John forwarded this article that highlights a new Jeep button titled ‘LAUNCH’
http://autos.yahoo.com/news/what-does-this-insanely-awesome-button-do–204659286.html
Here’s part of the article:
The 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8 is home to perhaps one of the most appropriate buttons we’ve encountered in the What Does This Button Do? series. Mysterious buttons are rarely spelled out as clearly as the Jeep SRT8’s, or as fun to use.
By spelled out, we mean the whole word, “Launch,” appears on the button to designate the 470-horsepower, all-wheel-drive Jeep SRT8’s Launch Mode. There are no acronyms or guessing with this button. What the button does is also made clearer by the awesome depiction of a drag strip’s starting-line lights, aka a “Christmas tree.”
OK – what is it for??
My jeep technical knowledge is limited to the flat fenders and there isn’t a “Launch” button
Launch Mode brings the engine, suspension, transmission and driveline together for fast launches from a standstill by revving the engine at a standstill and launching the 5,000-pound SUV like a rocket.
but I had to look it up…………………………………………
To activate, Jeep’s instructions say the SUV must be stopped on a level surface before fully depressing the brake pedal – while in Drive – and then pressing the Launch button. While holding the brake, mash the accelerator pedal to the floor within a half-second and the engine will rev to a predetermined rpm. Once the engine speed is up, all the driver has to do is lift the brake and the SRT8 launches perfectly every time.
yep, I need that like a hole in the head but to each his own……………………………….
so……is it trail rated? launch it over the rubicon. go ahead. I dare you!
Dare accepted! Anyone have one I could use? Maybe the Jeep Corp would like to donate one? Pretty please. Think of the photo ops???
ok this is an suv so i dont understand why its set up for drag racing. and whatever happened to old fashioned driving skills? my 2013 f150 has a manual mode set up in the automatic transmission and i have no idea what its for. i wish i could have bought the same truck with a 5 or 6 speed manual but they dont even offer one anymore.
Steve – they should all be bolted together and attached to the jeep anyway. Funny – when I was a kid in the ‘50s went to a dealer to see the new cars – 1st thing the salesman did was pop the hood and show you the 409 and 4 on the floor, then is the ‘90s it was look at the (awful) chromeless styling – you had to prompt the sales guy to open the hood. Now it is open the doors and show you the computer screen, the star thingy and the blue teeth. If you ask the guy, and often it is a gal, to pop the hood they don’t know how – the response – “that is the bailey-wick of the service department, why do you want in there? I got a hearing aid TV adapter the other day, it says it has blue teeth, I haven’t found them. Maybe this “launch” is like the passing gear on the early automatic transmissions, if so it is nothing new.
If I bought one of these new fangled Jeeps I would look under the hood before sitting in the driver’s seat. Then, I’d put my finger on the launch button and ask the dealer, “How to you aim? “How many shots to I have before I have to reload?”
**Steve E.**
SALES GIMMICK; no doubt it.
More like a service department job security gimmick, I bet it isn’t warranted. I think I understand now what it is, but not the why. It’s a clutch, the if you want to break something just go ahead the use “Launch” – what a stupid idea!
I have a stock 1957 FC150 I’m working on to tour the US with after retirement. What you guys are talking about, I have little interest in.
Steve seems to have done the legwork. If his information is correct, this vehicle is fitted with a stutter box. If it truly has 470 bhp, it will have respectable times at the drag strip, for what it is.
A good friend of mine had a Syclone years ago, the wheels would not spin, all horsepower was forward motion. There was also a Typhoon.
Steve E, maybe they give you a launch code and you just put your target on the screen……….
before use of this button, check dealership inventory of axels, transmissions, differentials, drive shafts and all additional moving parts and number of times said parts will be replaced under full warentee at no cost to launch button owner/user.
Ah , seems the previous post shows the “launch mode” of the 1954 models 😉