My Other Obsession.... Our Jeep Grand Cherokee Srt8

[yellaheep]

In addition to my infatuation with the Comanche, my wife and I are also into street performance.  Last November, we traded in our Chevy Trailblazer SS3 and picked up a 2012 Grand Cherokee SRT8.

 

We've had it a year and other than a handful of silly issues taken care of by TSB's and/or warranty, this Jeep has been one helluva great ride!  Stupid fast, stupid fun to drive.  Someone forgot to tell these Jeeps they're SUV's....... they sure don't perform in ANY way like one.  Other than cutting off the exhaust resonators behind the rear bumper to enhance the sound and flow, we've found no reason to modify this thing.  It's a beast.

 

Anyway, as part of the purchase of an SRT product, you're provided with the ability to participate in the SRT Driving Experience at no charge.  My wife and I chose to head down to the event when they held it in Vegas this past October 24th.

 

I'm copying/pasting the following from another forum (NAXJA) so forgive me if it reads a little odd for the CC forum....... :)

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Found someone to stay at the house and we're off to Vegas!

 

The wife and I decided we don't have near enough credit debt so this is gonna be a Y.O.L.O. kinda trip.....

 

We went to pick up our Nissan Sentra rental........:puke: Eff that.  Upgrade time!  2013 Challenger R/T!  Yeah.... I'm here to drive the SRT8 lineup at the race track on Thursday, but rather than spend more to rent an "exotic" for 4 hrs with a 50 mile limit..... I chose this option.... :D

 

We're staying in a suite on the 32nd floor of the NY NY hotel with windows that look out over the strip to the north and south. Amazing.

 

Had dinner at Tom Coliccio's in the MGM..... Started with some incredible scallops and cocktail shrimp, then shared an amazing 32 oz Porterhouse, cheesy bacon grits, mushrooms and iron skillet rolls with the wife. 

 

Walked the strip a bit after dinner..... Gorgeous 60 degrees and clear. 

 

Tomorrow..... Some seat time in the R/T as we drive around looking for the Pawn Stars, Count's Customs and Rick's Restorations shops, then an evening with the Blue Man Group.... :thumbsup:

 

[yellaheep]

The race day with the SRT8's was nothing short of amazing. The SRT Team reps put on a great event.  This was a no B.S. race as hard as you can deal..... As long as you showed maturity and skill, they let you flog the piss out of these cars.  All were 2013 & 2014 SRT8 cars.  Challengers, Chargers, 300C's and Grand Cherokees.  Understandably all were automatics.  All were fully optioned cars too.

There were 28 of us.  There was supposed to be 40..... Thank god for all the no-shows!  They split us into 2 teams and our team performance would be judged against the other for a team win at the end of the event.

We ran 3 courses: autocross, drivers challenge and open track. Autocross was simply that.  A timed, large winding narrow course in the cones.  Cones hit cost ya 2 seconds each.  Average time was in the 34-35 second range.  We got 4 runs and I averaged 33.4 sec.  Fastest guy was in the 31second range.  Our team driver did it twice in 29 seconds....

 

The Drivers Challenge was a combination of a drag race and a coned slalom course.  Get a good light on the Christmas tree, run to a stop-box at the far end, come to a complete stop, then run the slalom without hitting cones, then stop in the finish box inside the cones. Infractions for red-lighting, no complete stop, hitting cones and "blowing" the stop-box.  In the event of a tie, the fastesr reaction time determined.  There were 4 races per driver, each race was worth more points so loosing a later race was bad.  I lost the first race (red-lighted) and the third race (by .008).  I didn't kill any cones though!

 

The road course was by far the best.  An SRT Team driver was our pilot car and we were paired with another attendee of similar driving skill.  The cars were set up as 3 Challengers, 3 Chargers, 3 300C's and another Challenger followed by 2 Jeep Grands.  This part wasn't timed or used in the Team competition..... Just to be done for fun..... And it was!  The drivers paced our speeds depending on how well we kept up.  If we together were "pushing" the driver, the faster they went.  Lemme tell ya ..... Me and my partner were pretty well matched and our drivers told us we were definitely pushing 'em.

 

All of the cars were outfitted with cameras and a USB plug.  They gave each of us a thumb drive to plug into each car we drove to record our driving.  Unfortunately.... They forgot to mention that some cars had bad plug in boxes and to find and use a pigtail connector in those cars..... Until much later in the day.  So, I might not have gotten several of my runs recorded.

I should also mention that my wife isn't fond of fast driving.  She loves to watch it... But doesn't like driving or riding..... To my surprise, she did several rides with our team drivers and had a blast!

 

Of the 3 cars, the Charger was the worst.  It has the longest wheelbase, and in the turns they all pushed and had bump-steer issues on the road race track.  It's the slowest of the bunch too.

 

The Challenger was fun, but being the lightest car it was a bit loose in the corners.  The @$$-end would break loose pretty easily and it had a surprising amount of body roll compared to the other cars. 

 

The best car was hands down the 2014 300C.  Just a totally different animal.  Stupid fast, tight and precise in the corners.  It's the hardest to see out of but the handling was just awesome.  If I had to choose between the Challenger and the 300C..... That'd be tough. The Challenger is much better looking..... But the 300C is one helluva driver's car.

 

The Grand stands alone.  Believe it or not.... This heavy pig is the fastest of the bunch.... In the straights and on the road course.  Yeah it's an SUV.... But someone forgot to tell it.  It has the least body roll, sticks like Velcro, and the all wheel drive provides awesome confidence.  This thing just $#!&s and gits!  Our driver/team leader ran one in the Rolex 24 hr race and said when the Grand is stripped down like his race prepped one was it was incredible.

 

Unfortunately, we only took a few cell phone pics.  The rest will have to wait until I get home and get them off the camera.

This was just a quick shot in the pit of the raceway.

 

 

Here's a couple from the autocross

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Here's the trophy we got for the team win.

 

 

Here's some of the Ferrari race cars used by an exotics racing school.

 

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The Las Vegas Metro Police train in style...... There were 20+ of these lined up in a storage area along with their P.I.T. Training cars.

 

 

 

The other thing cool about the day was all of the military jet pilots were training in fighter jets, Harriers and AWACS.  They were all over the sky above us and landing/taking off very close by.

 

At the end of the day, a rep with the Richard Petty Driving Experience met with our SRT reps and offered our group a VERY reduced price to come over and do a ride along with their drivers.  "Hell, we already have the cars out, come go for a ride!"

 

So, yeah after a day of thrashing on SRT8's, I signed up for a 3-lap ride at 160 mph in a Petty NASCAR car.  Lemme tell ya..... 160 mph in those cars is NO JOKE.  I experienced what it's really like to rely on sticky tires...... Unreal.  And that engine sound is just awesome.

 

Here's a couple pics from my Richard Petty Experience laps....

 

My pudgy self posing with a fellow SRT racing participant......

 

 

Getting rigged up with the Hans Device....

 

 

Me squeezing my large self into the car.....  That was comedy in itself.... :laugh:  Kind of appropriate that the car I rode in was sponsored by a company that makes lights/sirens for emergency vehicles.......

 

[kolton]

Sounds like one heck of a time!

[knever3]

Looks like fun!

[Blue88Comanche]

:drool:

 

Looks like a lot of fun!

 

I loved my 05 WK even if it only had the 4.7.  My 08 Charger R/T had the performance package and is fun to drive I can't imagine how much fun driving an SRT would be.

 

what octane does the 6.4 use?

[Minuit]

:drool: Bucket list!

[yellaheep]

The SRT 6.4 requires premium.

 

The 5.9 R/T Challenger we rented was a fun driver with plenty of power. I liked it a lot. But yeah, the SRT8 6.4 is a whole 'nuther animal. I would LOVE to have an SRT Challenger with the 6 speed manual.....

 

This trip allowed me to check off a few things from my bucket list. :thumbsup:

[xjrev10]

No pics of your SRT-8?

[yellaheep]

Oh sure, I have pics...... :D

 

Here it is outside the muffler shop to have a resonator-ectomy, parked next to a MUCH more expensive (sold for $120K) JK Brute that was being prepped for shipping to a resort in Costa Rica.....

 

All mods we wanted to do are now done:

 

- Window tint on front windows

- Clear bra

- Yokohama Parada Spec 2 tires replacing the garbage Pirelli Scorpion run flats.

- Rear resonators cut out and straight pipe put in with the stock tips.

 

It now looks, rides, sounds & runs even better than stock.:thumbup:

 

 

Huge friggin' resonators. They're similar in size to a motorcycle gas tank and weigh probably 15 lbs each too. Good riddance!

 

 

New pipes and the new Yokohamas.....