The folks at ‘Carwow’ raced two performance SUVs in some straight-line races. On one corner, there was the Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk and the 710 horses that come with it, and on the other, we had the RS version of the Q8 that puts out 600 ponies. On paper, the supercharged Trackhawk has the edge, but can the same be translated in the real world?

That’s A Lot Of Horses Being Put To Work

It is mated to an eight-speed automatic gearbox and an all-wheel-drive system. It is quite heavy, tipping the scales at 5,355 pounds (2,429 kilos).

An eight-speed automatic gearbox drives all four wheels here as well. It is quite heavy, but not heavy as the Jeep. The RSQ8 weighs 5,103 pounds (2,315 kilos), almost 250 pounds lighter than its rival for today.

Quite The Surprise, These Races

After a couple of false starts, they finally had the first legit race. The RSQ8 flew off the line and got ahead of the Trackhawk. The big Jeep tried to chase it, but couldn’t get anything more than its fingertips on the German. The second race belonged to the Jeep Trackhawk. It had a great launch, and once it shot off the line, there was no way the RSQ8 was catching up.

With the points tied at 1-1, they raced once more to settle the scores. The Jeep Trackhawk had a better launch this time as well and all the torque and horses were put to work to make sure the RSQ8 couldn’t catch up. The Jeep completed the quarter-mile run in 11.8 seconds, whereas the Audi RSQ8 did it in 12 seconds.

Next up was the rolling race from 50 mph. The SUVs were locked in comfort settings and automatic mode for the gearbox. At kickdown, the Audi just kept building speeds quickly, whereas the Jeep took its sweet time to get going. By the end of half-mile, the Audi was way (read: wayyyyy) ahead of the Jeep. ahead of the Jeep. }}

They gave it a shot again, but this time in Sport settings. This made all the difference in the world because the Trackhawk just unleashed itself at kickdown. The Audi was a mere spectator. It looked like it got closer towards the end, but not close enough to beat the supercharged SUV at the half-mile mark.

The final round was the brake test from 100 mph. The Audi stopped as expected, but the Jeep kept floating away and took a scary amount of distance to come to a halt. By the time it stopped, it was at least six car lengths further from the Audi RSQ8.

The overall scorecard reads 3-3, with both the SUVs getting their moments of glory. Watch the video below and share your thoughts about the SUVs and the race with us in the comments section.