SEMA is back this year, and as is tradition, the American Stellantis brands Jeep, Ram, Dodge and Mopar are bringing some truly amazing concepts to the show. The brands have come up with seven vehicles, four from Jeep, two from Ram and one from Dodge. Some of them show off the current Mopar catalog and possible future parts, while others are just really cool customs. Let’s check them out.
Jeep Wrangler Overlook
We’re starting off with perhaps the most interesting of the concepts on display, the Jeep Wrangler Overlook. And you’ll notice right off the bat that it’s longer than your average Wrangler Unlimited. It’s actually a full foot longer. And it doesn’t just add cargo space, it adds passenger space. There’s a third row of seats in the Overlook. Those seats also necessitated the safari-style custom rear roof. It’s 5 inches taller than a regular Wrangler roof to provide headroom for rear occupants. It also made room for the extra windows. Front passengers also get a fancy single-piece roof section with a pop-up glass section, and the interior features black leather and bronze accents.
Other body changes include a custom hood, a narrower front bumper for improved approach angle and a widened rear bumper to protect the longer tail. It also gets custom front bumper lights, Jeep Performance Parts (JPP) A-pillar lights and tubular side steps. The Overlook also rides on the Jeep Performance Parts (JPP) 2-inch lift kit with Fox shocks and 20-inch wheels with 37-inch tires.
We wouldn’t have thought a three-row Wrangler would be something that would reach production, and it’s still unlikely. But, this looks really good. And when Land Rover already offers a third row in the Defender, and is working on a stretched version, we’re starting to wonder if Jeep should think about an even more stretched Wrangler.
Kaiser Jeep M725
Next up is this year’s resto-mod from the Stellantis crew. They found an old Kaiser Jeep M725 military ambulance and did a few things to make it a more modern, go-anywhere super tailgater. Under the hood is a 485-horsepower 6.4-liter V8 paired to an old-school TorqueFlight 727 automatic transmission, shifted by a B&M shifter housed in a repurposed ammunition box. It’s still four-wheel drive and has the old axles, but they’re attached via a coil-spring suspension instead of the original leaf packs. The whole thing sits on 20-inch wheels wrapped in 40-inch tires, which only fit after the fenders were opened up.
Other upgrades include LED lighting all around, a reinforced frame and a reverse camera. The rear cargo area has also turned into a sort of drinks-serving station with a flip-out side panel and a pop-up roof. The interior counter features a couple taps for serving your foamy beverage of choice, and the Jeep grille motif on the side is made up of bottles. The cab is still pretty bare and painted in the same tan as the outside, but it features a custom steering wheel, data panel, gauges and Wrangler seats covered in tan canvas upholstery.
Jeep Grand Cherokee L Breckenridge
Not all Jeeps are trail-bound, and the Grand Cherokee L Breckenridge is a cool showpiece for a luxurious and street-oriented Jeep. It has a custom two-tone paint scheme with a matte-metallic blue-gray lower section and gloss black roof. The badges and grille are painted bronze. The roof is matched with a black cargo box. The wheels are 21-inch units availble through Mopar.
The real highlight is the interior. The seats are wrapped in “Atmospheric Blue Palermo” leather. Further reflecting the exterior are gloss black door panel tops and bronze accents. It also has real walnut wood trim. Jeep even added some leather throw pillows and some custom luggage to go in the cargo box.
Jeep Wrangler 4xe
Rounding out the group of Jeeps is a Wrangler 4xe packed full of JPP and Mopar parts. It’s lifted on the new 4xe-specific JPP 2-inch lift with Fox shocks. The Gorilla Glass windshield has been fitted along with a bunch of other official JPP parts such as the steel bumper, winch, LED off-road lights, tube doors, rock rails, rear flip-down table, tailgate hinge reinforcement and third-brake light relocation kit. That suspension lift and tailgate reinforcement is needed for the beadlock wheels and 37-inch tires.
There are a few custom parts that could preview future JPP offerings. Those include the vinyl floor pieces and a rack on the dashboard for mounting things like your phone, a camera or other devices. It’s rather reminiscent of a similar feature on the Ford Bronco. Other custom touches include the paint scheme, rear cargo area and tailgate-mounted air compressor.
Dodge Challenger Holy Guacamole
The Holy Guacamole Dodge Challenger shows that some minor changes can go a long way in making a unique car. It’s painted in a matte green dubbed “Rotten Avocado” and paired with ghost stripes and a pale gold (“Gold School”) shaker scoop. It sits on Mopar coilover suspension and some vintage-style 20-inch wheels with white letter tires
The real highlight is the interior. Continuing with the retro theme are some amazing green and yellow plaid inserts. And the wood trim harks back to the vinyl wood accents of old-school Mopar muscle cars.
Ram 1500 Outdoorsman
Surprisingly, the more interesting of the Rams headed to SEMA isn’t the TRX. Instead, we’re quite intrigued by the Ram 1500 Outdoorsman that Mopar put together. The reason is all its custom concept parts that we could see being some really interesting future accessories. Some of them seem inspired by the latest Ford F-150 such as the work top on the tailgate that has unit conversions and can accept clamps for bits of wood or other objects. Inside, there’s a work space that fits to the fold-down seat back on the bench seat. Something more original is the built-in vacuum cleaner called RamVac hidden under the rear seat. The rear bed rack is another concept part with two height positions to accommodate either really long things, or to hide shorter things behind the cab for aerodynamics.
The whole truck is lifted on the currently available Mopar 2-inch lift kit and sits on 20-inch wheels with 35-inch tires. It also has tube steps. The bed gets some Expertec sliding bed panels, and the whole truck has a custom paint and graphics package.
Ram 1500 TRX RexRunner
Finally, we come to the Ram TRX RexRunner. This is the truck that we thought might be a hybrid TRX, but it’s just a TRX with blue badges and tow hooks. Well, it’s a little more than that. The unique parts of this truck include the paint and graphics, huge 14-inch LED lights on the sport bar, and seriously beefy skid plates front and rear. It also sits on 18-inch wheels with 37-inch tires.
Most of the rest of the truck features readily available Mopar accessories. These include the the aforementioned sport bar, bed-mounted spare tire carrier, rock rails, exhaust tips and bed extender. The interior gets the easy-to-clean single-piece Tradesman door panels and vinyl floor.
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