By Jack Baruth
Wednesday, Jul 20th, 2011 @ 11:45 am

It’s the fastest – and most furious – Jeep in history, capable of dusting-off sports cars on a racetrack and stretching to 160 mph on the open road. Is this hypersonic Grand Cherokee utterly fabulous, or utterly pointless? We investigate.

This is what you need to know about the SRT8: The five-position “terrain knob†that debuted with last year’s all-new GC has a new label at the seven o’clock mark: TRACK.

Push it, and it’s all systems go for a full-speed assault on your nearest road course.

The base Grand Cherokee was already an impressive over-the-road drive, but this SRT8 variant adds a 6.4L HEMI V-8 producing 470 horsepower and 465 lb-ft. torque. The drivetrain features a beefed-up variant of the Mercedes-Benz-designed five-speed automatic transmission, an active rear differential, and massive rolling stock.

The original SRT8 was a last-minute addition to the new-for-2005 “WK†Grand Cherokee. There were plenty of compromises evident as a result, from the tacked-on interior trim to the center-mounted exhaust that prevented the vehicle from doing the kind of double duty enjoyed by Cayenne and ML63 owners.

This “WK2†model, on the other hand, was a part of the lineup from the moment planning started. There’s real carbon fiber on the interior, for the first time in any Jeep product. The fenders flare out in time-honored sports-prototype fashion to cover the massive 295-width Pirellis. And towing? Five thousand pounds, thank you very much.

Price-wise, the SRT8 faces the imported V-8 SUVs head-on. It matches entries like the ML550 and X5 5.0i for features at a slightly lower price.

When it comes to performance, however, you’d better step past those mommy-mobiles and start considering heavy iron like the X5M and Porsche Cayenne Turbo. While those two six-figure bombers will give the SRT8 a fight in a straight line, we aren’t sure they will be close on a racetrack.

Starting from scratch
Now that Mercedes-Benz is long gone from the ownership picture, the Jeep guys are free to throw every toy in the book at the SRT8. Adaptive cruise control, heated steering wheel, six-piston Brembos, blind-spot warning, keyless entry – you name it, the Grand Cherokee has it standard or optional.

But what this Grand Cherokee really offers in spades is street cred. The monochromatic paint, flared fenders and low-rider stance give the Grand Cherokee an almost cartoonishly aggressive look. The 20-inch wheels are straight out of an HR Giger book; it’s disappointing when they don’t sprout tire-cutting blades on the move. The de rigeur LED light blades on the front bumper are at the level of most cars’ headlights. Is that an Audi R8 coming up behind you, or a Jeep? You won’t be able to tell from the closing speed.

No Jeep has ever looked this good inside, either. The leather is soft, the plastics are high-quality, the metal trim is genuine, and the steering wheel has the arrogant thickness of a BMW M-car. Chrysler’s been banging the drum on interior materials, and the sweep of black carbon fiber across the doors and dashboard perfectly matched the material used in this tester’s $1,800 Impact! Air Draft Carbon helmet.
Helmet, you say? Oh yes, because we had our Grand Cherokee tester at “Big Willow,†the deadly road course north of Los Angeles. Down the front straight, the SRT8 managed 128 mph before late-braking and locking-up its active rear differential for the entry into Turn One.

Get over the sheer terror of having your head six feet off the ground when cranking .90g’s through Willow’s long, flat Turn Two, and it’s amazing what the Grand Cherokee can accomplish. The lap times were good enough to race in several NASA production-based classes, and it wasn’t just the 6.4-liter HEMI making the bacon. This truck stops, turns, and responds in a fashion that is utterly world-class.
We didn’t get passed once all day at Willow – not even by the Chrysler engineers in their Challenger 392s. This Grand Cherokee has no excuses to make on a racetrack. Just make sure someone else is paying for your tires, because just an hour or two’s worth of lapping can smoke two grand worth of P-Zero rubber.

Unless you’re stepping out of a top-end German sedan, you won’t have any complaints with the way the SRT8 handles long freeway drives. The adaptive suspension easily changes focus for a concrete-slab trip, and the 114-inch wheelbase – what you’d find in a Lincoln Continental MkVI – smooths it out the rest of the way.

The front seats can be a little tight for the broad of beam, so make sure you try before you buy. The rear seats fit nearly anyone and recline more than the blue leather torture thrones in a Southwest 737.

A new harman/kardon stereo system saves weight and increases volume over the outgoing model. It’s good – awfully good – but most SRT8 owners will want to listen to the engine, which has the big-throated growl of a Sprint Cup pack heard from the grandstands.

Leftlane’s bottom line

Around a racetrack, down a twisty road, or along Interstate 70, the best Jeep ever.

Off-road? Don’t ask.

2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8 base price, $55,295.

Words by Jack Baruth. Photos by Jack Baruth and courtesy Chrysler.

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