Jeep Trackhawk: world’s fastest SUV will cost you $85,900

Jeep took the supercharged 6.2-liter Hellcat V8 out of Dodge’s most unhinged muscle car and bolted it into the Grand Cherokee, then rebuilt the driveline, brakes, and cooling system to survive it. The result runs 0-60 in 3.5 seconds and the quarter mile in 11.6, with a tow hitch attached. At $85,900, the value argument was the whole pitch. Read on for what made the Trackhawk possible and what to know before buying one used.

Every family SUV promises to get everyone to practice on time. This one promises to get there quicker than most supercars leave a stoplight, and it does it while towing a boat. Under the hood of Jeep’s boxiest people-mover sits a supercharged engine lifted wholesale from one of the most unhinged muscle cars Dodge ever built, and the two machines share almost nothing else. Engineers could not simply drop the motor in and walk away either. The driveline, the brakes, and the cooling system all had to be rebuilt to survive what was about to be unleashed on them. The resulting numbers still do not look real parked next to a roof rack.

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The Hellcat Engine, Rerouted Through All Four Wheels

The Trackhawk’s supercharged 6.2-liter HEMI V8 comes directly from Dodge’s Hellcat family, producing 707 horsepower and 645 lb-ft of torque. Where the Charger and Challenger send that power exclusively to the rear wheels and spend most of their lives fighting for traction, the Trackhawk routes it through an eight-speed TorqueFlite automatic into a full-time all-wheel-drive system. That single change is the reason the acceleration numbers are so violent. All four contact patches are working at launch instead of two, which turns a car that would otherwise smoke its tires into one that simply leaves.

Numbers That Do Not Match the Body Style

The performance figures land in genuinely absurd territory for a two-and-a-half-ton family vehicle. Jeep quoted 0-60 mph in 3.5 seconds and a quarter mile in 11.6 seconds, with a top speed of 180 mph. Those acceleration numbers would have embarrassed the vast majority of exotic sports cars from a decade earlier, and they still hold up against plenty of current performance coupes. What makes it stranger is the context: this is a vehicle with a hatchback, a tow hitch, and enough cargo room behind the second row for a weekend of luggage.

Stopping and Turning Two and a Half Tons

Straight-line speed is the headline, but the supporting hardware is what kept the thing from being a liability. Jeep fitted Brembo six-piston front calipers clamping 15.75-inch rotors, giving a 60-0 mph stopping distance of 114 feet, which is respectable for a sports sedan and remarkable for something this heavy. The Grand Cherokee’s unibody was reinforced, the suspension retuned with adaptive damping, and the whole package pulls 0.88g on a skid pad. Those brake and chassis numbers are the difference between a fast SUV and a genuinely dangerous one.

The Packaging Problem Under the Hood

Cooling was the quiet engineering challenge, and it is the part enthusiasts tend to overlook. Squeezing a supercharged Hellcat V8 into an engine bay designed around naturally aspirated engines meant finding room for the supercharger’s own dedicated cooling circuit alongside the standard radiator, transmission cooler, and air conditioning condenser. A Hellcat Charger has a long hood and relatively open packaging. A Grand Cherokee has a shorter, taller engine bay and considerably more mass to drag through the air, meaning more heat generated over a longer period during sustained hard use.

Why the Price Was the Real Headline

The price is where the value argument lived. At $85,900 before destination, the Trackhawk cost a fraction of what any purpose-built vehicle with comparable acceleration would run, and Jeep leadership leaned on exactly that framing when the number was announced. Buyers were not paying supercar money for supercar numbers. They were paying near-luxury-SUV money and receiving acceleration that would keep pace with cars costing three or four times as much, which is a pitch that has always resonated in American performance car culture.

Built on the Same Detroit Line as Any Other Jeep

It was built alongside ordinary Grand Cherokees at the Jefferson North Assembly Plant in Detroit, arriving in dealerships in late 2017 as a 2018 model. That shared production line is a big part of why the price worked, since the Trackhawk leaned on the existing Grand Cherokee tooling, interior, and body structure rather than requiring bespoke manufacturing. It also explains the vehicle’s most appealing quality to a certain kind of owner. Aside from the quad exhaust tips, the model-specific fascia, and the absent fog lights, it reads as an ordinary Jeep at a stoplight right up until the supercharger whine gives it away.

How It Stacked Up Against the Germans

The Trackhawk did not exist in a vacuum. It landed in the middle of an arms race that had already produced the Mercedes-AMG GLE 63 S, the Porsche Cayenne Turbo S, and the BMW X5 M, all of which offered serious power in a tall wagon body. What separated the Jeep was the sheer bluntness of its approach. The Germans built sophisticated, twin-turbocharged, heavily electronically managed performance SUVs. Jeep took the loudest, most obnoxious supercharged V8 in the corporate parts bin and put it in a truck, which is about as American a solution as the segment has produced.

The Blunt Instrument in a Sophisticated Segment

Production ran through the 2021 model year, ending when the WK2-generation Grand Cherokee was replaced, and the Trackhawk has since settled into an unusual position in the used market. It is simultaneously a Hellcat-powered collectible and a used SUV with all the maintenance realities that implies, from tire and brake consumption to the supercharger’s service requirements. For anyone shopping one today, service history matters enormously, because these were bought to be driven hard and a great many of them were.

What to Know Before Buying One Used

For anyone shopping a used one today, the diligence list is specific and non-negotiable. Ask for supercharger service records, since the unit requires periodic attention and neglect is expensive. Check brake and tire history closely, because both are consumables on this vehicle in a way they are not on an ordinary Grand Cherokee, and a set of correctly sized tires is a serious expense. Look for evidence of drag strip use, including tire shake damage to the driveline and heat-cycled brake rotors. Verify that the eight-speed has been serviced on schedule. Most importantly, understand what the running costs actually look like before signing, because the purchase price is genuinely the cheapest part of owning one of these, and the used market is full of cars sold by owners who learned that lesson firsthand.

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