LETTING IT ALL HANG OUT Jeep unveiled the Orange Peelz concept earlier this year. It’s a Wrangler that celebrates Words: Kaziyoshi Sasazaki Pictures: Jeep
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f there’s one classic image of the off-road world that’s specific to one brand, it’s got to be the open-air Jeep. Every other 4x4 manufacturer from the pre-SUV days did soft-tops as well but the idyllic picture of top-off, doors-off, windscreen-down motoring amid sun-dappled woods and mountains has come to be seen as Jeep’s alone.
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4pp Jeep Orange Peelz.indd 50
Unveiled earlier this year at the Moab Easter Safari, the Orange Peelz concept is all about that. In Jeep’s own words, the vehicle ‘pays tribute to the long-standing, open-air, fun-and-freedom lifestyle that makes the Jeep Wrangler a global icon.’ Yet it’s not actually a soft-top. So how do you do that in a vehicle whose roof and doors are already removable?
Well, Jeep’s Mopar specialists have built a whole lot of concept vehicles in their time, many of them playing on the open-air theme. So they know what they’re doing when it comes to this stuff. For the Orange Peelz, they took a standard model and removed its side and rear windows, replaced its standard doors with prototype halfdoors from Jeep Performance Parts and installed
4x4 03/08/2021 11:45
