It’s not unusual to find someone else’s playlist still on the hard drive of a higher-end press car’s audio system when it shows up in our driveway for a week-long evaluation. Sometimes it’s fun to guess who had the vehicle last – the Barbara Streisand collection (200 songs, really?) in a Dodge Charger, for example. But no music has ever seemed more appropriate than “The Phantom of the Opera” soundtrack in a Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8.

It’s the Jeep that promises everything a Jeep shouldn’t promise: Handling prowess, a mean bodykit, heavily bolstered seats, an exhaust note developed by the devil himself – and, of course, monstrous acceleration that tops anything double its price.

Disfigured in the eyes of some loyalists, it nonetheless invokes a haunting obsession among some of the most rational enthusiasts.

What is it?
Technically, it’s the successor to 1998’s Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.9 Limited. Though that Jeep only developed 245 horsepower, it attracted a loyal following thanks to its impressive performance figures, which later V8 Grand Cherokees with higher ratings could hardly touch.

The Grand Cherokee SRT8 was introduced for the 2006 model year and it built on the 5.9 Limited’s performance credo by eschewing Jeep virtues of knobby tires and articulating suspensions and replacing them with high-performance rubber, a lowered stance and pair of polished exhaust tips poking out of the center of the rear bumper. Oh, and then there’s the 6.1-liter, 420-horsepower Hemi V8 under the hood.

Unlike the 5.9 Limited, the SRT8 offers no inkling of off-road ability. It features all-wheel-drive, no skid plates, no tow hooks and the ground clearance of a Volvo wagon.

What’s it up against?
The high-performance SUV market is limited – especially in the under $50,000 range. Porsche, BMW and Mercedes-Benz all offer monstrously powerful versions of their Cayenne, X5 and ML, respectively, but prospective buyers could literally take home a handful of Jeep products for the price of one of those Germans.

Any breakthroughs?
Think of the Grand Cherokee SRT8 as a replacement for the discontinued Dodge Magnum SRT8 in some ways – it offers lots of performance in a package that can comfortably carry both passengers and cargo. In that vein, you won’t find many breakthroughs in the Jeep – the Hemi, uprated five-speed automatic, trip computer capable of displaying performance statistics and SRT body and interior upgrades are all present and accounted for.

How does it look?
If the Wrangler is what comes to mind when you think of Jeeps, you’re not going to like the Grand Cherokee SRT8. Hunkered down low to the ground and riding on big 20-inch alloy wheels (285-series rear tires!), this hi-po Cherokee means all business and no romping play. The SRT team revised the front fascia, added unique touches to the grille, slapped on low-riding rocker panels and inserted the aforementioned dual exhaust outlets in the unique rear bumper, which curiously includes the integrated reflectors seen only in the European Grand Cherokee’s posterior.

The look turns the Grand Cherokee, which is getting a bit frumpy in its old age, into a mean machine ready for the streets. It takes some getting used to, for sure, even in our tester’s attractive Red Rock Crystal paint. Those wide tires look great head on or at a front angle, but seen from the rear, their squat profile seems at odds with the big wheel openings that would typically house a slightly meatier tire offering.

It all has a slightly custom, SEMA-ready look, even if it’s direct to the dealer from Jeep’s Jefferson Avenue plant in Detroit.

And on the inside?
As we mentioned in an earlier review of a Grand Cherokee turbodiesel, the other rather uncommonly-powered Jeep SUV, the designers at Chrysler have slowly worked to upgrade this interior since its 2005 debut. Soft-touch materials adorn most surfaces and the instrument binnacle is smartly wrapped in sumptuous leather.

The SRT8 package swaps out other models’ wood, wood-tone or aluminum interior bits for a carbon fiber-style look that seems at home with the sporting pretensions. Add in Chrysler’s cool carbon-like leather wrapping the steering wheel and a pair of standard SRT-issue leather buckets and suddenly “sporty” is an accurate adjective to accompany “Jeep.”

Otherwise, the basic look is bog-standard Grand Cherokee, which means you’ll find an oddly-shaped center console and instrument panel, overly grained hard plastics on some dash surfaces, a tight rear seat and, of course, the terrific uConnect audio system with a built-in hard drive. You’ll want to load “The Phantom of the Opera” soundtrack on yours, of course, which played through the optional 11-speaker (including massive removable subwoofer) Kicker audio system on our test vehicle.

But does it go?
Like the Grand Cherokee 5.9 Limited that wowed Jeepers a decade ago, the SRT8 struck us as being just a bit underrated.

Using the built-in performance computer, the fastest 0-60 time we ever saw was 4.5 seconds. In an SUV that weighs in just shy of 5,000 lbs., that figure is nothing short of outstanding. It’s the kind of performance that will not only earn you high fives at the race track and admiration at your local bar, it’s enough to scare off almost anything you’ll meet at an average stoplight.

There’s plenty of torque on tap from the get-go, although technically the 420 lb-ft. peaks at 4,800 rpm. The 6.1-liter V8 is also rated at 420 horsepower (which peaks at 6,000 rpm). The five-speed automatic, initially used in high-torque Mercedes-Benz vehicles, is the same as you’ll find in Chrysler’s other SRT8 models. It shifts firmly and accurately, making it a perfect match for the Hemi V8. It does offer a Chrysler’s AutoStick-style shift-it-yourself capability, but it works so well that we really never saw a need to coax a downshift.

Acceleration is accompanied by NASCAR-style burble that’s pretty much the same as we’ve seen in SRT8 variants of Dodge’s Charger and Challenger. This is a good thing.

While the Grand Cherokee SRT8 has basic physics working against it in the handling department, it does corner with surprising aplomb. Chrysler’s SRT team lowered the suspension and slapped a set of 20-inch alloy wheels on to start with, then they uprated the stabilizer bars, shock absorbers and, of course, the brakes. The net result is as Grand Cherokee that tangos on pavement like no Jeep has ever danced. The steering is a bit dull and lifeless, but that’s where our complaints end thanks to neutral all-wheel-drive-style grip and balance. The ride straddles the border between firm and composed – only a bit of head toss from broken pavement gives away the solid rear axle out back. It’s a perfectly pleasant and capable daily driver for those who don’t live in the snow belt, where you’d want some grippier winter tires.

It’s also ideal for those who live where gas is cheap – we recorded a downright terrible 12 mpg during our week of rocket-like acceleration. It didn’t take long for us to eat through a couple of tanks of gas. Officially, the Grand Cherokee SRT8 is rated at 11 mpg around town and 14 mpg on the highway.

Why you would buy it:
You work for Shell and you like surprising – no, make that shocking – people at stoplights.
 
Why you wouldn’t:
Your Prius bears a “My Prius is greener than your SUV” bumper sticker. Or, you laugh at factory-height Jeeps riding on puny tires.

Leftlane’s bottom line
The Grand Cherokee SRT8 erases everything we’ve ever thought about the Jeep brand – both good and bad – and replaces it with a beast of a different persuasion. This phantom of the opera stole our hearts and boggled our minds during our week-long evaluation and it’s proof, if we needed it, that Detroit can still build one heck of a muscle car.

Note that, while our test vehicle was a 2009 model-year Grand Cherokee SRT8, changes for 2010 are minimal, aside from some shuffling of option groups.

2009 Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8 base price, $42,500. As tested, $50,670.
Package 29L, $1,925; Red Rock Crystal paint, $225; SRT Option Group I, $2,045; SRT Option Group II, $2,395; Power moonroof, $800; Destination, $780.

Words and photos by Andrew Ganz.

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