Eight-hundred horsepower. 0-60 in 3.1 seconds. $235,000. Given those numbers, you’d think we were talking about a supercar, right? Well we are, if by supercar you mean something with otherworldly performance capabilities. But this is no two-seat roadster. This is a Jeep.
To be more specific, this is the latest Hennessey HPE800 Twin Turbo, a new rocket sled based on the Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8. That model usually packs a 6.4-liter Hemi V8 – which is already big by any measure – but Hennessey’s bored it out to a nice round 7.0 liters and bolted a pair of turbochargers to it.
Along with the substantial engine mods, the HPE800 also gets an upgraded transmission and torque converted (it is a conventional automatic, after all), plus 20-inch wheels on a lowered suspension with 15.1-inch Brembo brakes, and a reworked fascia with a carbon fiber splitter up front.
Of course, if the high price of entry doesn’t keep out the riffraff, the limited quantities being built surely will: only 24 examples are earmarked for production, so even at the pace at which these beasts will cover all manner of terrain, they’re not likely to run into one another once they’ve left the factory.
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