mod@tech

For all the resources of a global automaker at their disposal, the team at Jeep behind the Easter Jeep Safari concepts aren’t all that different from the Jeep owners building up their rigs in their garages. They go on trail rides, they drive their Jeeps every day, and they even find out that it takes much longer to resurrect a clapped-out old four-by than they initially expect. The heavily modified 1978 Jeep SJ Cherokee two-door debuting this weekend alongside several other concept and modified Jeeps was supposed to roll out last year, but the extensive work needed pushed it back to this spring.

“It was a piece of junk,” said Mark Allen, the head of Jeep’s exterior design studio, said in regards to the donor truck that his team bought off Craigslist with no engine for $2,500. “But it had everything we needed.”

What they needed, as it turned out, wasn’t much. The team rolled the stock SJ chassis out from underneath it and rolled a chassis from a 2022 Wrangler Rubicon 4xe underneath it. The Wrangler’s plug-in hybrid 2.0L drivetrain, good for 375 horsepower and 470 pound-feet of torque, remained intact, as did the Wrangler’s front and rear axles and even its dash and bumpers. It sits higher than a stock Wrangler thanks, in part to the 37-inch BF Goodrich KM3 Mud-Terrain tires mounted to custom wheels that mimic the look of Seventies Jeep five-slot mag-style wheels.

1978 Jeep SJ Cherokee 4xe

Nor did the two-door Cherokee’s body get much of a reprieve as the team “enhanced the line work” on it, Allen said. After 3D scanning the entire Cherokee, Allen’s team shifted the wheelwells further toward the corners to mate the body with the Wrangler’s 8-inch-longer wheelbase and hiked them upward to clear those 37-inch tires. The roof benefited from a three-inch pancaking, which the team then molded in carbon fiber. Gone were the rear side windows and much of the blacked-out sheetmetal panel around them in favor of open-air sides. Even the “razor” grille, like what would have appeared on the Cherokee from the factory, got cut down and treated to a matte gray finish. “We used very little (of the Cherokee’s original) sheetmetal in the end,” Allen said.

The rear seats were removed to make it a two-seater and to make more room for the full-size spare. Finishing touches include an AMC Gremlin fuel filler cap and a paint scheme that gives the rig what Allen called “an unmistakable Seventies vibe.”

This marks the second time Jeep has used a 1978 SJ Cherokee for an Easter Jeep Safari concept; back in 2009, the brand showed off a Cherokee Chief fitted with a 6.1-liter Hemi. An SJ Wagoneer also served as the basis for an Easter Jeep Safari concept in 2018.

Magneto 3.0

As for the rest of the 2023 Easter Jeep Safari concept lineup, more rigs feature electrification of some sort than Hemis this year. There’s the Magneto 3.0, a followup to the fully electric concepts of 2021 and 2022, which features the Magneto 2.0’s wheelbase stretch, a 70 kWh battery, an axial-flux motor good for as much as 650 horsepower, and a TR6060 six-speed manual transmission out of a Dodge Hellcat that has been built to race specs, Allen said. This will also be the final iteration of the Magneto, Allen said, and while no production version will be forthcoming, that’s only because the Recon EV is on its way for 2024.

(The added red accents weren’t intended to mimic AMC’s red, white, and blue color scheme, Allen said, though he appreciated the similarities.)

Beyond the Cherokee above, Jeep’s Wrangler 4xe also serves as the basis for two other Easter Jeep Safari concepts: a Rubicon 4xe with an Accuair airbag suspension and a purplish-pink paint color that Jeep described as “chromatic magenta;” and the Departure, a Rubicon 4xe with tube doors and a tube tailgate.

Scrambler 392

The bright green rendering that Jeep released as a teaser earlier this month belongs not to the Magneto 3.0 or to an updated version of the XJ-001 concept, as I’d speculated, but to an extensively modified Wrangler Rubicon 392, the Scrambler 392. Allen’s team kept the four-door Rubicon’s 118-inch wheelbase but made it a two-door by adding custom carbon-fiber body panels from the leaned-back A-pillars back to the Jeep Gladiator bed section that constitutes the Rubicon’s tail. According to Allen, the concept is a follow-up to three earlier lightweight Easter Jeep Safari concepts – the 2011 Pork Chop, the 2013 Stitch, and the 2018 4-Speed – so to reduce weight as much as possible, Allen’s team removed the Rubicon 392’s bumpers, rear seats, carpet and trim, and power hardtop and made no provisions for doors to strip about 450 total pounds. Like one of the 4xe concepts, the Scrambler 392 got an Accuair suspension as well as 40-inch mud-terrain tires on 20-inch wheels, and a hood with a clear window to see the Hemi underneath.

Jeep Sideburn

Rounding out the 2023 Easter Jeep Safari concepts: a Grand Wagoneer on 35s powered by a 510hp Hurricane 3.0L twin-turbocharged six-cylinder engine and fitted with a RedTail Overland Skyloft hard-side rooftop tent; and Sideburn, a Gladiator that has a multipurpose “platform” with integrated Molle panels instead of a pickup bed.

The Easter Jeep Safari, hosted by the Red Rock 4-Wheelers Club, will take place April 1-9 in Moab, Utah. For more information, visit RR4W.com.

Hubcaps. Dog dishes. Piepans. They’re all the same basic thing no matter what you call ‘em, and we dig ‘em. While plenty of back-in-the-day buyers will tell you that the only reason to get this wheel combination was to take ‘em off and install a set of bright aftermarket wheels at the first opportunity, we see them as simultaneously no-nonsense and a quiet bit of camouflage. Consider: If you’re in a muscle car and you’re at a light, why take the chance to advertise what you’ve got, when it’s just as easy to make your car look like the one your Aunt Tillie drives to church on Sunday? They’re heavy but legendarily tough–if you’ve bent a steel wheel somehow, you’ve got bigger problems. (That toughness is why so many police vehicles still have steel wheels today.) Furthermore, money that was saved on more expensive wheel trims was money earned for other places you’d need it–like a one-size-larger tire, a dyno-tune, slapper bars, headers … you know what we mean. The steelies-and-piepans look is like looking the other way while your hand is in the cookie jar–innocence at first blush, with the intent of something altogether shadier.

The truth is, we tried to choose just five and we couldn’t. We winnowed out the whole “styled steel wheel” thing, so there are no Chevy Rally wheels, or Pontiac Rally IIs, or Mopar Rallyes to speak of; they fit the letter of our made-up law, but not the spirit. Here are eight that made us want to head to the main tent outside, mortgage our house, and pick up a bidder’s paddle.

MERCEDES 300SL

Mercedes 300SL

Bless European functionality and their relative lack of bling compared to American cars of the era; the race-bred 300SL “Gullwing” was largely offered with color-matched hubcaps, leaving the (also color-matched) slotted steel wheel exposed. Yes, we know that factory-installed Rudge knockoffs are worth a king’s ransom. Don’t care.

1969 CHEVY COPO CAMARO

1969 Chevrolet COPO Camaro

Blue paint, a vinyl top and a set of body-colored steelies could mean that this was a six-cylinder secretary’s special, a showroom loss-leader designed to up a dealership’s numbers and give them something to advertise in the paper. Or it could be a big-block COPO designed to sucker you in and leave you in the dust when the light goes green. You want to take that chance?

1970 PLYMOUTH HEMI ‘CUDA

1970 Plymouth Hemi ‘Cuda

When given a High Impact color, like Plymouth’s Sublime for 1970, it seems a shame not to inflict its brightness on all within its visual path and extend it as far as could be managed. Spreading the special hue onto the steel wheels is a terrific way to further increase its impact, particularly compared to other wheel options like nerdy full hubcaps or argent Rallye wheels.

1958 EDSEL VILLAGER

1958 Edsel Villager

Edsel was meant to be a solidly mid-range brand–never one with performance intentions, and almost certainly a full-wheelcover kind of car that would be perfectly OK in suburbia 1958, where piepans would reveal you as some kind of skinflint freak that would get the neighbors whispering. Yet Edsel indeed had its own piepan wheel trims, which seem slightly incongruous–but which are delightful to see nonetheless.

1957 CHEVY SEDAN DELIVERY

1957 Chevrolet Sedan Delivery

The Sedan Delivery body style was meant to be a handyman’s special–a wagon with few frills. And so despite the dual-four-barrel V-8 engine that the factory installed beneath the hood in this instance of this clean-flanked ’57, these wheel trims are perfectly in keeping with its utilitarian brief.

1964 PONTIAC GRAND PRIX

1964 Pontiac Grand Prix

Only Pontiac could manage to come up with a wheel that, somehow, eliminates most of the wheel–and still make it gorgeous. The bulk of what you see here, that magnificently ribbed center, is in fact a vented brake drum, exposed to the outside air for additional cooling in the days before disc brakes were more common.

1952 MG TD

1952 MG TD

We have seen more than our fair share of T-series MGs with wire wheels, and while those bright spokes may sparkle and shine nicely in the sun, they also (to my eyes) manage to make the cars that wear them look spindly and fragile. This one looks ready to grab those paved curves and never let go, despite wide whitewall rubber that suggests a boulevardier rather than lateral gs.

1969 MERCURY CYCLONE

1969 Mercury Cyclone

Ford (and its divisions) chose black steel wheels while many other manufacturers of the era went with body-colored steelies; from a distance, black wheels give seemingly infinite visual depth and lend an air of broad-shouldered toughness to the proceedings, as seen here with this 428/4sp Ram Air Mercury Cyclone. The contrast with the orange paint makes it all the more striking.

Lamborghini turned a new chapter with the release of the Revuelto, the brand’s first hybrid plug-in hypercar, or High-Performance Electrified Vehicle (HPEV). The supercar is capable of a combined 1,001 hp and 1,051 lb.-ft. of torque, which can blast the machine from zero to 60 in 2.5 seconds with a top speed that edges over 217 mph.

The Revuelto is a bit larger than its Aventador brethren, but its chassis is 10% lighter and 25% more stiff with the addition of more carbon fiber. The front subframe and body is mostly made of carbon. While the rear remains metal, Lamborghini optimized the components to still be lighter and stronger. The aerodynamic body supports active aero for drastically reducing drag and increasing downforce in the front and rear. The extensive use of carbon fiber and lightweight materials combined with the potent engine power contributes to achieving the best weight-to-power ratio in the history of Lamborghini: 1.75 kg/CV, or 3.86 lb/CV.

The naturally-aspirated 6.5-liter V12 mid-mounted engine is Lamborghini’s lightest, most powerful 12-cylinder power plant ever made. Peak power reaches 813 horsepower and 535 lb.-ft. of torque at 9,250 rpm, with a max rpm of 9,500 before the rev limiter kicks in. That is before the electric power kicks in. The V12 is complemented by three electric motors. In what has been the transmission tunnel since the days of the Countach, there is a 3.8-kWh lithium-ion battery instead, which powers the electric motors. One of the motors is integrated into the new double-clutch eight-speed gearbox, mounted transversely and placed for the first time behind the combustion engine. This motor can provide power to the rear wheels depending on the selected driving mode and road conditions.

The other two electric motors on the front axle power the front wheels, which enables all-wheel drive. Or, the Revuelto can run on EV-only mode, which limits the car to 177 hp on front-wheel-drive but reduces emissions by 30% compared to the Aventador Ultimae and saves fuel for city driving where the V12 hypercar-level performance isn’t necessary.

The Lamborghini Revuelto also comes with a long list of creature comforts, such as ample storage space and more leg room than the Aventador, a smartphone-inspired interface with Amazon Alexa integration for climate, media, and navigation control, and basic ADAS features like lane departure, blind spot watch, adaptive cruise, and rear cross-traffic alert. Lamborghini will also offer 400 paint and 70 interior color options, with a choice of leather and Dinamica microfiber made from recycled polyester. The below photo gallery shows the Lamborghini Revuelto in all its magnificence.

“The new Revuelto is a milestone in the history of Lamborghini, and an important pillar in our Direzione Cor Tauri electrification strategy,” said Stephan Winkelmann, Lamborghini Chairman and CEO in the press release. “It is a unique and innovative car but at the same time faithful to our DNA: the V12 is an iconic symbol of our super sports heritage and history. Revuelto was born to break the mold, combining a new 12-cylinder engine with hybrid technology, creating the perfect balance between delivering the emotion that our clients want with the necessity to reduce emissions.”

The Ford Mustang is coming up on its 60-year anniversary, and America’s Pony Car has never been more popular than it is now. With so many generations of body and chassis designs, and so many awesome engine configurations, the Mustang legacy is something that Ford enthusiasts are proud of, and rightfully so. Ponies in the Smokies is an event that allows Ford enthusiasts to celebrate all things Mustang with a beautiful backdrop of the Great Smoky Mountains in the distance. The Sevierville Convention Center in Sevierville, Tennessee provided just enough room to hold the huge turnout of cars, which came from all over the country.

Ponies in the Smokies has a relatively short history, compared to many other car shows. It all began in 2017 and has grown immensely each year. Now, the event features five days of activities, with a kick-off party on Monday for those who just can’t get enough Mustang action. The event features a special ‘Shine Run, Autocross at Smokies Stadium, drag racing at English Mountain Raceway, and many other activities that keep Sevierville and surrounding towns busy for the entire week. We were on hand for the Car Show portion of the event, where more than 1,000 Mustangs of all generations competed for awards in many classes. The show had an excellent display of original, restored and customized Mustangs inside the Convention Center building, and then the show outside was packed with hundreds more cars. The aisles were packed with people of all ages, and this event is fun and affordable for the whole family. With such a strong reputation in the Mustang community, we’re sure this event will continue to grow each year and provide even more reason to spend the week in the Smokies.

Steve Saleen made a special appearance at the show, and there were several beautifully restored Saleen-prepared cars from the Fox Body era on hand. Other special edition Fox Body cars included the 1984.5 Mustang GT350, a limited production model that celebrated the Mustang’s 20^th birthday. We also spotted a few Mustang SVO models with the turbocharged four-cylinder, several Pace Cars, Shelby Mustangs and so much more. Even though most of the cars on hand were built in the last 30 years or so, our coverage focuses primarily on the classic Mustangs on hand. Take a look at some of our highlights from the 2023 Ponies in the Smokies event in Sevierville, Tennessee and make plans to join the fun in March of 2024. For more information visit www.poniesinthesmokies.com.

Darin Clark’s 1968 Shelby GT500 KR is a tribute to his father, who passed away 14 years ago. His prized Shelby has been beautifully preserved and shown at select events, where it has won MCA Gold and SAAC Division 2 Gold awards. It is one of only 1,053 GT500 KR Fastbacks built in 1968.

Sporting Grabber Orange paint and a shaker hood scoop, this 1970 Mustang Mach 1 is a popular body style and option package. Elizabeth Gatrost’s Mach 1 was part of the special indoor display that included all generations of Mustangs.

Terry Wideman brought his rare 1985-1/2 Ford Mustang SVO. These turbocharged four-cylinder Mustangs are already rare, but the half-year production makes it one of less than 500 built. The mid-year refresh brought 30 more horsepower to the table, as well as the flush-mounted headlights, compared to the first half of 1985 production.

The Mustang II doesn’t get nearly the respect as other Mustangs, but Ponies in the Smokies had several on display, including this immaculate King Cobra, owned by Robert Gesling of Blue Grass, Iowa. Robert has owned the car since 1980 and recently finished a thorough restoration.

Mark Brown’s 1969 Mustang convertible is a modern take on a classic pony car. It features a 5.0-liter Coyote engine, and lots of great suspension tricks underneath. The fine metallic paint danced in the sun, and Mark added a nice mixture of black stripes and brightwork for a great appearance package.

Another half-year production came in 1984, when the GT350 was introduced to celebrate Mustang’s 20th anniversary. This example, owned by Michael Zachary features a lowered stance with Pony wheels, but the rest of the car appears very original, including the original rocker panel stripes.

Originally a California car, this 1966 Ford Mustang GT fastback still has its original 289ci V8 with emissions equipment. Frank and Cheryl Chamberlain made the short drive from Maryville, Tennessee to display their beautifully restored Mustang. We love the styled steel wheels and dual redline tires.

Another incredible Fox Body is this flawless Saleen, owned by Jason Smith of Greenwood, Indiana. It’s one of only three black coupes built by Saleen in 1988, and it only has 33,000 miles on the odometer. Under the hood is a supercharged stroker small block, putting down 486 horsepower to the wheels.

It’s always exciting to own a car that comes up as one of one on the Marti Report, but it’s even better when the car is unrestored with only 3,477 miles on the clock. This example, a 1973 Mustang convertible is owned by Randy Cunningham of McCalla, Alabama, and it features its original 351 Cleveland 4V Cobra Jet engine that’s barely broken in.

This young Mustang enthusiast found a Mustang that’s exactly his size. This special edition go kart with Official Pace Car livery was positioned next to an incredibly well-preserved 1979 Mustang Indy 500 Pace Car, which only has 162 miles.

Although it is a factory 302 car, the showroom fresh Indy 500 Pace Car received “Turbo” emblems on the hood, a factory error that makes this no-mile classic even more unusual.

Date: July 1975

Location: Las Vegas, Nevada

Source: via UNLV Libraries Special Collections and Archives

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