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jalopnik reviews
AEV HEMI-Powered Jeep Wrangler: First Drive
The new Jeep Wrangler is a damn fine off-road vehicle straight from the factory, but a 202 HP V6 just doesn't quite fit the bill for the folks at American Expedition Vehicles. Remember, this is the same group of guys who built the Hemi-powered SR-392 Roadster and the amazing Brute conversion kit that'll let you turn your Wrangler into an honest-to-goodness Jeep truck. This year at SEMA AEV'll be showing their latest and greatest new toy — the custom shop's dropped a 5.7-liter HEMI V8 into the evergreen off-roader...and then tosses us the keys for an exclusive first drive. That's right, they let us loose in this monster of an off-roader — outfitted with their complete HEMI conversion kit, a Flowmaster exhaust, an Nth Degree three-inch suspension lift, 35-inch BFG Mud Terrain KM2s on a set of their own wheels, 4.88 rear gears, their all-steel heat-extractor hood and a beefy front winch bumper of their own design. The result: A seriously badass Wrangler.
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3:00 PM on Fri Oct 24 2008
By Ben Wojdyla
11,083 views, 87 commentsMost discussed Devryn: So what IS the price of admission? more »
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sema
SEMA 2007: AEV Hemi-fies Wrangler Unlimited JK For SEMA!
The boys at American Expedition Vehicles plan to show a custom Jeep Wrangler Unlimited JK in the Chrysler display at SEMA 2007. What's so trick about it? Well, our friends at the Michigan and Montana based custom shop took their experience performing hundreds of Hemi conversions on the Jeep Wrangler TJ to have some fun with the new four-door from "The New Chrysler." So, instead of the stock 3.8-liter V6 under the hood, the Mopar-mavens at AEV have shaved away enough room to wedge a 6.4-liter Hemi into the engine bay. So, instead of 204 HP, this bad boy four-door's gonna get 525 horses. In addition to showing off the Hemi-powered four-door rock crawler at SEMA next week, AEV's set to announce the availability of turnkey 5.7-liter and 6.1-liter HEMI conversions for the new Wrangler JK. As someone who's driven one of their HEMI-powered Brute conversions and seen a great number of their amazing pieces of work on the road (like the above four-door Wrangler Rubicon) I can say my pants are tightening at the mere thought of seeing this in person. That's right — a full-on Hemi-gasm. Full press release after the jump and the gallery below filled with AEV awesomeness. [via AEV]
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semature ejaculation
SEMA 2007: Jeep Wrangler JT Concept
We're like four months away from the 2007 aftermarket parts blowout in Vegas, and already the automaker formerly known as the 'merican side of the German-American hybrid's looking to push out the concept cars they'll be showing come November. Apparently they liked the reaction to the AEV Jeep Brute concept so much they've come out with one of their own — a truck they're calling the Wrangler JT concept. Somehow I feel as if we've already figured out what the "JT" stands for. But like every Jeep, it's got to pull it's weight to get the trail-rated badge, and the JT's no different — because as you can see from the gallery below, it appears to have the get-up-and-go necessary to get it out of the Hell's Revenge trail in Moab, Utah. True, it's not enough to really get the trail-rated badge, it's certainly better than what we're betting the Compass can do. But what do you expect, since the JT is built off of the Wrangler Unlimited's extended 116-inch wheelbase, we're assuming it can do anything the Unlimited can do, and maybe even better. The folks at Jeep have also slapped on a 3-inch suspension lift from Superlift, 35-inch BF Goodrich Mud Terrain tires, a Ramsey 9500 UT winch and Mopar rear bumper and rock rails to give it just a bit more off-street cred. As avid fans of the AEV-produced Brute conversion kit built off of the TJ Wrangler, we're happy to see the JK getting a chance for glory by becoming a Jeep truck as well. More » -
sema
Exclusive 2006 SEMA Preview: Four-Door Jeep Wrangler Rubicon Unlimited -- Like A Hummer, Only Good
While at the Paris Auto Show at the beginning of the month, Spinn and I walked past the Chrysler Group display and as we passed the four-door Wrangler Unlimited, we both made a startling realization — the 4x4 with more off-road lineage than a Hummer could ever have totally has the potential to be a Hummer killer. We even remarked as much to an auto writer with one of the local Detroit dailies later that evening, and we received the same agreement. Now what you have before you is obvs not the standard, it's actually a Rubicon model featuring some editions by the Jeep/Truck engineering-design build shops, a team run by 300C/Charger/Magnum design chief and all-around good sport Ralph Gilles. His team put together a 4-door 4x4 with an interior featuring custom Katzkin leather seating and powered it with a 3.0L CRD diesel with some Tru-Lok-equipped Dana 44 axles supporting the weight. A performance suspension lift gives it the clearance to take on a set of 35-inch BFG (why yes, there're all sorts of acronym-busters for that one) Mud Terrain tires mounted on Custom 18-inch aluminum wheels supplied by Taneisya. The external toys also include a Warn 9.5ti winch mounted on American Expedition Vehicles (Who woulda thunk there'd be an AEV connection here, right?) new front bumper. And yes, it does look like a billion and a half bucks sprayed in that Rolex Silver paint — and you probably will only feel for maybe a split second like you're driving in a G500 look-alike. More » -
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