all the luxury goodies Chrysler's got in the bin to throw at it.  On the "this is strange"end of the spectrum: a set of aluminum shift paddles behind the steering wheel.  Didn't expect to see that in a Jeep.

The price of the new SRT-8 is estimated at around $46,000 when it hits the market this fall.  Although the concept of a high-performance Jeep doesn't make a lot of sense in the historical context of the brand, it's hard to imagine another vehicle on the market today that covers as many bases as the new SRT-8 does.  Sure, the fuel mileage isn't going to be great (probably around 18mpg highway), but what other car combines a sub 5-second 0-60 time, 13-second quarter miles, all-wheel-drive traction, comfortable seating for five, a 5,000lb tow rating, and sports-car grip into one package?

The Cayenne Turbo does, but you could buy about 2.5 Grand Cherokee SRT-8's for the price of one well-equipped Turbo, and it's not that much faster.  The X5M is quicker, sure, but try towing something with it.  The Infiniti FX50s is nearly as fast, but utterly useless at towing, going off road, or not being mistaken for a jack-o-lantern.  The neatest hat trick, though, would be making it's chassis-mate (the Mercedes ML63 AMG) look overpriced.  If Chrysler keeps on cooking up tasty recipes like this, their proverbial restaurant will have a line out the door.