Top 6 safety features on Jeep’s Grand Cherokee Trackhawk
Jeep’s Grand Cherokee Trackhawk was one of the stars at the recent Kyalami Festival of Motoring. Small wonder, with 520 kW and 875 kW shoehorned into a family SUV! But here we focus not on its performance, but on its unusual safety features.
The Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk is the fastest Jeep ever manufactured. Launched here in the early part of 2019, this “hyper-Jeep” features a supercharged 6,2-litre V8 engine that produces a staggering 520 kW and 875 Nm of torque.
The Grand Cherokee Trackhawk flattens your eyeballs to the tune of a 0-100 km/h time in 3,7 seconds, and a top speed of 288 km/h. Shifting is effortless through a TorqueFlite 8-speed transmission and power is transferred to all four-wheels via an up-rated version of Jeep’s famed Quadra-Trac on Demand system, which includes an electronic limited slip rear differential and a beefed up transfer case.
Trackhawk is the most expensive Jeep
The Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk is by far the most expensive Jeep ever sold here, and the current list price is R2 199 900. This makes it considerably more pricey than the top BMW X7 50i (R1 871 543) but considerably cheaper than the priciest G-Class Mercedes. The Mercedes-AMG G 63 sells for R2 786 653.
Related reading:
For a launch report of the recently-launched BMW X7 click here.
For a review of the Mercedes-AMG G-Class, click here.
No less than 70 safety features
When launching the Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk, Jeep were keen to point out that the high performance beastie includes no less than 70 security and safety features. Naturally the car comes with airbags (six of them) and ABS braking, as well as traction control and corner assist.
But it includes some very unique safety features too, and to simplify things we chose to highlight just a few of these.
Our Top 6 Safety Features on the Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk
1.Valet mode. This can be activated or deactivated by the owner, using a four digit pin. When Valet Mode is selected it enables the following configurations:
- The engine is remapped to reduce power and torque significantly and limit revs to 4 000 rpm
- The transmission locks out access to first gear, to prevent fast starts
- Launch control is disabled
- Traction, steering and suspension modes are locked into their soft street settings
- Paddle shifters are disabled
- Electronic stability control is set to the full-on position.
This is an ideal solution to enable lesser-skilled driver to still use this inordinately powered car safely. In valet mode, the tiger is effectively turned into a pussycat!
2. Trailer Hitch Camera View at Speed . This allows the driver, when towing, to view the trailered items at speed, and to identify anything that might need rectifying quickly, like loose tie-downs.
3. Full-speed Forward Collision Warning. This system includes Crash Mitigation Braking, and Adaptive Cruise Control with emergency stop function. This emergency stop system can be very handy when travelling in unfamiliar territory, where the driver’s focus may be distracted.
4. Brembo braking system. Brembo is acknowledged as one of the top braking system manufacturers in the world. Brembo brakes are fitted to the likes of Ferrari. The Grand Cherokee Trackhawk features massive 400 mm discs at the front with six-piston callipers and 350 mm discs at the rear with four piston callipers.
5. Lane Departure Warning-Plus and Ready Alert Braking. This is an advancement on normal lane departure warning systems.
6. Bilstein Adaptive Suspension. A big super-powerful vehicle like this needs all the traction it can muster, and Bilistein damping is one of the best adaptive suspension systems in the world.