[Jeep TrackHawk News]

YouTuber Sinister Life may have recorded the upcoming Hellcat Trackhawk in action on the streets of Greater Detroit.

Most likely a prototype or one of Jeep’s mules, the Trackhawk could have been mistaken for a 470-horse Grand Cherokee SRT that sporting a bit of camoflauge, but those pocket hood scoops may have given it away. It’s a characteristic of Hellcat vehicles that sets it apart from the average car and can be found on Hellcat-powered Chargers and Challengers. Also, Sinister Life claims to have spotted the test mule with Hellcat Brembos and a roll cage.

The sound may be muffled because of the wind, but if you strain a bit you can probably hear the distinctive hum of the 707-horsepower supercharged V8 engine. We’re not 100% sure that it’s the Hellcat’s soundtrack as the test driver seems to be doing his best not to step on the gas.

Combined with a ZF eight-speed automatic transmission and standard AWD, the Trackhawk could propel the car from 0 to 60 in just 3 seconds and it has an estimated top speed of 200 MPH.

We’re expecting to see the Hellcat Trackhawk go into production in the summer of 2017 so the spied vehicle could be a development mule.

 

[HellKitty]

Definitely can't miss that supercharger whine coming from it around the 2:25 mark

 

[BlackHawk]

Now someone needs to catch it at a standstill so we can hear it even better without all the wind noise that typically comes with captures like this. It's just too bad whatever we get from videos will be no match for in person experience. But if my math adds up, NAIAS 2017 is when EVERYTHING about it releases, yes... videos too.

 

[TrackBird]

Now someone needs to catch it at a standstill so we can hear it even better without all the wind noise that typically comes with captures like this. It's just too bad whatever we get from videos will be no match for in person experience. But if my math adds up, NAIAS 2017 is when EVERYTHING about it releases, yes... videos too.

http://www.jeeptrackhawk.org/forum/337-jeep-trackhawk-videos/1650-jeep-trackhawk-testing-video.html

This video definitely has it clearly.

 

[BlackHawk]

Was hoping for something closer up but seen that before, and from that distance your only getting a good idea of how it sounds higher up in the RPM range.

 

[TrackBird]

Closer would be better, and yea it's only from WOT wheelspin which immediately kicks you up to mid-high range rpm. Hopefully in a couple of months we see more videos come out.

 

[BlackHawk]

At least for now we can reference to the current line up of Hellcats since it can't sound that much different from, but as always there's the chance for slight variation depending on what they decide to do with the many things that influence how an engine sounds.

 

[HellKitty]

That is true.. how different could it sound? I can imagine just a little bit of a difference because of exhaust piping length and whatever the case is but it shouldn't be so bad.

 

[BlackHawk]

It all depends on how far they want to go with tuning the exhaust and even other things like the intake. It all comes down to what refinements they had in development from the last round of hellcat engines to what we'll be getting. Being a short time frame i'm not expecting much but that's never a definite answer.

Safe to say it will sound similar to what we're currently used to.

 

[TrackBird]

I think the only differences they'll make is to accommodate for the size of the vehicle and the changes in subframe and whatever. Otherwise, I don't think they'll tune it any differently. But like @BlackHawk said, it's going to sound like any other Hellcat.

 

[HellKitty]

Can't wait to straight pipe it and make it sound like this :

 

[BlackHawk]

One other way to look at it as well is the fact that the current generation GC is nearing the end of its life cycle.

So it's even more of a reason for Jeep to not go too far. Instead do enough to really test how viable this is as a product and then go from their. Which in turn helps them decide how hard to go with the next generation and if offering high performance sooner in the vehicles timeline is logical.

 

[HellKitty]

That is true. Doubt they're going to follow the Demon trend wither with the same body style. They could do a refresh with a next generation and release that with the Demon spec and bam. Something fresh, new look, more power, more hype, and an even beastlier SUV to conquer the performance SUV class.

 

[BlackHawk]

That is true. Doubt they're going to follow the Demon trend wither with the same body style. They could do a refresh with a next generation and release that with the Demon spec and bam. Something fresh, new look, more power, more hype, and an even beastlier SUV to conquer the performance SUV class.

It's going to be a long waiting game, first we'll have to wait for a Charger Demon to come out, after that it might be out turn, if we're lucky.

But at that point I might just get a Charge or Challenger Demon, waiting months is okay, but waiting years... a lot can happen during that timeframe.

 

[TrackBird]

It will probably be years. Wasn't Dodge supposed to be working on a Barracuda as well? With all this muscle car activities being thrown all over the place, ie. Demon, Yenkos, whatever Ford is doing, I think they'll keep trying to raise the bar.

 

[HellKitty]

There hasn't been any real concrete news on the Barracuda so far. It seems like they're still spending a good amount of time on the Challenger. Got the Hellcat, then an AWD version, now a widebody Demon, But I did hear that 2018 was the last year for it?