You might well wonder why Jeep chose 2021 to launch its first headbanging, V8-engined Wrangler in more than three decades. Today’s airwaves brim with debate about how best to reduce our carbon footprints, and Jeep already toes the environmental line to some extent: it currently offers a Wrangler plug-in hybrid, with a four-pot engine and 20 or so miles of electric range, and a Wrangler EV is expected to arrive soon. So surely the whole bigboned V8 thing is just a little passé?
Perhaps. But sometimes one needs to discard the gloves, and for Jeep that meant announcing the flagship Wrangler Rubicon 392 (that number being 6.4 litres in cubic inches) on the same morning last year that Ford revealed its reinvented Bronco.
This wasn’t so much stealing the limelight as declaring war, and you can see why. The Bronco comes in trim levels with names like Big Bend and Badlands. It’s characterful and capable, and the factory is lining up a fruity V6-engined Raptor variant. In short, the new Ford is the biggest commercial threat that the modern Wrangler has yet faced, and that’s why the Rubicon 392 is here – not to sell in big volumes but just to remind us that when it comes to cartoonishly likeable and phenomenally tough off-roaders, nobody does it like Jeep.
This story is from the November 17, 2021 edition of Autocar UK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the November 17, 2021 edition of Autocar UK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
HONDA E:NY1
How do you like the sound of a version that's better in almost every way for £15k less?
GWM ORA 07
Lightning Cat is poised to leap into the UK's electric saloon market
AMG lines up turbo V8 for CLE 63
Performance arm U-turns on unpopular PHEV power for coupé range-topper
JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE
Can the American SUV brand's new flagship mix it with the plug-in hybrid big guns?
M4 joins Competition Sport line-up
Lighter, faster and more track-focused take on hot BMW coupé packs 543bhp
Bold, fresh look for updated Cullinan
Revised SUV majors on bluff proportions as Rolls-Royce ramps up tech and options
New Ferrari flagship packs 819bhp from an atmo V12
Ferrari's new flagship GT car, the 12Cilindri, is the most powerful pure combustion production F car it has built to date.
AUDI SQ8 E-TRON SPORTBACK
Our big EV has already clocked 10,000 miles. Here's what we've learned so far
LIKE A SCAT OUT OF HELL
Brendan McAleer convenes two Scat Pack Dodges in Hells Gate, Canada, to give the V8 muscle car icons a suitably sizzling send-off
"I want to know what they are whispering to their mechanics
Ford boss Jim Farley tells Steve Cropley why both he and the company will continue racing, what's next for Mustang and one thing that would lead to his instant dismissal