On this episode of Ignition
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00:00 (engine rumbling)
00:02 On this week's Ignition, we're going back to the source.
00:07 We're taking a trail-rated Jeep Wrangler Rubicon
00:11 on the Rubicon Trail, and we don't have any doors.
00:15 (dramatic music)
00:18 Ooh.
00:27 (dramatic music)
00:30 Uh, Jeep Wrangler Rubicon on the Rubicon Trail.
00:54 I'm in a very good mood at the moment,
00:56 'cause this is so much fun.
00:58 I'm actually in the 10th anniversary Rubicon.
01:01 So what makes it 10th anniversary?
01:04 Well, first, I'm about to go through
01:05 some pretty good mud here.
01:07 (engine rumbling)
01:09 I don't know how I'm gonna get through this.
01:10 Wow.
01:11 So like all Wranglers now,
01:13 this has a 3.6 liter Pentastar V6,
01:16 and this application makes 285 horsepower
01:19 and 270 pound feet of torque.
01:21 We've got a manual transmission,
01:22 which I really prefer for off-road,
01:24 because you can clutch in when you need to
01:26 and kind of just pause the vehicle.
01:28 Two speed transfer case, two wheel drive,
01:31 four high, four low.
01:32 Right now we're in four high.
01:33 We could totally be in one wheel drive at the moment,
01:36 but there's gonna be some sections
01:37 where we're gonna need four low, however not here.
01:40 And then when you get into the Rubicon level,
01:42 well, you've got Dana 44 axles, front and rear,
01:47 very thick, very stout axles, and they have lockers.
01:50 So I can, with the button over here,
01:51 I can lock the rear axle by itself
01:54 or lock the rear and the front one.
01:56 You can't lock the front axle by itself.
01:58 And honestly, there's very few situations
02:00 where you just need the front locked and not the rear.
02:04 Just locking the rear is pretty good
02:05 because with an axle locked,
02:07 it's very difficult to steer a vehicle.
02:09 Speaking of steering,
02:15 Rubicons also have an electronically
02:17 disengaging front sway bar.
02:20 And what that does is it kind of unscrews,
02:21 for lack of a better explanation,
02:23 and then you get more wheel articulation up front.
02:26 It also kind of makes the vehicle ride better.
02:28 It's a little bit more comfortable
02:29 when you're bouncing along a trail.
02:31 As for the 10th anniversary edition,
02:34 a lot of it is exterior stuff,
02:37 or cosmetic stuff, I should say.
02:38 You've got these red tow hooks,
02:40 front and rear, there's four of them.
02:42 I've got this Power Dome bulgy hood with these vents,
02:45 which kind of looks like the Jeep SRT8
02:48 Grand Cherokee edition.
02:49 It's kind of based on that.
02:51 I've got a red trim around stuff like the word Rubicon.
02:54 I've got these red leather seats.
02:56 I've got these cool,
02:57 they got rid of the normal running boards.
02:58 They put on these cool powder-coated rock sliders.
03:02 And so later on, when we're really on the big boulders,
03:04 we'll actually be able to slide down a rock,
03:05 which will be fun.
03:06 Okay?
03:12 Thank you.
03:15 Got that on camera?
03:16 (laughing)
03:19 - Where's the end, Mike?
03:20 - Woo!
03:21 The other cool thing the 10th anniversary has
03:25 is the badge itself.
03:26 It says, you know, 10th anniversary Rubicon,
03:28 but it's a very stylized kind of take
03:31 on a GI's dog tag from World War II.
03:33 And of course, remember, Wrangler's heritage
03:35 goes all the way back 70 years to World War II.
03:38 Why do they call it the Rubicon?
03:43 Well, aside from being a really great trail,
03:45 Jeep's actually been running Wranglers
03:48 on the Rubicon since 1953.
03:51 And there's very few vehicles in the world,
03:54 stock, that can run the Rubicon.
03:56 I mean, there's very few.
03:58 Perhaps the Toyota FJ,
04:00 maybe like a Range Rover, Land Rover,
04:04 LR4, something like that.
04:06 The Mercedes G-Wagon with better tires, perhaps.
04:11 But stuff like a Raptor, I mean, it's too wide.
04:14 This is, you know, there's a lot of people say
04:16 this is the trail that killed Hummer,
04:18 because the H2 was just physically too big
04:21 to run this trail.
04:22 And again, back here we're in Wrangler
04:24 with the doors off and no mirror,
04:26 you can just kind of fit everywhere,
04:28 and go over anything.
04:30 So it's a very serious trail,
04:31 it's a very, very impressive vehicle.
04:34 That's awesome.
04:37 (engine revving)
04:47 (dramatic music)
04:50 What I like so much about the Wrangler though,
05:03 is as you can see, we've got the doors off.
05:06 And is there anything better than four-wheeling
05:08 with the doors off?
05:09 I say no, a whole bunch of reasons.
05:12 One is, I mean, it's so beautiful out here,
05:14 and you can see more of it.
05:15 You know, it's like, almost like riding a motorcycle
05:17 off-road, you can just see and smell and feel everything.
05:21 And you know, that's a point like,
05:23 the Range Rover, the new Range Rover,
05:25 totally capable car, fantastic car,
05:27 but you're so isolated from everything.
05:30 This is the opposite.
05:31 (dramatic music)
05:34 (engine revving)
05:37 Call you?
05:52 Oh, okay, call Billy, all right.
05:53 Yeah, so right now we're on one of the more
06:01 hardcore sections of the Rubicon,
06:03 and we're basically crawling on rocks,
06:06 bouncing off rocks, and sliding over rocks.
06:08 It's pretty incredible, and it's funny,
06:12 'cause we're Motor Trend, we test cars,
06:14 and we had, like I said, we had that long wheelbase,
06:17 four-door, 10th anniversary Rubicon in the office.
06:19 And you know, we put it through our standard battery
06:22 of tests, and it went zero to 60 in 8.4 seconds.
06:26 Sure, your short wheelbase, two-door with a manual
06:29 would be a little bit quicker than that,
06:30 and it ran the quarter mile in 16.4 at 82 miles an hour.
06:34 But again, here we are on one of the most
06:39 hardcore off-road trails in existence,
06:43 and this is a stock vehicle, and it's just scooting along.
06:46 So I'm just blown away by it.
06:50 I can't believe that something you can just go to a dealer,
06:54 buy, and drive right to this trailhead, get in and go,
06:58 and maybe take the doors off, but I just can't believe
07:01 it's this capable, it just boggles my mind.
07:04 So how do you even sum something like this up?
07:12 I mean, aside from getting sunburned on my knee,
07:15 the only thing I didn't like was having to poop
07:19 in the woods like the Pope of Beartown,
07:21 but I mean, all I'm really thinking about is,
07:23 what is Jeep gonna do with this thing
07:26 when I'm done with it?
07:27 You know what I mean?
07:28 Like, it's a press car, I sadly have to give it back,
07:31 but maybe I could buy it.
07:34 I mean, it's just, it's hard to explain
07:36 how much fun I'm having right now,
07:38 but if you can, man, I'm serious, if you can,
07:42 buy yourself a Jeep, get a Wrangler Rubicon,
07:44 'cause you can run this trail stocked,
07:46 come out here to California, get your buddies,
07:49 get your girls, get a dog, get a tent and a sleeping bag,
07:53 just come and do this, because in this day and age,
07:56 to be able to just do this with no restrictions,
08:00 take your doors off, go crazy, it's such a blast, man.
08:04 I just, I absolutely love it,
08:07 and I'm pretty sure you will too.
08:09 See you next time.
08:11 (upbeat music)
08:15 Yeah, good?
08:20 (upbeat music)
08:23 All right, drop back, Johnny.
08:40 (upbeat music)
08:42 (engine revving)
08:45 (upbeat music)
08:48 (engine revving)
08:51 (upbeat music)
08:54 (upbeat music)
08:56 (upbeat music)
08:59 (upbeat music)