Driving the Jeep Concepts

Amazing Concepts point future direction for the next Wrangler
By Imthishan Giado

Jeep Grand Cherokee Trailhawk

Most concepts are no more than wonderful flights of fancy. Brief flourishes of the designer’s pen meant to titillate at motorshows and excite the ten-year old boy (and girl) in all of us with outlandish visions of the future. But the Jeep boys are a little bit different. Building a concept here means it has to actually work in the real world just like a real Jeep should and that means going both on-road and off it.

These amazing concepts cars were parked outside the rustically-luxurious Squaw Creek Resort in stunningly-scenic Lake Tahoe, with the keys left in the ignition and well..no instructions at all, apart from “please don’t break them, they’re hand fabricated one-offs worth millions of dollars. Please don’t break them. Seriously. For real.”

Like a red flag to a bull.

Jeep Grand Cherokee Trailhawk

Grand Cherokee Trailhawk
Take away the massive tyres, SRT8 hood and the eyeball-busting paintjob and you more or less have a regular Grand Cherokee, albeit one with a diesel engine. The latter is impressively difficult to detect; try as I might, I could not hear any tell tale signs of clatter or vibration that are the traditional bugbears of Dr Diesel’s drivetrain and it’s near silent on startup inside the cabin.

Jeep Grand Cherokee Trailhawk

Compared to the others here, this is probably the one car that you could live with everyday, with excellent refinement, road manners and all the oh-so-creamy torque that offroaders crave, courtesy of that marvellous diesel motor that pulls off idle with all the authority of an NFL linebacker. True, it’s doesn’t feel particularly fast but if you’re crawling over rocks, speed is not a priority. What better to cruise the Rubicon trail than in five-seat luxury and diesel parsimony?

Jeep Stitch Concept

Stitch
If it’s speed you need, Stitch is the one to have. Once you manage to hoist yourself upt into the hip-hugging Sabelt Viper seat – which doesn’t adjust for height so I recommend being short – and pull out into the open road, it only takes the first inches of pedal travel and a suspiciously rorty exhaust note to realise that this thing means business.

Jeep Stitch Concept

Jeep claims the massively lightened body bestows Stitch with the same power-to-weight-ratio as the Grand Cherokee SRT8. It certainly feels quick enough and with relatively stiff suspension fitted courtesy of King shocks, it won’t fall over in the corners either, although the steering is as woolly as you would expect from a ancient recirculating-ball-style setup.

What you won’t get in an SRT8 is the sensation of speed Stitch provides, thanks to its barebones nature. This is the fastest I’ve ever driven in a car without doors – OK, this is probably the first time I’ve ever driven a car without doors on the open road. And it’s a marvellous thrilling experience, blasting up the road, the entire cabin transformed into an amateur wind tunnel and a grin on your mug plastered so wide on that they can probably see it from space. Who needs a HEMI when you can have a Wrangler Superleggera!

Let’s not get too carried away though; Stitch is very much a concept, one built for perpetually sunny California. I’d gladly gain a little weight if that meant I could have air conditioning. Come to think of it, I’d also ditch the yellow roof panels that look great from the outside but tint the entire cabin constantly, like you’re suddenly one of those late ‘90s hipsters with neon yellow nerd glasses. And the bizarre fabric body, translucent in places is a bit like living on the wrong end of an X-Ray machine.

Jeep Stitch Concept

Disregard the concept-y frills however, and there is something very important going on with Stitch. What makes the Wrangler so capable in the rough stuff is its body-on-frame construction; but having in effect two bodies also adds a humongous amount of weight. Stitch may provide the answer; same traditional design but with super light weight panels on top to reduce the curb weight, improving fuel economy, increasing performance and improving just about everything, really. If that sounds an awful lot like the Colin Chapman mantra of ‘adding lightness’ – well, flattery is the strongest form of praise.

Jeep Flat Top Concept

Flat top
While every other truck here is about compromise in some form, Flat top wants to have it all. It’s the coolest looking with a delectably luscious chocolate-brown paintjob, but it’s equally as capable as Stitch packing the same King suspension, ARB lockers, beefy rubber and lifesaving Warn winch.

And, by far, the nicest interior of the quartet. The Katzkin leather used for the seats is super-comfortable, like what would happen if someone put wheels on your favourite couch. Surprisingly, the two-inch chop to the roofline doesn’t affect visibility much, but just feels so cool once you’re inside. That’s if you’re under six feet though. It was not a pretty sight to watch our photographer Nate crumple and twist his 6’6” frame into the back of Flat top. We salute you, sir.

Jeep Flat Top Concept

How does Flat top drive? About the same as a regular six-speed Rubicon, if slightly slower as a result of the heavier rubber. No performance car, then, but honestly? Who cares! This is the car to cruise and be seen in; you’d never want to take this beauty further than the trails of JBR where’ll it attract more flashes than the latest Ferrari 4612 SuperItalia Spider F1. And it’s nice to know that if you and your Prada handbag or your Paul Smith jacket ever find yourself on the Rubicon, Flat top will cope just fine.

Jeep Mighty FC Concept

Mighty FC

Finally, an unexpected surprise. Mighty FC debuted at last year’s Easter Jeep safari, a loving-built homage to the early Forward-Control vans and trucks built by the Jeep corporation between 1956 and 1965. To create their version, Jeep took a Wrangler chassis and topped with this custom-fabricated body with a Wrangler cabin up front. But even the latter was a challenge. Original FCs had bus-like steering positions but modern Jeeps don’t so to provide a reasonably comfortable cabin required significant re-engineering of the steering column.

Jeep Mighty FC Concept

I have to admit: this was the maddest of the lot, the one that everyone will point at when you drive by and by far the most fun to drive. That extends even to getting it, a bit like exploring your first jungle gym. Here’s the sequence: plant your right foot on the rock rail, grab hold of the pickup bed, then step up and anchor your left foot on the massive tyre. Grab the taffeta-coloured strap, swing in your body in, and slam the steel barn door closed.

Jeep Mighty FC Concept

And then, unless you’ve driven a van lately, you’ll have to realign your senses. Peering out over the dashboard, there is literally nothing in front of you – this must be what the tip of a spear feels like, exposed and vulnerable, except in this case the spear is attached to a blue-grey rhinoceros. Nevertheless, driving the FC is not hard at all despite the crazy Eagle’s Nest viewpoint. The lack of a roof structure means turning manoeuvres are unexpectedly easy, and well, no one is really going to cut you off in this behemoth, are they? The truck looks it’s going to be dangerously nose-heavy and balanced, but after a few seconds behind the wheel it’s obvious that Jeep’s engineers have worked some strange voodoo to turn the FC into a surprisingly balanced package, one that’s even capable of venturing out onto the trail.

Jeep Mighty FC Concept

Sadly, here’s where I burst your bubble; with that enormous steel body and a largely stock Pentastar V6 engine, the Mighty FC is not fast. Despite all my efforts with the throttle, even on our short test track it never managed to make it to 100kph. Not that I would ever want it to, to be honest; having an high-speed collision in a car with no roof, no doors and being about six feet higher than everything else is not something I want to contemplate.

But never mind all that boring reality stuff. This is a Tonka toy that somehow the engineers managed to get past the beancounters and actually managed to get made. There is absolutely no reason for this truck to exist, no way that it’ll ever make production in any form whatsoever…but I’m glad that it does, and that they did it so well, a tribute to the power of imagination and idle flights of fancy.

And don’t forget, the last time Auburn Hills went into skunkworks mode – they gave us the Viper. Who knows what crazy Wrangler they’re cooking up for next year? I can’t wait to find out.

 

One response to “Driving the Jeep Concepts”

  1. All I can say is wow to the CJ and the cab over wow wow wow wow wow every guy would want one very cool I have an FC 150 original was my dad’s in 1959 it has a four cylinder Chevy II Turbo 400 straight through transfer case PTO original winch Dana 60 Chrysler and a Dana 44 both have lockers purrs like a kitten

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