Jeep and a Hot Rod do battle at Santa Pod

THIS is a race you will rarely see '“ a hot rod taking on an SUV at the famous Santa Pod track.

THIS is a race you will rarely see – a hot rod taking on an SUV at the famous Santa Pod track.

It was staged by Jeep to promote its new flagship Grand Cherokee SRT, a £69,830, 6.4 litre V8-engined model.

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The Jeep clocked 62mph in 4.5 seconds and reached 103mph on the quarter-mile track to leave the Hot Rod Coupe, the UK drag-racing champion vehicle, in its wake. Visit www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/cars to see a video of the race.

UK drag racing champion Stuart Doignie launched the Jeep off the start line and down the quarter-mile straight in 13.5 seconds, defeating the Coupe, driven by Kelvin Dunn, by 0.9 seconds.

It delivers 468hp and is packed full of high-performance technologies including Launch Control.

Doignie said: “I was hugely impressed by the raw power and speed of the Grand Cherokee SRT.

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“I’ve driven plenty of dragster vehicles at Santa Pod but never a car built purely for the road. It’s immensely quick off the line and powered through the finish gantry. It was an epically close race with the HEMI Coupe but I was glad to keep up my great record at Santa Pod with another win.”

The Jeep has an Electronic Vehicle Information Center (EVIC) with controls accessible from the steering wheel and feature SRT-exclusive Performance Pages – a distinctive system specific to racing technology including information such as horsepower, torque, 0-62mph time, braking distance, g-forces, and covered distance times.

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