Road Test: Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8

Big, bold and bad to the bone. Ray Leathern finds the new Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8 comes standard with more barrel-chested attitude than WWE Smackdown.

Is a bad attitude enough to steal buyers away from the Range Rover Sport, Porsche Cayenne Turbo and BMW X5M I wonder? A large, sporty SUV, destined to compete with BMW, Porsche and Range Rover, could be forgiven for sticking to a well-practiced mantra of luxury, practicality, exclusivity, speed and whatever the opposite of good fuel economy is, to secure its customers. After all, these are the wants for buyers in this fat-boy segment of the market.

The new Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8 is an SUV that puts some much-needed muscle into the slightly greying sports SUV sector. The Range Rover, X5 and Cayenne are getting “a bit long in the tooth”, as my dad would’ve said. The SRT8 therefore doesn’t so much position itself in the market, as punch a truck-like hole straight through it. Jeep has every confidence that in their new SRT8 they have a vehicle to subvert the norm.

The 6.4-litre Hemi V8, with its 344 kW and 624 Nm of torque matted to a 5-speed automatic gearbox, makes the SRT8 mean many things to many people at the price Jeep are asking for it. For R799 990 part of the Jeep SRT8′s bling includes a set of 20-inch alloy wheels, which somehow even manage to look lost against the massive Jeep body, a pair of horny nostrils to go with the crosshair-like grille, as well as daytime running lights that maximise the SRT8’s belligerent looks.

It’s a surprisingly good value package when you consider the hard-drive based entertainment system, Sat-Nav, adaptive cruise control, heated and cooled seats, as well as the array of on-board computers that record your performance as you race along. Now, however, it’s time for me to tell you what the Jeep SRT8 most certainly is not. It may have permanent all-wheel drive and a tall ride height, but it is no off-roader.

No low-range gearbox and no diff-locks make it abundantly clear that this SUV is intended exclusively for tarmac use. Only 203 mm ground clearance and the quadra-trac and selec-track adaptable, four-wheel drive and damping system mean you can handle occasional off-road ventures if the mood strikes, but you’re best advised to keep it civilised. Which is ironic then when the SRT8 has a ‘Track Mode’ on the selectable centre-console switch.

The SRT8 rides on a 1 669 mm wide track in front and 1 661 mm at the rear, both increased compared to the standard Grand Cherokee. The SRT8 has multi-link suspension with extra stablisers on the both the front and rear. The traction control does its best to ensure the 2 360 kg journeyman doesn’t induce too many unscheduled off-road visits when you’re giving it the berries in the corners. We did find the front suspension to be woefully over sprung at slow speeds, on over complicated and ribbed road surfaces, making for a harsh ride that was more jiggly than one of Krusty the Clown’s dreadlocks.

There is much method to Jeep’s seemingly madcap SRT8 however. You might expect the SRT8’s high centre of gravity, harshly damped front end and tortured 20-inch sidewalls of rubber to fling you straight off the road at the first sight of a tricky corner, but no. The steering has amazing response and an almost perfect weight to it. It seriously feels like a Golf GTI 35th Edition to steer, with its flat-bottomed steering wheel. Then you remember that Jeep has done thousands of laps of the Nurburgring in testing the SRT8 and because of that the competent turn-in, satisfying chirp of tyre squeal and deft handling mid-corner must surely be no accident. The Jeep SRT8 shows such composure in the handling department it’s nothing short of miraculous. (It’s good, but no other performance SUV comes close to the Porsche Cayenne Turbo at the moment – Ed.)

The 6.4-litre V8 is undoubtedly the star of the show though. Producing monster kW and Nm of torque for a normally aspirated unit, I was blown away at how smooth the torque delivery shifts the massive two ton-plus, American blob. Jeep says the SRT8 will shove to 100 km/h in 5.0 seconds, but we got it down to 4.8 seconds by letting a bit of pressure out of the rear tyres.

We also managed a quarter-mile run in 13.5 seconds at a speed of 165 km/h. What about the thirst you might be asking yourself? Well, it weighs over two tonnes and is powered by a large capacity normally aspirated V8, paired with a 5-speed automatic transmission. What do you expect? The SRT8 is a significantly thirsty machine with a claimed and combined figure from Jeep of 14.1 L/100 km and CO2 emissions of 328 g/km. Yeah right. We averaged 22 L/100 km while caning it. The 91-litre tank also requires more than R1 000 to fill up every time and will only deliver 450 – 500 km range if you drive it sensibly.

As far as build quality and comfort goes, the SRT8 is actually surprisingly good. If you can keep your foot and the volcano beneath the bonnet under control, you can dawdle everywhere quite comfortably (aside from the jiggly low speed ride). A few of the electronic gizmo’s played up while we tested the SRT8 however. The tyre pressure monitor kept saying we had a right rear flat, which we didn’t. It kept insisting that we add more engine oil, although we checked it virtually every day and, if you turned the park distance control on, it immediately beeped itself blue in the face even though we were in an abandoned parking lot.

So, is the Jeep SRT8 all things to all macho men? Actually, yes! I love this crazy Jeep. It’s brilliant at some things and then surprisingly brilliant at all others. It has the Rangie Sport, X5 and Cayenne crowd beat on price and holds its own in speed, practicality, utility and comfort. It is lacking in some sophistication, sure, but where it makes that ground up is in its amazing handling, urban-warrior styling and its all attitude, all the time anti-establishment bent. I thought I’d look an arse driving this massive WWE wrestler wannabe around, but it proved to me that it was a proper athlete with real fire in its belly.

In terms of “brag-for-your-buck”, nothing comes close to the Jeep SRT8, it’s pure ‘Americana’ and it’s by far the best American car I’ve ever driven.

What we like…

• Quite cheap compared to the hum drum competitors.
• Interior comfort and tons of standard equipment.
• Freight train acceleration from the N/A Hemi engine.
• Real, big, fast car presence.
• 0 – 100 km/h, G-metre and quarter-mile performance data loggers.

What we would like…

• The electronic gizmos to be a little more reliable.
• The tender board to pay for the fuel bills please.

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