Jeep J
I
f you had to put the 2019 Jeep concepts into catego-
ries, from mild to less mild to wild, Jeep might suggest
that you put the J6 behind door No. 3. When they were
doing sketch proportions, the box got scaled to 6 feet
long; the name J6 comes from having the 6-foot box
they ended up designing—which is 12 inches longer
than the Gladiator’s. The J6 began as a JL Unlimited,
so it’s a two-door Wrangler and not a two-door Gladiator.
It’s 201 inches long, with a wheelbase of 118.4, which
is the same wheelbase as the Wrangler four-door. Got
all that? It was a pretty straightforward build, although
they did have to move the fuel door forward and balance
it symmetrically. The J6 has a 2-inch lift and 37s, and
that’s a 2^1 ⁄ 4 -inch steel prototype rollbar in the bed with
5-inch JPP lights. While we’re on the subject of spying
prototype parts, that’s also the case with the tire carrier,
brushguard, 2-inch steel stinger bar on the Rubicon
front bumper, rock rails with 2-inch steel tubes, and
removable hardtop.
Our Opinions
Ken Brubaker, Editor, Four Wheeler:
The aesthetics of the J6 appealed to
me. This regular-cab truck with its
12-inch-longer-than-Gladiator bed
has a nice visual balance. This is a
truck I’d like for a daily driver. I tow
trailers often, so I appreciate that it
has a built-in trailer brake controller,
too. I’ll take mine in the Gobi paint
color and with the Rubicon package.
Sean Holman, Group Content Director,
MotorTrend: Shut up and take my
money! Everything I wanted in the JT
in living metal. I don’t care that it is
built on a JL platform. I don’t care that
it is less practical than the four-door.
Backstory Bits
->“One really cool feature is we
brought back the Brilliant Blue
Metallic paint from 1978—inspired
by Honcho. We bought the color
chip off the Internet and went
through our archives and found
documents of the paint chips within
our office, and then went to our build
shop and asked them to match that
paint. We put more metalflake into it
and we hotted-up the color. We were
sensitive to using that name from
the past.”
->“The two-door longbox proportion
that was kind of iconic back in the
day and the blend of a modern Jeep
and a historic Jeep I think is the
perfect combination.”
->“In the rear is a concept body-
color-matched spray-in bedliner.
We’re testing the waters on people’s
reaction to how that looks and how
that performs.”
—Nicho Vardis, Mopar Design Manager,
Product Design, FCA North AmericaI don’t care that the front seats have
almost no recline. The J6 exhibits
perfect proportions, and I’d be in line
to buy one if it was actually something
that could be bought today. It’s the
perfect adventure vehicle for my dad
and me to go exploring in. Sadly,
there are no plans to build it, but Jeep
could change its mind with enough
positive response.
Rick Péwé, Editor, Jp Magazine: The J
epitomizes what a sport truck should
be—sexy and good-looking in a truly
proportional way. This pickup with a
production look is a clever blend of
stock—not parts and pieces stemmingfrom the Mopar and Jeep parts bin.
While still using a Wrangler JKU
frame, this little devil would be the
hottest seller if brought to market.
Harry Wagner, Contributor, Four
Wheeler: I love that Mopar built the
truck that the Internet said they
wanted; it is like the ultimate troll-
ing. I dig the short wheelbase and
maneuverability of the regular cab,
and it actually had a surprising
amount of space behind the seats.
I doubt Jeep would sell as many
of these trucks to the public as a
crew cab, but I could see it being a
popular fleet vehicle.20 SEPTEMBER 2019 FOUR WHEELER fourwheeler.com
Feature 2019 Jeep Concepts