Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk Faster than a Dodge Demon?
The Demon may win the battle, but the Trackhawk could very well win the war.
We’re a big fan of Engineering Explained here at Dodge Forum. It’s one of our favorite YouTube channels. Jason Fenske, the host, is a true-blue car enthusiast, with a deep understanding of what makes cars tick. He does a great job of explaining physics and engineering in a way that regular gearheads can understand. It adds another layer of enjoyment to our favorite hobby.
In this episode, Jason lays out a hypothetical situation: What if you and a buddy found yourself on an airstrip with a Dodge Demon and a Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk? While you might expect the Demon to win the race, the Jeep might have the advantage here.
The Demon has more horsepower, weighs less, and is designed from the beginning to be a drag race dominator. What gives? Well, in a quarter mile drag race, the Demon would still win handily. However, on any longer stretch of road, the Demon runs out of steam at 168 miles per hour, while the Jeep is capable of 180 miles per hour. That’s impressive for an SUV.
Why does the Demon run out of steam earlier? Well, it doesn’t. Nitto partnered with Dodge to design a barely street legal drag-racing tire that would be sticky enough to launch the Demon to a sub-3 second 0-60 time. The trade-off though, is that the tire is only rated for 168 miles per hour, so that’s where SRT engineers set the electronically-limited top speed.
Installing different tires would allow the Demon to hit 200 miles per hour, and there’s apparently a setting in the vehicle’s software to allow for tires with a higher speed rating. Meanwhile, the Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk is more or less aerodynamically limited to 180 miles per hour, still blisteringly fast for a sport utility vehicle.
