The new Jeep Trackhawk is as fast as a McLaren 570GT

If you imagined there was an interloper in our little list you would be wrong. Say hello to a new class of Jeep hellraiser, the Grand Cherokee Trackhawk launched this week at the New York Auto Show. With 707bhp it’s the most powerful stock SUV ever made, and with a quarter mile time of 11.6 seconds, plus a 180mph top speed, it’s the quickest SUV ever, says Jeep.

Making a Bentley Bentayga, Porsche Cayenne Turbo et al look slow is down to the 6.2-litre Hellcat V8 from the top SRT version of the Dodge Challenger. It gives Jeep’s otherwise mild-mannered family SUV some real hell-fire treatment, judging by those performance stats.

To go with the supercharged donk’s seven hundred horsepower is an equally impressive 645 lb ft of torque, metered out via an eight-speed automatic ‘box to a clever, torque-apportioning all-wheel drive system. Other upgrades for the Jeep Hellcat include bigger Brembo discs. 

The over-the-top performance goes with an appearance that’s anything but over the top. The look here is restrained, almost Q car-ish, with flared guards and extra cooling the only visual giveaways. It’s all quite restrained and classy looking inside as well.

It’s not out in the US until year’s end and there’s no word yet on UK sales. Nor is there any indication of price, though a guide might be the current most expensive Grand Cherokee SRT which lists at £73,000. 

But then that only does 0-62mph in 5 seconds! Slow or what?