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Would You Trade Your Hellcat Challenger for a Jeep Trackhawk?

46K views 11 replies 8 participants last post by  Hellion 
#1 · (Edited)
By Patrick Rall, LXForums Editorial Staff

Would You Trade Your Hellcat Challenger for a Jeep Trackhawk?





Last month, I had a chance to spend a week driving the 2018 Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk from my home in Michigan. My first test time in the supercharged Jeep came last fall when I traveled with FCA to Maine to drive the Trackhawk on the road and on the track, but it is always better to test a vehicle on my familiar local roads. More importantly, there is a big difference between spending 3 hours driving a new vehicle in some exotic location and using it as a daily driver for a week of my life, so I was excited to get my hands on one of the high performance Grand Cherokees from my local test fleet.

When I took delivery of the 2018 Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk, the Michigan weather was still fairly wintry, so my Hellcat Challenger was still in storage, safe from the nasty road salt. In fact, one night while I had the Trackhawk, we got an inch of snow after a few hours of freezing rain, so I was thankful to have a supercharged Hemi mated to an all-wheel-drive system.

To put it bluntly, driving the Trackhawk for a week was absolutely freakin' awesome.



Driving the Trackhawk
The 707-horsepower Jeep combines all of the comforts of the modern Grand Cherokee including an advanced all-wheel-drive system with the performance of the Dodge Hellcat car, resulting in the world's quickest and fastest sport utility vehicle. Even in 30-degree weather on cold pavement, I was able to reel off 3.2-3.3 0-60 times without much effort and with some practice, I was able to get down to 3.1 seconds, and that was without using the Launch Control system with Torque Reserve. Using that high tech system made the Jeep slightly slower to 60, often spinning all four tires on a hard launch. On the other hand, launching with just the pedals allowed me to play with the throttle and routinely get to 60 from a stop in the low-3-second range in conditions that prevented my Hellcat Challenger from coming out of the garage.



Even on nice, warmer days, the Trackhawk still a clear advantage in the ability to launch thanks to the advanced all-wheel-drive system over the Hellcat Challenger and that is the awe-inspiring aspect of the supercharged Jeep. With my Challenger, hammering the throttle from a stop with street tires will result in nothing more than smoke and hundreds of feet of black stripes on the road. With some practice I can launch my Hellcat hard enough to get into the high-3-second range with my best time being a 3.7. On the other hand, there is very little practice or skill needed to get the most out of the Trackhawk. You can hammer the throttle from a stop and while it might give a quick spin to the tires, they are quick to bite and send the big Jeep hurdling past 60 miles per hour. Hitting a 3.5 - a time that is very difficult in my Challenger - is remarkably simple with the Trackhawk, and that was in cool temperatures on all-season tires.



As you might imagine, it was very clear on Instagram and Facebook that I was enjoying the Trackhawk, leading many, many people to ask me the exact same question:Are you going to run out and trade your Hellcat on a Trackhawk?The answer is no. The Trackhawk is nothing short of amazing and I can't think of anything that I would change about it, but I love the Hellcat Challenger even more, as it offers some things that the similarly-powered Jeep cannot.

The Challenger Advantages
These are two of the highest performance vehicles sold in America and they are both incredible from behind the wheel, but they are two very different performance machines. The Trackhawk has AWD, allowing it to make full use of the supercharged Hemi power at any time and in any situation, but that really only helps when launching from a stop. In other situations, such as rolling along at 40mph and putting the hammer down, the Hellcat Challenger doesn't have the same traction issues, so it doesn't really need the extra weight of the AWD system. However, the fact that the Dodge coupe weighs more than a thousand pounds less makes a big impact on the mid-range and top end performance, so while the Jeep gets away from the starting line more quickly, the Challenger pulls much harder from the mid-range up.



While the launching abilities of the Trackhawk are awesome, I missed the mid-range pop of my Hellcat Challenger when driving the Jeep. More importantly, part of loving a muscle car is loving burnouts, and with the Jeep, I missed the ability to occasionally hammer the throttle and create some tire smoke. Sure, the Trackhawk will spin all four tires and leave stripes on the pavement with Torque Reserve, but it just isn't the same as kicking the throttle of my Challenger and lighting up the back tires.



Finally, while I like the look of the Trackhawk and the entire modern Grand Cherokee lineup, I think that the Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat is one of the best-looking modern cars from any automaker. Of course I am biased, but having grown up loving muscle cars, dreaming of owning something like a Hemi Shaker Cuda, I love the old-school styling of the modern Challenger.From the aggressive front fascia and the satin black, vented hood to the LED taillights, simple rear spoiler and dual rectangular exhaust tips, I love everything about the look of the Hellcat Challenger. In my opinion, it is one of the coolest-looking vehicles on the road today, and while I like the look of the Trackhawk, it doesn't give me the same feeling as the Hellcat Challenger when I stare at them from my office window.



The Trackhawk offers incredible launching abilities that can be enjoyed in pretty much any weather condition, while also offering real seating space for four adults and a bunch of cargo. Rain or shine, the supercharged Jeep moves out like few performance cars in the world, but at the end of the day, I prefer the performance feel of my Hellcat Challenger over the Jeep and I love how my badass American muscle car stands out in a crowd.
 
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#6 ·
keep my RT. Too many years building it to what it is now.
 
#11 ·
Were you expecting much else though? The 15k cheaper price of the TrackHawk for a car that is far more powerful and much faster than the X5 M had to come from somewhere... Dodge, Jeep, Maserati, and other FCA vehicles are about getting style, bonkers performance, and the best bang for your buck. Fit and finish has never been their strong suit. The result is that you can buy a 485hp sedan for under 40k brand new. Or a 375hp one for under 30k. Or a track car that's better than pretty much anything else at half the cost.
 
#12 ·
Well my Charger fit and finish is pretty good. That's why I let the wife decide if she wanted to trade or not. I would like to see the Durango get the Hellcat motor as I think it has a nice fit and finish. Time will tell.

BTW good to see you know your prices. Most people think its a 50K difference in price between the 2 SUV's. :thumbs_u:
 
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