Jeep Grand One Concept
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MotorTranscript
00:00 Hi, this is Sean Holm with the 4Wheeler Network and with me today is Head of Jeep Design Mark Allen and we're out here in beautiful Moab, Utah at Hurrah Pass. Good to see you. Why are we out here?
00:14 Because I made some new cars.
00:16 Well, you kind of have a history of making cool cars.
00:19 Actually I made an old car new. Does that make sense?
00:21 Yeah, do you want to walk us through this thing?
00:23 Yeah, sure.
00:24 The hood's up so we can start there. This is a '93 ZJ.
00:27 Well, yeah, so what it is, 2017 is 25 year anniversary of the Grand Cherokee. So we thought it would be cool to get an original '93 Grand Cherokee ZJ and fix it up for Moab.
00:40 I really thought three people were going to like this thing, but it's been kind of bananas. A lot of people love it. So what we did, and just like anybody...
00:48 Who doesn't love the '90s?
00:49 Exactly. And we cultivated the '90s.
00:52 We'll show you that in just a second because for any of you who are children of the '80s or '90s, you will, if you grew up, yeah, it's well done.
01:00 So just like everybody else, opened up Craigslist. Found us a '93 Grand Cherokee and bought it, brought it back, and made a really nice plan for it.
01:10 The intention was to make it a really nice cruiser, off-road cruiser, not some big gnarly rock crawler.
01:18 So we got a, I think it's a 32 or 33-inch tire, put a two-inch lift kit on it, Dana 44s front and rear.
01:24 What's cool about the '93? If you move out of the way, eight-slot grille. After I've said seven-slot grille my whole career...
01:31 Yeah, '93 really did have eight-slot grille. And it's just because we didn't have seven-slot religion until like '96.
01:37 They did a facelift on this car and then started doing the seven-slot grille.
01:40 So everything since '96 is seven-slot, basically.
01:42 Yeah. Another cool thing about this, being a '93, there was a Grand Wagoneer version of it, and it had wood grain on the side.
01:49 Yes, it did.
01:50 So I added wood grain to this, but it's like the least committed wood grain. It's subtle wood grain.
01:55 And we should point out real quick, for those of you who were around back then, there's such a thing called a Jeep Eagle dealer.
02:02 Yes.
02:03 So you should take note of this awesome Jeep Eagle decal because Jeeps are cool and so are Eagles.
02:09 I think it says "By Jeep."
02:11 So anyway, we'll shut the hood here and bring it around the side because I think a lot of the magic of the design here happens on the side.
02:18 And one of the cool things, obviously, we're talking about '90s wood grain, but also the wheel.
02:22 The lace wheel. So Grand Cherokees, they had a lace wheel, and there were several different versions of it.
02:28 Very popular on Grands, which I always thought was a strange thing for an off-road vehicle to have a lace-style wheel.
02:34 And it's gold. We tried to cultivate that as well. You can see some of the wood grain here in the sun.
02:40 Another unique thing about this, and it's so '90s, there's as much glass on the side as there is sheet metal.
02:46 The belt line is really low, and that visibility is excellent.
02:49 In fact, if you look at the Grand Cherokee next to today's Grand Cherokee, it's amazing how much the greenhouse glass area has shrunk in proportion to the design.
02:57 But the whole car has just gotten bigger and bigger and bigger. So yeah, fun stuff.
03:01 The roof rack, we just went to the yard, just junkyard, just like you guys did, and got two more roof racks, which I think is kind of a cool look.
03:09 Man gets thirsty on the trail, so we added a secret little compartment back here for refreshments.
03:15 This is what you refer to as blinker fluid, right?
03:17 Blinker fluid. I think it's mislabeled, but that is--
03:20 That might be high-octane blinker fluid.
03:23 Yeah, used in moderation.
03:25 We would be remiss if we didn't point out, again, let's see, we got Beastie Boys.
03:30 We've got the teal and pink MTV logo sticker, Green Day from the Dookie album, Guns N' Roses' "Appetite for Destruction," Misfits.
03:38 We've got some reds over here.
03:39 We've got chili peppers.
03:40 No fear, everybody knows that.
03:42 No fear, yeah.
03:43 And down south--
03:44 Do you have Stussy? Tell me you have Stussy in there. Is there a Stussy sticker? There's got to be.
03:48 You know what? Right here.
03:50 Oh, yeah, there we go.
03:52 And Ross Perot for President.
03:54 Of course, Ross Perot, and that worked out really well for him. So as you can tell, that was definitely--
04:00 One more little thing back here.
04:02 Yeah.
04:03 Reference to the '90s.
04:06 When you step on the brake light, "Hammer Time." Stop.
04:12 And we do like the OG ZJ sticker. That's pretty cool.
04:16 That's an inside joke. If you know, you know, right?
04:18 Yeah, if you don't, it doesn't make any sense.
04:20 So I love the "Stop. Hammer Time." Very nice.
04:23 Now, we do have the custom badges. This is the Sportin' Wood Edition.
04:27 It's called custom because it's a very sporty vehicle and has some bark on the side instead of the ribs.
04:32 So you guys didn't stop here. Obviously, you touched the interior. It still has the puffy seats.
04:38 Actually, grab this interior shot because the headliner on this was in true '90s fashion, falling on your head.
04:46 I think I had a jacket with that as the liner for it.
04:48 So, yeah, we did the grungy interior, right? Remember the grunge flannel shirts?
04:54 Yeah, Pearl Jam and Nirvana would be okay with that.
04:57 Just finished out all the trim, took the spare tire out of the back because it was a little tiny thing.
05:02 Kept the style of the seats, redid them, but it's still this, I don't even know what you would call it, this sausage-y look in the interior.
05:10 You know what's funny is it is as clean as it is. I know you guys blew the car apart.
05:13 It smells like a ZJ inside.
05:15 Oh, yeah, yeah.
05:16 It totally has an old Jeep smell.
05:17 And honestly, don't tell anybody, but it rattles like a ZJ.
05:20 We won't tell anybody.
05:22 Thanks for keeping that on the true team.
05:24 Yeah, right. And tape player still?
05:27 You know what's weird is, yeah, we kept the cassette player, and I think there's a can of loop is in there right now.
05:33 Steering wheel, I did change the steering wheel. I just couldn't stand it. It had the big Kleenex box, you know, first airbag steering wheel.
05:39 It's too spoke. The TJ owners would be familiar with that steering wheel.
05:42 We couldn't find a nice one anywhere, so this is a JK steering wheel.
05:45 Amazing how much better it is with the steering wheel.
05:47 It does have an authentic hardwired car phone, too.
05:50 Yeah, if you come in, you can check out. And then are those locker switches on the center console?
05:54 Yeah, we added lockers to it just to make it a little more off-road worthy.
05:57 And again, doing the wheel cutouts, 2-inch lift, really works nice on this.
06:03 Look at all the switches, they're tiny. Everything is just a little bit smaller in this.
06:07 I don't think a big gulp fits in it.
06:08 Yeah, probably not.
06:09 Probably not. Well, thanks so much for walking us around the Grand One.
06:13 Grand One is what we're calling it, yeah, because it's the first.
06:16 We love it. We've got it out here actually with current Grand Cherokee,
06:21 and people are driving them back and forth. It's just kind of a neat look back in time.
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