Tesla Model X P100D Ludicrous sets World Record vs Jeep Trackhawk Drag Racing 1/4 Mile

A supercharged 707-horsepower Jeep Trackhawk should have no trouble against an electric SUV in a straight line — at least, that is what the horsepower numbers suggest. At Palm Beach International Raceway, a Tesla Model X P100D set a new quarter-mile record for production SUVs against exactly that Hemi-powered Jeep. Watch to see how close the gap actually was, and why the Trackhawk needed a few runs to catch up.

A 5,700-pound SUV should not be capable of setting a world record in the quarter mile. Neither should a family hauler with three rows of seats. Yet at Palm Beach International Raceway, one of these two vehicles walked away having done exactly that, and the other — a supercharged 707-horsepower monster that muscle car fans instinctively expect to win — spent the first few runs looking like it had not woken up yet. The gap between expectation and result is exactly why this matchup has been circulating for years, and the numbers involved explain why it still gets argued about in the comments section of a race filmed years ago.

Setting the Stage: Two Very Different Kinds of Fast

The matchup pits a Tesla Model X P100D, equipped with Tesla’s Ludicrous mode, against a Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk powered by a supercharged 6.2-liter Hemi V8 rated at 707 horsepower, one of the most powerful SUVs Detroit has ever put into production. On paper, the Trackhawk’s raw horsepower advantage looks decisive. In a straight-line drag race launched from a standstill, however, horsepower alone does not automatically translate into the quickest reaction off the line, which is exactly where this race gets interesting.

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Instant Torque Versus Turbo and Supercharger Lag

Electric motors deliver peak torque the instant current flows, with none of the spool-up delay that even a supercharged internal combustion engine experiences off the line. That fundamental difference is what allows the Model X P100D to leave the line with a launch advantage no gasoline-powered SUV, however powerful, can fully match in the first fraction of a second, and in drag racing, that first fraction of a second is often the entire race regardless of which vehicle eventually posts the higher trap speed.

A Sleepy Start for the Trackhawk

Commenters watching the footage specifically called out that the Trackhawk appeared to be sleeping for its first three runs against the Tesla, launching noticeably softer than its horsepower rating would suggest before drivers dialed in a more aggressive launch technique in later passes. That early hesitation is a common theme in Trackhawk drag testing, since getting a heavy, high-horsepower SUV to hook up cleanly off the line without excessive wheelspin takes real practice and repeated runs to dial in properly.

What ‘World Record’ Actually Means Here

DragTimes documented the Model X P100D setting a new record for quickest production SUV in the quarter mile during this session at Palm Beach International Raceway, a title specifically about production SUVs as a category, not about which vehicle in this particular head-to-head crossed the stripe first on every single run. That distinction matters, since results between the two vehicles varied pass to pass depending on launch technique, tire temperature, and track conditions on the day of filming.

The Rear-Facing GoPro Detail Viewers Noticed

One recurring comment thread on the video highlights a small production detail: a rear-facing GoPro mounted to capture the Trackhawk’s perspective as the Tesla pulled away, which several viewers found almost comically direct as a way of showing the gap opening between the two vehicles in real time without needing any additional commentary to explain what was happening.

Why Muscle Car Fans Still Argue About This Matchup

For a community built around the sound and feel of a big V8, an electric SUV out-launching a supercharged Hemi remains a genuinely uncomfortable result to sit with, and the video’s comment section reflects exactly that tension years after it was posted, with viewers still debating whether elapsed time alone tells the full story of which vehicle is actually faster in a way that matters to real-world driving.

What This Race Signaled for Performance SUVs

Regardless of where individual fans land on that debate, this race is widely cited as an early, highly visible signal that electric powertrains could compete directly with, and in specific scenarios beat, purpose-built performance SUVs running big-displacement, forced-induction V8s, a shift that has only accelerated in the years since this footage was originally filmed at Palm Beach.

Watching the Trackhawk eventually adapt its launch technique across multiple runs is almost as instructive as watching the Tesla’s initial advantage, since it shows exactly how much of a straight-line drag race comes down to driver technique and repeated practice rather than horsepower figures printed on a spec sheet, a lesson that applies just as much to a 707-horsepower Hemi as it does to any classic muscle car built decades earlier.

Palm Beach International Raceway has become one of the most frequently used venues for exactly this kind of high-profile electric-versus-gas drag testing, in part because DragTimes and similar outlets have built a long-running library of matchups there under consistent, repeatable conditions. That consistency is what allows viewers to compare this Trackhawk-versus-Tesla race against dozens of other similar tests filmed at the same track over the years, rather than treating any single run as an isolated result that cannot be verified against a broader body of evidence.

The Trackhawk’s 707-horsepower Hemi V8 was, at the time of its release, the most powerful engine Chrysler had ever installed in a factory SUV, built specifically to give Jeep a genuine performance flagship rather than simply a quick-feeling family vehicle. That the Model X P100D could challenge a vehicle with that kind of pedigree at all says as much about how far electric performance had already progressed as it does about anything specific to this particular race.

None of this settles the broader argument muscle car fans keep having about whether elapsed time is really the right way to measure what makes a vehicle feel fast, but it does explain why this particular clip keeps resurfacing years after it was filmed. A record is a record, a Hemi is a Hemi, and the two do not always agree on which one deserves the bigger trophy.

What is not in dispute is the launch technique lesson buried inside all of this: a heavy, powerful vehicle needs a driver who has practiced launching it specifically, and a few soft runs at the start of a session do not necessarily reflect what a car is actually capable of once that technique gets dialed in properly.

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