From Chrysler SRT - the Cherokerrari!

Published Feb 6, 2012

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The unlikely marriage of Fiat and Chrysler has resulted in some strange offspring - but these two must be among the most off-beat.

Two examples of the new Grand Cherokee SRT8, which Chrysler says is the most powerful production Jeep yet built, have been customised in Ferrari colours and presented to Formula One drivers Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa.

Talk about making an entrance - each is the visual equivalent of an air-raid siren, with special SRT styling in Ferrari's unmissable Rosso Corsa, embellished with classic Ferrari styling cues.

The traditional seven-slot Jeep grille is finished in matte black with special red inserts, while an offset “go-fast stripe” in black with a white edge accent runs right over the top (pun intended) from the front bumper and bonnet to the roof and rear spoiler.

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE

Add to that a gloss black rear light bar with red accents on the Jeep logo, a matt black painted dual-pane sunroof, carbon-fibre mirror housings and red, white and green stripes (no, we're not kidding; we couldn't make this stuff up) on the underside of the rear spoiler.

Ride height has been lowered 38mm and the Cherokerrari's run on gloss black, 20” forged-aluminium rims.

The interior of each car is trimmed in leather with Ferrari red inserts in the sculpted bolsters of the sports seats, the door trim panels and the instrument panel; even thre black leather-trimmed steering wheel has red contrast stitching, while the dials have yellow faces, just like those quirky little sports cars they make in Maranello.

NUTS AND BOLTS

These two special Jeeps are based on the 2012 Grand Cherokee SRT8 model, due to debut in South Africa in late May or early June.

It has a new 6.4-litre Hemi V-8 engine with fuel-saver technology that switches off four of the eight cylinders when full power isn't needed - but when it is, you get 344kW and 624Nm, good enough, according to Chrysler, to blast it from 0-100km/h in five seconds flat and on to 255km/h.

Prices, as always, when they get here - and you can bet Fernando and Felipe didn't pay for theirs anyway.

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