• Welcome to the new NAXJA Forum! If your password does not work, please use "Forgot your password?" link on the log-in page. Please feel free to reach out to [email protected] if we can provide any assistance.

Our 2012 SRT8 Grand Cherokee (WK2)

I had a Subie, once...

:D
 
And that wasn't even in track mode......:shhh:

I do believe we scared the keeerap outta that lady in the mini van......:D
 
Still diggin' this WK2. Stupid-fun each time I get to run around in it. :thumbup:

Got my SRT Track Experience event scheduled. Gonna go to Las Vegas International Raceway on Oct. 24th. The wife is going as a non-driving guest. She'll hopefully be able to get track-side and get some cool video. Wondering if I should invest in a GoPro and magnetic base and get some cool shots that way too........

Took it in for some warranty work already. Rear suspension would ride like there was NO suspension after sitting through a 20 degree night. One of the daytime running light LED's would flash like a strobe. The computer showed a fault code for the right rear shock - voltage issue so they replaced that and got a new light up front. Of course, since there's fewer than 1600 of these out there....... the dealerships don't stock SRT specific parts so the Jeep had to go in for diagnosis, then returned a week later to have the parts installed.
 
looooooooove that track. You'll have a blast. Hopefully you get a noon to 4 time. Track is usually best then and sun won't be in your eyes yet.
 
Well, it's almost been a year with this SRT8 Grand.

Still loving it..... just an incredible vehicle in all aspects. If we behave, we can squeeze the MPG to over 18... using the Adaptive Cruise Control on a long trip we actually saw 21 mpg with a lot of "Eco" mode operation.

Unfortunately, there have been quite a few little annoyances requiring a handful of dealership visits. A few more than we had with our '07 Trail Blazer during the 5 years we had that......

The annoyances:

-Factory run flat tires sucked - changed out to Yokohamas.
-A rear magnetic fluid strut locked up causing it to ride with ZERO suspension. Part had to be ordered, took a couple days.
-Windshield cracked straight across the middle, not from a rock or other projectile... stress crack?
-One of the DRL LED lights up front went bad - strobing while driving. Again, took days to get ordered in as it's SRT8 specific.
-Horn button/air bag housing stuck solid - couldn't honk horn. Part still on order.
-Rear hatch glass leaked water in car wash - poorly sealed gasket for wire loom pass through.
-Creaking/popping noise from sun roof assembly on rough roads or taking slow curves. Entire sun roof assembly had to be replaced.
-Tire pressure monitors are WAY over sensitive. Cold weather has them constantly alerting to low pressure - low pressure is anything below 32 psi..... stupid.
-Anti-collision feature can startle you when it detects something is too close. Would love to disable that feature. But luckily doesn't happen often. Tall curbs in parking lots and guard rails on narrow curvy roads set it off the most.
-The dash corner air vent surrounds are painted with a light silver and reflect into the driver and passenger front door windows... right where the rear view mirrors are so most times you have to look through the reflection.
-Spare tire slides and thumps around with no real good way to secure it. Packed a towel around it.
-Brake dust....... holy crap the friggin' brake dust.........
-Front bumper/fascia started coming loose around the grill and headlights. (My GTO had the same problem) luckily there was a detailed TSB out there to fix this and it seems to have done just that.
-The version of navigation software currently being used SUCKS. Hoping we can have this version deleted and use one of the current ones that works well. The version in my '11 Dodge truck works great.

The stuff that makes up for those annoyances:

-Power, handling, ride, S.E.G. factor....... all are amazing.
-Having the option of BOTH the auto-stick and steering wheel paddles is nice.
-Seats are AWESOME. Heated, cooled, great bolsters, lots of adjustment.
-Self adjusting headlights and auto-dim feature work awesome.
-Controlled exhaust note until you want it to sound angry...... and it does that very well.
-Brakes work almost too good....... crazy stopping power.
-All wheel drive FTW! Sticks to everything, corners HARD. Saves on tires too as it'd be way too tempting to smoke 'em with a 2wd mode.
-Rare car fun factor. Nobody sees these things around much. Love the overall look.
-Remote entry/start/rear hatch features are great. Love the key-less ignition system and push button locks on the door handles.


We've found that this Jeep does NOT like hot weather. Gas mileage and power does drop considerably. Throttle response can be so dulled-down in hot, dry weather. This thing LOVES life when it's 60-65 degrees and humid though. A whole different car. This time of year makes for the BEST driving experience with this Jeep.


We also found that we will NEVER go back to Centennial Jeep for service. Nothing but a bunch of ass-clowns there. We bought a Mopar oil change plan and get those done at Brandon Dodge - great service guys in the lube shop there, and have found the Service guys and technicians at Broadway Jeep/Go Jeep to be great to work with. They welcomed my dropping off the Jeep with a stack of TSB printouts in hand and are very understanding of our being so particular about this Jeep.

My wife does miss having her favorite tire though. The Bridgestone Blizzaks were such an incredible tire on our TBSS...... but unfortunately, Jeep chose an odd wheel size and a wheel well opening that doesn't allow for many tire options. The Yokohama Parada's are wearing well and while they're no Blizzaks, they're a great alternative.... and cheap too.

The Vegas SRT8 Track Experience is almost here........ hope to have a bunch of cool pics and a good report to post on that afterwards! :thumbup:
 
Last edited:
Found someone to stay at the house and we're off to Vegas!

The wife and I decided we dont have near enough credit debt so this is gonna be a Y.O.L.O. kinda trip.....:shhh:

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....:thumbup:

IMG_20131022_175508082_zps3f5342a2.jpg
 
Last edited:
Good day today. Did some driving in north las Vegas and hit the Pawn/Restorations/Kustoms tours. The Pawn Stars were all away from the store, but we saw Kelly, Kyle, Kowboy and Brettley working at Rick's, and listened to Horny Mike and Roli chat it up with folks touring the Count's car collection.

Then took in the Mob Museum..... Which was cool, but you'll spend 3+ hours there if you read everything there..... Not much on display other than photos with descriptions and small video rooms playing documentary type stuff.

Had INCREDIBLE BBQ at John Mull's Meats and Road Kill Grill in north west Vegas. Found it as one of Guy Fieri's Diners, Drive ins and Dives favorites. Definitely a dive and hidden in the middle of a residential area..... But SO worth finding it. :thumbup:

Took in a Blue Man Group show then capped the night with a walk and a margarita.

Getting up at 6am..... We race tomorrow! :D
 
Last edited:
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.
 
Last edited:
YELLAHEEP said:
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.
Click to expand...

Note to self....If I'm ever involved in a high speed pursuit. Do it in Littleton.

;)


Glad you're having a good time, buddy. Sounds awesome. Did you get any pictures?
 
That's odd.... Half my post is missing.....:dunno:

Anyway.....

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 ass-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 shits 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.

IMG_20131024_164533228_zps32d4d47a.jpg


Here's a couple from the autocross.

IMG_20131024_105412483_zpsadabe0d5.jpg

IMG_20131024_105434900_zps15ac2ec1.jpg



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

IMG_20131024_180338364_zps7140fd3e.jpg


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

IMG_20131024_164423715_zps92c4ff8c.jpg

IMG_20131024_164911185_zps0a52347e.jpg

IMG_20131024_164945833_zpsfa844cbd.jpg


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.

IMG_20131024_165153804_zps1cf01413.jpg




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.

Anyway, I'll have more pics and maybe some video later.
 
Last edited:
Well, the vids my wife shot using a mini 1080P camera aren't the best..... I'll have to sift through them to see what's salvageable.

The vids from the in-car cameras won't play. Gotta call the race video company and see if they need to send me a better software version or something......

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

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

100_1803_zps214c18e5.jpg


Getting rigged up with the Hans Device....

100_1804_zps80715f81.jpg


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.......

100_1805_zps715fbd7c.jpg


100_1806_zps852735d4.jpg
 
Last edited:
Because it matches his bed...

race_car_shaped_kid_bed_01.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top