Most of the time, auto show "concept" vehicles are a bust. As a rule, they are made to look good on a display stand, and that's it. So it is unusual that a manufacturer would ask us if we would actually like to drive a few. Which is what Jeep did last March, taking us to a New Jersey parking lot on a grey, blustery spring morning for a little urban 'wheeling. There were seven past concept vehicles on hand for us to experience. We tried them all, but the Hurricane made the trip worthwhile.
Jeep HurricaneThe Hurricane is the real deal. If you had an unlimited budget to build a trail machine, a full year, unlimited manufacturing capability, and access to a team of very bright Jeep engineers and talented designers, you could end up with something like the Hurricane. And by "unlimited budget," we mean well into seven figures.
In essence, the Hurricane uses two coupled engines, fed into two transmissions, blended into one transfer case with four outputs direct to each wheel, all controlled by custom software. It has five different steering modes, excellent articulation, 14 inches of ground clearance, and five different steering modes. An aluminum spine holds it all together.
Looking at the Hurricane left us puzzled because every piece has been designed and fabricated-pretty much from scratch. There are no differentials, the wheels each carry 2.00:1 portal gears, and the brake discs are attached directly to the drivelines, tucked up under the spine.
There are no axles per se-just huge boxes that contain bevel gears to transmit power-and other than the engines, nothing is familiar. The body is gray carbon fiber, perfectly fit and exquisitely smooth to the touch.
We didn't get to drive the Hurricane ourselves, and we're not sure we could anyway. It takes 20 minutes sitting in the passenger seat just to gather in the instruments, levers, and controls, which are all unique and machined from billet. In this case, the offer was to get in, sit down, and shut up, which we readily accepted. We clambered in over the passenger-side door by stepping up onto a machined aluminum step plate. Our driver, senior design engineer Doug Quigley, is obviously a real Jeep guy. He pushed two green Start buttons, one for each engine, and the 5.7L Hemis roared to life.
Once on the move, the Hurricane feels just like any other good trail machine ... but with two V-8s and open exhaust, it is loud. Upon full throttle, engines roar like a drag boat, the hood rises upward, and the back end squats. The sound of twin 5.7L Hemi V-8s through open headers is something beyond the healthy roar that a muscle car makes at the drag races. It is euphoric. Both V-8s are multi-displacement engines, meaning the Hurricane can be powered by 4, 8, 12, or 16 cylinders, depending on throttle input. With all 16 cylinders under full throttle, the engines develop a total of 670 hp and 740 lb-ft of torque. With all but four cylinders shut down, it could probably get 20 mpg.
We got a few blasts down the parking lot, something like zero to 40 mph through light drizzle. There was no snow on the ground, but everything was damp. In the passenger seat, with just a brief windshield and open cabin, warmth from the engines wafting inward was a welcome blessing. With the throttle pinned, the feeling of acceleration compared to a good muscle car, maybe a little less savagely bruising than, say, an alcohol bogger. According to Jeep specs, the Hurricane can do zero to 60 in less than five seconds, and we suppose that's actually possible with the right tires on dry pavement.