Four Wheeler April 2016

CHRISTIAN.HAZEL@FOURWHEELER.COM Obviously, I’ve never met Charles Darwin. He died in 1882. But if he were alive today, I like to think he’d be the kind of guy you’d want to have a beer with if for no other reason than to hear about all the Darwin Award stories people shared with him on his Facebook account. “Hey, Chuck, I nominate my cousin for a ‘you’ award because he dressed in a banana suit and broke into the gorilla cage at the zoo. Here’s a video.” Stuff like that. Anyway, even though Darwin is gone, his theory on natural selection remains. And although I’m sure most of the little college pukes I see on the news whining for a safe space from accountability and responsibility are someday heading for an epic Darwin…

CHRISTIAN.HAZEL@FOURWHEELER.COM JUST SHIP IT! I just read your editorial about brickand-mortar parts stores not being able to compete effectively with online parts stores. I fully agree, and it goes beyond that to include specialty shops too. Back in the early ’90s when I was building my first 4x4s, I used to waste a whole day looking for something as simple as a Grade 8 bolt. Not all part stores were equal. I eventually got pretty good at knowing which parts stores carried what. Some had a great selection of difficult-to-find parts like loose hardware and steel brake and fuel lines, and other shops were really only good for filters and oil. These parts stores were up to 20 miles from my garage. I wasted a lot of time and fuel hunting parts…

EDITOR@FOURWHEELER.COM THAT’S INTERESTING What does the ’17 Ford Super Duty mean beyond being an allnew truck? To make it happen, Ford is creating 2,000 more jobs and kicking in $1.3 billion for its Kentucky Truck Plant to handle the job. You can now tick the box for box delete on light-duty Regular Cab Chevy Silverados and GMC Sierras. Like the midsize pickups got. By the way, the Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon diesels are seeing 31 mpg highway. A report called Collision Avoidance System Market by Device, Technology, Application (Automotive, Aerospace, Railway, Marine, and Construction & Mining), and Region (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and RoW) Global Trend & Forecast to 2020 is a long walk to get to the fact that the market for collision avoidance systems is likely to be worth $50 billion by 2020.…

EDITOR@FOURWHEELER.COM TACO SNUG SnugTop now has a full line of bed tonneau and cap products in all sorts of styles and configurations ready to go for the popular ’16 Toyota Tacoma pickups. Now you can keep your gear safe, dry, locked, and protected with high-quality SnugTop product. INFO: SnugTop, 562/432-5454, snugtop.com WELD IT UP Although most serious wheelers probably won’t select the 20x8.5, 20x10, or 22x9 size, Weld’s new one-piece forged REKON XT does come in a sidewall-friendly 17x9 size for 5, 6, and 8-lug axles. The forged construction means higher strength with no excess weight so you get the maximum performance with the minimum drawbacks. INFO: Weld, 800/788-9353, weldwheels.com RADAR LOVE Radar tires? Never heard of ’em, right? Well, now you have, and they actually come to the table with an impressive background in Baja…

ken.brubaker@fourwheeler.com FOUR WHEELER OF THE YEAR 2016 CONSISTED of vehicles from two legendary nameplates: Jeep and Land Rover. Both have a long, storied off-road history that is known the world over, and this year’s multifaceted, mega-terrain throwdown included the Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited V-6, Land Rover Range Rover Sport HSE Td6, and Land Rover Range Rover Sport SVR. Both on paper and in reality, the SUVs in this year’s competition were different in their own way, especially in regard to powerplants. The Grand Cherokee was sporting a 3.6L V-6 gas engine, the Range Rover Sport HSE was propelled by a turbodiesel 3.0L V-6, and the Range Rover Sport SVR had a supercharged 5.0L V-8 engine. However, for all their differences, these vehicles had some surprising common elements, including eight-speed automatic transmissions, adjustable…

What’s New The 3.6L Pentastar V-6 has been reworked and it debuts in the ’16 Grand Cherokee as the standard engine in all trim levels except for the SRT. Features include two-step variable valve lift, cooled EGR, upgraded variable-valve timing, a new intake manifold, high-tumble intake ports, shrouded combustion chambers, eight-hole fuel injectors with optimized atomization, multiple friction-reduction features, and an increased compression ratio of 11.3:1 (yet it still only requires 87 octane fuel). The V-6 also features fuel-saving Engine Stop-Start (ESS) technology, which shuts the engine down when the vehicle is braked to a stop and restarts the engine when the driver’s foot is removed from the brake pedal. The engine also sheds weight. Despite the addition of content weighing 13 pounds, the 3.6L engine has shed 4 pounds when…