Automotive

2017 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon Recon: The 4X4 Benchmark

Jeep. One word without any need of definition. Jeep basically invented what is today thought of as the Sport Utility Vehicle. What started off during World War II as a light troop and ammo carrier, later turned into the benchmark standard of what “off-road capable” means.

With its latest Wrangler Rubicon Recon, Jeep aims to move that benchmark.

The Rubicon Recon Edition is based on the standard Wrangler Rubicon model, which is already plenty impressive, especially off-road. The Recon Edition looks to seriously up the off-road stakes with a collection of improvements.

High Standards, Low Ratios

The front axle gets strengthened tubes and heavy-duty end forgings. The cast front and rear differential covers are even more serious than before, and the Recon presents improved off-road rock rails that are shortened to accommodate up to 35-inch tires. The Recon part-time four-wheel-drive system has electronic-locking Dana 44 axles front and rear, with power being directed to each end via a Rock-Trac transfer case.

The “4-Low” ratio comes off as 4:1 and there’s a 4.10 front and rear axle ratio that comes standard along with Tru-Lok locking differentials. The Rubicon Recon Edition has a crawl ratio of 73.1:1 that would get you outrun by a toddler on the flats, but allows you to out-climb a mountain goat on the rocky stuff.

“With an array of beefed up off-road components, the new Rubicon Recon provides even more legendary Jeep Wrangler capability,” said Mike Manley, Head of Jeep Brand – FCA Global. “With unmatched capability and a unique appearance, Rubicon Recon is the perfect Wrangler for our most loyal, diehard off-road enthusiasts who love to tackle the most demanding trails.” Photo: FCA US LLC.

Exterior Touches

The Recon Edition stands out from other Wrangler Rubicons. It rides higher thanks to a half-inch lift, there’s new 17-inch Low Gloss Granite Crystal-painted aluminum wheels with 32-inch BF Goodrich KM off-road tires, optional body-color fender flares (which might violate Jeep dogma to some), and a dual-vented Power Dome hood with a black-silhouette “Rubicon” decal for a dash of style.

The iconic seven slot grille is a Low Gloss Black affair with Low Gloss Granite Crystal inserts and headlamp rings. Low Gloss is also the watchword for the black off-road bumpers and Jeep badge with a red base. Jeep says this gives the Wrangler Rubicon Recon a “toughened exterior look.”

The steel (like it would be any other material?) front bumper features a design that allows for the easy installation of a winch, and the end caps are removable so you can scramble over obstacles without any snags or damage on the trail. Red tow hooks front and rear also provide the Recon model with more protection – the red color separates it from the rest of the Wrangler herd.

The Wrangler Rubicon Recon Edition comes in seven colors: Black, Bright White, Billet Silver, Firecracker Red, Gobi, Rhino, and Granite Crystal. I know, Gobi, Rhino, and Granite Crystal sound like pals of Wolverine, Jean Gray, and Dr. Xavier, but just go with it.

A Premium Sunrider soft top is standard and a body-colored hard top is also offered.

Wrangler continues its body-on-frame design, front and rear five-link suspension setup, live axles, and electronic lockers. It’s also one of the few mid-size SUVs to offer a six-speed manual transmission, in addition to its five-speed automatic. To meet consumer demand around the world, all Jeep models sold outside North America are available in both left and right-hand drive configurations and with gasoline and diesel powertrain options. Photo: FCA US LLC.

Interior Treatments

On the inside, things are a little less Spartan than days past. The Wrangler Rubicon Recon has a standard eight-speaker audio system and black leather heated seats with “Rubicon” embroidery. The steering wheel is leather-wrapped with red accent stitching, making things a little more classy. The front door armrest is black vinyl-wrapped and the console lid has black stitching.

Red accent netting on the front and rear door pockets, center console, and seatbelts differentiate the Rubicon Recon from the rest of the Wrangler roster (he alliterated repeatedly).

There’s a dashboard plaque with info concerning the front and rear axles, front sway bar, transfer case, and tires. On the dash there’s a gauge cluster unique to the Recon that contains an Electronic Vehicle Information Center (EVIC) with added read-outs for oil pressure, transmission and coolant temperatures, digital speed, and individual tire pressure. You can see where that tire pressure gizmo could come in real handy out on the trail.

Passenger grab handles (a necessity) feature Midnight Star Black accents that are also found throughout the cabin, on the vent rings, steering wheel spokes, and door pulls. All-weather slush mats with red accent “Jeep” logos are both a nice styling touch and a practical addition. The axle locker and sway-bar disconnect switches are also red accented. Finally, Jeep’s Connectivity Group, Power Convenience Group, Satellite Radio, remote starter, and auto temperature controls are standard.

Cost? That will run you anywhere from $39,145 MSRP for the two-door model up to $42,945 MSRP for the Wrangler Unlimited model. The new 2017 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon Recon Edition arrives in showrooms later this month.

Tony Borroz has spent his entire life racing antique and sports cars. He means well, even if he has a bias towards lighter, agile cars rather than big engine muscle cars or family sedans.

Photos & Source: FCA US LLC

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2018 Subaru Legacy To Debut In Chicago

It’s better to call the “new” 2018 Subaru Legacy “refreshed,” because that’s what it is. A little nip here. A little tuck there. A trip to the beauty parlor and a little debutante ball action, and here she is, the “new” 2018 Subaru Legacy.

The thumbnail sketch of what’s new breaks down like this: The 2018 Subaru Legacy has revised front and rear styling for a “sportier look.” The interior has also been gone over and redesigned with more premium materials. The chassis tuning has been tweaked for a smoother and quieter ride.

Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are now standard along with new multimedia capabilities. And there is now an available Steering Responsive LED Headlight system.

Sporty Styling

Updating the front and rear styling is the easiest way to keep a car looking new during the mid-cycle refresh, before it gets a complete redo. People identify cars primarily from their grille design and front end treatment, so mucking about with that will get noticed. And from a manufacturer’s perspective, new front and rear bumpers (just as an example) are much cheaper to do than revamping the rest of the sheet metal.

Whether it results in a “sportier look” I’ll leave up to prospective buyers. Subaru says the Legacy is now a “sportier, yet more elegant design,” as if the two are mutually exclusive. They’re not. Just look at a 60s vintage Ferrari Lusso, for example. If that doesn’t say “athletically capable” and “elegant” at the same time, I don’t know what does.

But after all, this is a sedan, so maybe they’re not too far off?

The Legacy’s interior has also gotten a touch up, with both a redesign and higher quality materials. This has been a long time bug-a-boo for Subie. And the Legacy is, after all, the top of the Subaru line. So if any model is going to have to up its game, it’s going to be this one.

Reshaped exterior mirrors, new sound-insulating inner film glass for the front side windows, and thicker rear wheel well aprons are among the enhancements that make the 2018 Subaru Legacy more quiet. Photo: Subaru of America, Inc.

Power & Performance

The chassis tuning is more responsive, making the 2018 Subaru Legacy more comfortable, quiet, and agile. Steering and brake feel have been improved too, especially through the Electric Power Steering. The smoother more responsive system works in tandem with the firmer, more direct brake-pedal which is always, always a good thing. Furthermore, Subaru updated the shocks to reduce the impact of bumps while also reducing body roll.

Where it’s really at though is under the hood where you get two choices of boxer powerplants. The Legacy 2.5i is motorized by a double overhead cam, 2.5-liter boxer engine, producing 175 horsepower and 174 lb-ft. of torque. There is a DOHC 3.6-liter 6-cylinder plant in the Legacy 3.6R, cranking out 256 horsepower and 247 lb-ft. of torque. Keeping with their quiet theme, the Lineartronic CVT on 2.5-liter models now features an ultra-short-pitch chain, while engine timing adjustments during acceleration further reduce powertrain noise.

All models come with Subaru’s Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive system (natch) with an electronically managed, continuously variable transfer clutch for torque distribution.

Tweaks to the air conditioning unit were made, proving nothing was off limits regarding the 2018 Subaru Legacy. It now cools the vehicle more quickly and with a more uniform temperature throughout the cabin. Other conveniences include a redesigned clock that is easier to read and how interior power is retained for a short time after the car is shut off. Photo: Subaru of America, Inc.

For The Birds?

The Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, and the new multimedia capabilities are both cool and ridiculous.

You get useful stuff like Magellan NAVI with advanced cloud-based mapping services and a Quick Guide digital reference guide for the vehicle. You get potentially useful stuff like Best Parking to locate and compare parking rates, and RightTrack monitors driving habits and recommends improvements.

You also have access to features which have sod-all to do with cars, driving them, or any combination thereof. For example, YELP for crowd sourced reviews of businesses? (“Oo look! A drycleaner with a five star rating!!”) and this thing called Glympse that provides real-time location sharing (why?). eventseeker (all lower case for some reason) provides information on local events, and yes, I don’t get that one either.

But the Pièce De Résistance has got to be eBird. That’s right. You heard me. I said eBird. What, you may ask is eBird? Well I hope you’re sitting down, because eBird advises of local bird sightings and locations.

Imagine that. You’re just cruising down the ville, and all of sudden thanks to eBird, you see there is an unexpected gathering of Throat Warbler Mangroves close at hand. You slam on the brakes (which are improved thanks to that new pedal tuning), slew a hard left, and nearly mow down a fruit cart, all so you can see your elusive avian friends up close and personal.

No doubt after digital admonishments from the RightTrack system, that is.

So, eBird or no, the 2018 Subaru Legacy makes a fine choice for people who are into Subarus in general, or might find themselves in less than temperate climes. The vehicle will make its debut at the Chicago Auto Show, which opens to the public on February 11th.

Tony Borroz has spent his entire life racing antique and sports cars. He means well, even if he has a bias towards lighter, agile cars rather than big engine muscle cars or family sedans.

2018 Subaru Legacy Gallery

Photos & Source: Subaru of America, Inc.

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Letter From The UK: Living Off The Map

Here in the United Kingdom, we have a great and venerable institution known as the Ordnance Survey. It is the national mapping agency for Great Britain and is one of the world’s largest producers of maps. We’ve no need for a Lewis or a Clark here; our maps are so detailed it is said that if a person stands still for long enough, he or she will appear on an OS map as, say, a place of interest or a high point.

The OS makes maps of exquisite detail and accuracy. To get around the country you need nothing more.

At least, that’s how it used to be.

The Lost Road Atlas

In a land as vast and unknowable as the United States, I am prepared to bet that, just like in the UK, somewhere in the bowels of your car or your barn, there may be such a symbol of the great days of true motoring. Hidden away like the Dead Sea Scrolls at the back of your trunk, or under the back seat, you might well discover a dog-eared paper road atlas.

Technophobes will be familiar with this archaic form of direction finding, often used with limited or varied success by your father back in the day when the family vacation by automobile was something of an exciting and mysterious lottery.

Technophiles will not understand this reliance on map reading skills when there is a perfectly adequate device on the dashboard ready to do all the hard work for you. The automotive satellite navigation system or GPS – like sliced bread, the Ford Mustang, and Penelope Cruz – has been one of the great inventions of the world. They have never been cheaper or better featured. They are programmable and settings can be altered to suit. How can something so small be so clever?

Well, that’s the official line, but there’s an unspoken issue.

HondaLink debuted on the 2013 Honda Accord and connects drivers to thousands of cloud-based news, information, and media feeds from around the world. It’s one of many similar systems on the market today. “This is the next evolution of the connected car and the connected customer,” said Charles Koch, American Honda Manager of New Business Development in 2012. Photo: Honda North America.

Not As Infallible As We Think

Here’s an example: Once, when being forced-marched by my wife on a health inducing walk in hilly countryside (“Keep up! It’s good for you!”), I came across a nonplussed German motorist driving up an ancient track previously only used by livestock.

Being a man, he squarely blamed his GPS and herein lies the problem. The fact he was so far off the proper roads, it had never occurred to him until that point that something was obviously amiss, like having his Mercedes-Benz surrounded by intrigued sheep.

Sometimes in this country, we hear about the occasional vast Euro-truck becoming becalmed in quaint, quintessentially English villages because the device directed the driver down a narrow country lane, and he or she blindly obliged with the inevitable result.

Sat-nav’s are great but they are not infallible.

They are only as intelligent as their drivers. Despite the fact the chosen route is clearly unsuitable, they follow it anyway. Simply turning around and forcing the device to recalculate would probably solve the issue.

Photo: Dariusz Sankowski.

With Age Comes Knowledge

This is why just about half of the UK’s experienced drivers still, in this technological age, prefer to use maps, I recently heard. Real map-reading is a disappearing skill (which should, like compass use, be taught in schools) but most motorists can understand a basic road map once they’ve got it the right way up.

Older drivers with more than twenty-five years of motoring under their belts prefer to stick with maps; at least according to a national survey from a while back. As mentioned above, they mistrust some of the GPS intentions but what they hate most is the constant babble of instructions. Nobody likes being told repeatedly to do the same thing.

It’s irksome.

The survey mentions that only around half of respondents owned any form of satellite navigation at all, whether portable or built-in. That’s a surprise. We are led by promotions and advertising to believe the very latest thing is indispensable to our lives, and yet here we are still relying on ancient texts to move about the country.

In 2011, State Farm Insurance found that 52 percent of drivers reported owning a smartphone, and by 2014 that number had grown to 80 percent. The greatest increases in smartphone ownership are among adults age 40 and older. Photo: Foundry Co.

Journey Versus Destination

Many people have no problem with sat-navs. If kept up to date, they can guide drivers through complex and hitherto unknown and labyrinthine one way systems; they can place a car within ten meters of the required destination whilst avoiding ferries and traffic snarl-ups. What’s not to like? On the other hand, it is quite nice to know that some things never change. Maps, after all, bring out the pioneer spirit in motorists.

They can take married couples to distant, lonely parking lots for heated spousal debates about the innate inability of women to read maps and, conversely, about the driving ability, heritage, and general manliness of the fellow behind the wheel. There is something special about a compass and a map just as in olden times. (It is a well-known historical fact that Lewis and Clark declined GPS services in favor of a DIY approach, for example).

The more detail on the map the better.

They can bring hidden places to the fore and suggest anything is possible to the inquiring mind. New friends could be made at obscure crossroads. Perhaps car makers would do well to heed this and start offering a full set of well-surveyed maps, a compass, and a “how-to read coordinates” guide as an alternative option.

It’s a thought.

Geoff Maxted is a motoring writer, photographer, and author of our Letter From The UK series. Follow his work on Twitter: @DriveWrite

Cover Photo: Erika Wittlieb

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Range Rover Goes Icon With Its Icon

A number of high-end car companies have been in the restoration business for a while now. For example, Ferrari with their Classiche Certified program will take in old cars made in Maranello, and restore them to showroom condition. Range Rover has jumped into this game, with a factory restored 1978 three-door Range Rover Classic that will be shown in Paris at Salon Rétromobile 2017.

I guess what would make this odd is how it’s a truck company doing it this time.

Unique Fittings

Most of this factory retro stuff is preserve of people like Rolls Royce and Porsche. Mercedes-Benz, for example, goes so far as to say they have, or will make, parts for every car they have ever manufactured; back to and including their three-wheeled Patent-Motorwagen, the car that started it all.

Even more odd is the fact that third-party companies have been in the truck rehab and remanufacture game for a while now. There’s been this outfit in SoCal that goes by the name of Icon, as an example. They essentially take old Toyota Land Cruisers and remanufacturer them better than new. Really, their work is truly outstanding. The level of it makes seemingly anyone consider buying one of their trucks, until you look at the price, which is somewhere around the cost of a new Ferrari.

The Range Rover was launched in 1970, originally in two-door configuration only, up to 1981, when the first factory four-door was introduced. The first generation’s production in ended in 1996. Photo: Jaguar Land Rover.

Prestigious Programs

Whether any of this played into the corporate decision to get into the factory-resto business, Range Rover does not say. They do say the upcoming reveal in Paris of the factory-restored 1978 three-door Range Rover Classic is all part of their Reborn programme by Land Rover Classic. Yes, that’s “programme” with a superfluous m+e, and yes Reborn is a maddeningly pretentious name. But they both kind of fit the product, no?

The Range Rover Reborn program (with one “m” and no “e” you limey lobsterbacks) offers potential customers the prospect to purchase a “new” vintage Range Rover direct from the company itself. The team of experts at Land Rover Classic have drawn on decades of engineering and design experience to complete this first ride in the Range Rover Reborn agenda, a 1978 Classic Range Rover.

The 1978 Range Rover comes in Bahama Gold, which is a clever marketing way of saying sand-colored beige/tan/brown. It’s not a bad shade, and it is original, but it’s still beige/tan/brown, which is a horrid color to make work on a vehicle.

“Range Rover Reborn is another showcase of our dedicated in-house engineering expertise. It underscores our commitment to nurturing the rich heritage of Land Rover, and is a rare opportunity for customers to own a valuable and genuinely collectible automotive icon. It is a wonderful way to preserve the much sought after three-door original Range Rover from the 1970s, from period-correct color ways to interior trim and accessories,” said Tim Hannig, Director, Jaguar Land Rover Classic

Performance Specs

This beige colored box is propelled down the road and/or trail by a fully rebuilt 3528cc V8 engine. This is the same aluminum alloy V8 that Rover has used for decades, and, if I’m remembering this right, the British bought from Buick for a song back in the 1960s. My cousin Mike had a mid-60s Buick Special he got from his grandparents (Ed and Gladys) fitted with this engine, and it was a total sweetheart. Revved like the business and got great gas mileage.

Of course Buick got rid of it.

Who needs a small, efficient engine when you got things like nailhead mills pouring out of the Hamtramck plant like so many Polish sausages?

Anyway, in original (and now refurbished) Range Rover guise, this engine, fitted with a Zenith-Stromberg 175CD type carb, cranks out 132 horsepower at 5,000rpm and 186 lb-ft. of torque at 2,500 rpm. All of the power and grunt is put to the tarmac, ground, peat bog, or semi-gravel track via a 4-speed manual transmission with a lockable central differential.

Range Rover is considered a benchmark among luxury 4×4 vehicles. It remains a vehicle of choice for members of the Royal household, politicians, entertainers, and other notable figures from around the globe. During the 1970s, the Range Rover also became the first vehicle to be exhibited at the Louvre in Paris as an exemplary work of industrial design. Photo: Jaguar Land Rover.

Factory Settings

The company goes on to say the “new” 1978 Range Rovers will undergo a complete restoration to the 1970s factory specs using Land Rover Classic Parts to preserve and protect authenticity. They make no mention if the Rovers will be returned to the factory levels of build quality and reliability of the 70s, but they can’t be that sadistic, can they? If you decide you have to buy one of these new/old Range Rovers, Land Rover’s restoration team will guide you through the best options in terms of collectability, preferred chassis numbers, and unique characteristics.

Very helpful of them.

Cost? Well, completed Range Rover Reborn restorations from Land Rover Classic will start at £135,000 GBP, or around $150,000 USD. Which is, jeepers creepers, a lot of green. But what do I know? If old Range Rovers are your thing, I’m not going to argue with you.

Salon Rétromobile 2017 runs February 8th through the 12th.

Tony Borroz has spent his entire life racing antique and sports cars. He means well, even if he has a bias towards lighter, agile cars rather than big engine muscle cars or family sedans.

1978 Three-Door Range Rover Classic Gallery

Photos & Source: Jaguar Land Rover

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