Jeep Orange Peelz Stunning concept is a different kind of open-air Jeep

Jeep unveiled the Orange Peelz concept earlier this year. It’s a Wrangler that celebrates the Jeep tradition of fun in the open air – and yet it does while keeping its roof on

Words: Kaziyoshi Sasazaki Pictures: Jeep

If there’s one classic image of the off-road world that’s specifi c 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.

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

Jeep unveiled the Orange Peelz concept earlier this year. It’s a Wrangler that celebrates the Jeep tradition of fun in the open air – and yet it does while keeping its roof on

a custom removable one-piece Freedom Top glass sunroof.

In doing so, the company says, they ‘vastly enhanced the Wrangler’s open-air heritage.’ That’s a very bold claim, but they’re making it for a very bold vehicle; you can decide for yourself, but if you don’t look at it and think it’s cool you’re not looking hard enough.

To make it cooler than ever, there’s a groovy looking 360-degree custom waistline graphic with a touch of vintage custom car styling to it, as well as retro-styled Jeep wing badges, all of them in satin black. Oh, and it’s painted orange. Gosh, is it painted orange.

Now, plenty of manufacturers would have stopped there. It’s a concept car, it looks good, job done. Okay, maybe some extra power? There’s a 3.6-litre Pentastar V6 under the bonnet, with 285bhp and 260lbf.ft in standard form, and it’s been upgraded using a cold-air intake and catback exhaust from Jeep Performance Parts. So now we’ve got a concept, right?

Wrong. That’s not Jeep’s style. They’ve not gone completely wild with this vehicle, at least not

compared to some of the modded monsters to have emerged from Moab in the past, but a 2” lift kit, again from Jeep Performance Parts, gives it that bit more ground clearance and also provides the top-quality damping you get when you invest in a set of Fox shocks.

There are some vehicles you can lift by a couple of inches and still only have room for a set of little boy tyres, but this is a Wrangler. They already ride on proper rubber as standard – and with the extra height, the Orange Peelz sports a set of 17” beadlock-ready alloys wrapped in 37” BFGoodrich KM3 Mud-Terrains. Mopar valve stems complete the image, if you look hard enough, and the extra width is covered up by a set of concept ’high-top’ wheelarch fl ares in heavy-duty steel.

Talking of steel, up front there’s a custom Rubicon heavy-duty bumper, yet again from Jeep Performance Parts. This is home to a prototype 2” steel grille guard, as well as providing the mount for an 8000lb Rubicon Warn winch. As the name suggests, this is exclusive too Jeep.

A little way further back, the bonnet is held down by custom Mopar latches. You’ll probably

Above left: The interior is a vision in orange, from the dash panel and stitching to the plaid theme on the upholstery. But it’s designed to be practical, too; injection-moulded fl oor mats with high lips act as a reservoir for water and grimy mud, and include a drain plug positioned to match the drain holes in the vehicle’s fl oor Above right: Half-doors are prototypes from Jeep Performance Parts – which means they’re likely to become available to buy soon

37” BFGoodrich KM3s on 17” beadlock-ready hard alloys give the Wrangler a suitably purposeful stance. To make room for them to fi t, the vehicle is lifted by 2” using Jeep Performance Parts springs and Fox shocks, and the arches are fi nished off with a set of high-top steel fl ares

have noticed the Jeep badges by the time you notice these, to be fair, sporting as they do a logo from the old Willys says. Then comes another Mopar item – a heavy-duty windscreen made with Corning Gorilla Glass which, Jeep says, offers greater protection against cracks and chips. At the base of the A-pillars, a pair of 5” off-road LED lights from Jeep Performance Parts provides 4800 lumens apiece.

Further back, there’s a set of custom rock rails which provide extra protection and durability for the sort of off-roading that tends to put your sills at risk of getting caned into things like rocks and tree stumps. And further back still, Jeep Performance Parts’ Swing Gate Hinge Reinforcement is in place to take the weight of the larger spare tyre. Often forgotten about, that, and always regretted if you do. The same source provides a relocation kit for the third brake light, which now takes up residence in the centre of the spare. A bit more subtle than all those acres of orange paint, but every bit as cool.

Discreetly coloured towing hooks, on the other hand, would be too subtle. The last thing you want when you’re stuck is for these to be camoufl aged, after all…

Inside, the armrests, upper and lower seat inserts and mid-instrument panels are embroidered in a plaid design matched to the vehicle’s paint colour. So it’s orange, then – as is the stitching on the steering wheel, shifter boots and handbrake lever.

There’s practical stuff, too, such as the black sill guards and grippy rubber pads on the stainless steel pedal covers. Most of all, the fl oor mats are Mopar all-weather jobs; they’re injection moulded and designed with deep, rigid sidewalls and reservoir systems that contain liquids to prevent them from leaking on to the fl oor. Those at the front even have a patented drain plug covering the drain holes in the fl oor, allowing water to be drained out without removing the mats – a feature that’s very handy when you’re cleaning out the vehicle.

That’s the sort of unpretentious practicality you get with Wranglers – even radically eye-catching ones. After all, trucks like this are all about seeing the world – and the more bodywork you can shed before you go, the more of it you’ll see.

This hardcore Wrangler is Jeep’s tribute to that spirit of adventure. It’s a wide-open vehicle for wide-open spaces. And, in case you hadn’t noticed, it’s orange.