New Cherokee SRT Enters Dogfight

by Paul Hadley

Car manufacturers have a few ways of showing off how fast their cars are. They could set a fast time around the Nurburgring, or they could win a drag against key rivals. But these options didn’t seem to interest Jeep when it came to boasting the prowess of its latest Cherokee SRT.

Wingin’ it

Jeep decided it would put the Cherokee to the test by racing it against an airplane – like you do. That of course meant finding a suitable plane that would be able to give the Jeep a run for its money. Step forward the Silence SA1100 Twister – a plane that’s capable of 178 mph from a 110 bhp UL260ISA engine. There is a method behind the madness though; the Cherokee SRT is powered by a Hemi engine which was first developed for the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter aircraft.

V8 Thunder

Sitting under the hood of the SRT is a 6.4 litre V8 Hemi engine which is good for 461 bhp – considerably higher than the Twister. The Jeep may have more horses in its stable but its 160 mph is not as fast as the Twister, but it does have launch control which means it’ll get the big SUV to 62 mph in 5.0 seconds. This is starting to look like quite a juicy contest, don’t you agree?

An Audacious Challenge

The venue for this race was Blyton Park Driving Centre which features 1.8 miles of tarmac and, erm, many miles of air for the car and plane to do battle. Behind the wheel of the Jeep was Ed Morris, the youngest ever British driver at Le Mans and flying the Silence Twister was specialist aerobatic pilot Peter Wells. Who won? Well you’ll have to check out this video to find out!

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