What Is A Rubicon X
A machine like the 2014 Wrangler Rubicon X takes commitment. If you're going to buy one of these suckers, do yourself a favor: Thank the kindly salesman for his help, peel the scratch-prone, byzantine soft-top's side and rear panels off the truck and light them on fire right there in the front of god and everybody. You don't need those panels any more than you need pavement, and brother, with this thing, you don't need pavement.
Jeep calls the Rubicon X the most off-road oriented model the company has ever produced. With its electronic locking differentials, sway bar disconnect, and crazy low 4:1 transfer case, the base Rubicon is no slouch. The X adds in legitimate armor in the form of steel rock sliders and off road bumpers.
Jeep noticed that most guys were taking a sawzall to the plastic end caps on their Rubicons to make room for bigger tires, so engineers made the steel caps on the Rubicon X removable. Undo the bolts, and you have an unmatched approach angle. Want a winch? Of course you do. There's space behind the bumper, complete with a built in access panel.
Engineers opted for no-bullshit 255/75/R17 BFGoodrich KM2 tires. They're soft enough to scramble up just about any surface, and those big lugs and deep voids make slogging through mud and sand a nonevent.
Zach Bowman
That's all good stuff, but the Rubicon X also carries along some decidedly less hardcore accoutrements. For starters, those wicked tires are wrapped around painted 17-inch aluminum wheels. Get frisky in a rock scramble and you'll find yourself with a nasty collection of scratches and gouges in the soft metal. Give me a set of steelies to match the hardcore rubber and I'd be a happier boy. There are heated leather seats indoors, too. While the hides clean easily enough, they feel out of place on a rig that's built to go bashing through the wilderness.
Jeep has built more than a million JK-generation Wranglers, and people still stare when you come bombing through downtown. It's hard to blame them. There's always some beauty to be found in utility, and the Rubicon wasn't not molded by wind tunnels or corporate groupthink. It was hammered into shape by rock trails and sandy scrambles.
When you're up to your nostrils in email, there's nothing better than seeing this sucker sulking in the driveway. I blew off the office, threw some necessities behind the back seat and headed for Windrock OHV to spend some time in the hills.
I can't say enough about how much the Pentastar 3.6-liter V6 has done for the Wrangler. There's 285 horsepower and 260 lb-ft of torque at your disposal, and with 4:10 gears, the Rubicon feels good and quick. It'll rock and roll down the interstate at 80 mph as comfortable as can be with plenty in reserve for passing.
Zach Bowman
It still sounds like a Grand Caravan, but nobody's perfect. What it lacks in lungs it makes up for in fuel economy. I saw an average of 20.1 mpg over the course of my week with the rig. If that sounds bad, you never suffered under the boot heel of the old, unquenchable 4.0-liter straight six, or worse, the 3.8-liter V6.
On the road, the Wrangler feels like an old school truck in the best way possible. The soft coil spring suspension and solid axles float and wiggle, and there's plenty of body roll at every corner. Crossovers have conditioned us to think every machine should drive like a Camry; The Rubicon reminds me that it's good not everything does.
There's no better time to hit an off-road park than in the middle of a dreary week. The trails are abandoned. I poke my way up Trail 22 from the general store. The trail map marks this one as a moderate, and it's nothing a Subaru Forester couldn't contend with until about halfway through. Out of curiosity, I leave the beefy KM tires aired up to 35 psi as I work the truck through shallow streams and around the tall poplar trees that grow here.
Each time I approach an obstacle I see as problematic, the Rubicon makes an easy show of it. Large boulders, deep crevasses in the clay, and slick mud hills are made easy with grip and lockers.
Zach Bowman
The trail ends with a ragged rock bald, and for the first time all day, I'm not certain I want to keep going. With no spotter and those shiny aluminum wheels, I'm terrified I'll cause some serious damage. I get out, eye the rocks, and pick my line. Back in the truck, I drop the transfer case into four low, lock both axles and disconnect the sway bar. Doing so gives the front axle the articulation it needs to pick its way over the stair steps with all the drama of pulling into a mall parking lot.
The short 95.4-inch wheelbase means the Wrangler never once drags its belly as it works its way up the two-foot steps. I quickly realize that like the Porsche 911 and Corvette Stingray, this machine is far more capable than I am behind its wheel.
From 22 I work my way up and down the technical switchbacks of 42 and 49. Some of the bends are so tight I have to three point the turn. While the Rubicon X comes with a six-speed manual transmission as standard equipment, this tester was saddled with a five-speed automatic. The transmission is the only thing on the truck that feels dated. The gearbox got hung in neutral in the transition from drive to reverse more than once, making for some hilarious near misses with rocks and roots in the middle of close quarters maneuvering.
Zach Bowman
I stop for lunch in view of the big windmills that sit along the ridgeline here. Each blade is longer than a semi trailer, but at this distance, they look small enough to pick up and put in my hip pocket. There's nothing but wild mountain slopes and a snaking web of trail between here and there. I don't feel any breeze, but the big blades spin on anyway.
As I wind closer to pavement, the path gets tighter and tighter. It's amazing how small your world can get when you're worried about punching a rock through the driver's door, but this is exactly what the Rubicon was engineered to do. There's a reason folk around here call these Jeep trails. They're wide enough for Chrysler's darling off-roader and nothing else.
I pop out on a wider gravel trail, and it falls off the mountain in a swift decline. Before long, I'm back on the main highway just outside of Oliver Springs.
At $34,595 (base MSRP), the Wrangler Rubicon X is a rare specialty tool in a world that scarcely needs it, but I'm glad it exists all the same. A light drizzle starts down out of the sky on the ride home. With the side panels back at the house and the glass windows down, I smell the rain and feel the temperature fall long before I see the first drops on the windshield. It's a perfect moment. A Jeep moment. I put my arm out the window just to feel the rain on my skin. You can keep your laminated glass. I'll be in the sticks.
This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io
Source: https://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/road-tests/a6341/the-2014-jeep-wrangler-rubicon-x-is-freakishly-capable/
Tidak ada komentar: