Thousands of Jeep fans will gather in the small town of Moab, Utah, this weekend to pilot their four-wheel-drives over the region’s famous red rock trails and to see Jeep’s annual collection of concept vehicles.
This year, that includes a 707-horsepower Wrangler, a Renegade-based pickup, and a military-style Wrangler-based truck riding on 40-inch tires.
In all, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles is taking seven specially built vehicles to Moab to participate in the weeklong Easter Jeep Safari. While the event is open to all vehicle makes, the safari is recognized as one of the premiere Jeep rallies in the country.
Doug McElhaney, a longtime officer with the Red Rock 4-Wheelers group that hosts the event, said Jeep fans are always eager to see what the company puts together.
“They’ve brought some really unbelievable vehicles. Some of them never make it to production, but they have brought some pretty incredible ones,” he said.
This year’s safari is getting extra attention because it is both the 50th anniversary of the event and the 75th anniversary of the Jeep brand. Add in lower gas prices, and organizers are expecting their largest-ever crowd.
Mr. McElhaney is expecting somewhere in the range of 10,000 people to attend the event, with people coming from all 50 states and 11 countries.
The Toledo-built Wrangler is the most common Jeep on the trails there, though Mr. McElhaney said there will also be a lot of Cherokees and Grand Cherokees. The Cherokee is also built at Fiat Chrysler’s Toledo plant.
For Jeep, the Moab event is a great marketing opportunity and a chance to interface with a huge group of hard-core fans. For nearly 15 years, the company has used Moab as a test bed for new ideas and accessories.
“Every year, the Jeep team looks forward to pushing the limits with new, exciting and capable concept vehicles for our most loyal enthusiasts at the Easter Jeep Safari in Moab, where we receive a tremendous amount of valuable feedback,” Jeep brand chief Mike Manley said.
Unlike some show cars, all of Jeep’s concept vehicles are fully functional and many will hit the trails.
Still, most of them have no chance of ever making it to production. For example, in 2005 Jeep brought the Hurricane, an impressive but wholly impractical custom-built vehicle that employed four-wheel steering and was powered by two Hemi V-8 engines.
The Moab vehicles can hint at the future, though. In 2012, Jeep showed a Grand Cherokee Trailhawk special edition, which it ultimately ended up building. Jeep has also used the event to launch an official conversion kit that allows Wrangler owners to swap out a V-6 for a V-8.
There’s no word from Jeep whether any of this year’s vehicles could be slated for production or hint at future products. Jeep is planning a Wrangler-based pickup truck, though the concept truck at Moab is far more extreme than a production version would be.
And while a 707-horsepower Wrangler seems unlikely, Mr. Manley has seemingly confirmed that Fiat Chrysler does plan to shoehorn the giant Hellcat engine into the Jeep Grand Cherokee.
Other special edition Jeeps include a modified 1960 Forward Control truck riding on a new Jeep Wrangler chassis, a lifted Renegade, a retro Wrangler that hearkens back to the CJ line, and a Wrangler Unlimited decked out with a slate of Mopar performance parts.
Contact Tyrel Linkhorn at tlinkhorn@theblade.com or 419-724-6134 or on Twitter @BladeAutoWriter.
First Published March 19, 2016, 4:00 a.m.
