Jeep’s flagship 4×4, the Grand Cherokee, has a new model, designed and built by the Chrysler Street Racing Technology (SRT) team. And it’s an absolute belter, with a 6.4-litre V8 Hemi and jaw-dropping on–road performance

 Words: Hils Everitt   Photography: Hils Everitt and Isuzu

Normally speaking, heaving a huge great 4×4 round tight mountain roads with wicked hairpin bends is quite a chore, even with a sophisticated automatic box. The sheer effort of dragging that long body through the corners and feeling the inevitable body roll is energy sapping.

Not, however, with this latest SRT edition of the Jeep Grand Cherokee. This is the best-handling Jeep ever built, as was demonstrated superbly on our test drive, booming along the motorways and cruising around the hillsides of the Italian region of Langhe.

The gorgeous on-road performance comes courtesy of the advanced new Active Adaptive damping suspension and Selec-Track traction control system, developed by the SRT team at Chrysler. Mated with the excellent auto ‘box, that just effortlessly flicks up and down the gears, it enables the Grand to glide around those hairpins with the smoothest of rides.