Someone in Hennessey Performance must have decided that standard acceleration times demonstrated by the Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk could be much, much better. Apparently, there are people who find 717 hp sorely inadequate to feel that special supercar drive…
Anyway, the performance tuning firm has released a dedicated HPE1000 upgrade package for the Trackhawk series. The vehicle normally comes equipped with a 6.2L supercharged V8 engine with 717 hp (535 kW) and 875 Nm (645 lb·ft) of torque under its command. Once the upgrade is installed, its performance skyrockets to 1,026 hp (765 kW) and 1,314 Nm (970 lb·ft) of torque.
The company made a video to demonstrate just what the boosted Trackhawk is capable of. The vehicle had no trouble accelerating 0-97 km/h (0-60 mph) in trifling 2.7 seconds, rendering the 3.5 seconds of the stock model pale in comparison.
The new top going speed was never touched upon, but we can readily assume that it goes well past 300 km/h (187 mph).
Under-the-hood improvements include lots of replacements (oil filter, fuel pump, inlet manifold, nozzles, supercharger) along with an increase in working pressure and a firmware update.
The package is available to anyone interested and even comes with a 1-year warranty.
Are there any other heavy, bulky SUVs out there that were taken to the supercar performance level? There are a few. For instance, there’s a Toyota Land Speed Cruiser Driver’s Package which packs a 2,000-horsepower (1.5-MW) engine and accelerates to 370 km/h (230 mph) when moving in a straight line. There’s also an all-electric Faraday Future FF 91, which only needs 2.39 seconds to reach 97 km/h (60 mph).
Photo: hennesseyperformance.com