August 6-8, 11th Annual 4x4 Blast, hosted by Two Rivers Jeep Club, Pittsfield, Illinois, trjc.com
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What We're Talking About Around the Office* The edit staff is made up of two early birds and one night owl.* Among the dreaded home projects: for one person, it's building a 12x8-foot shelf above garage door in 12-foot ceiling-ed garage. For another it's a new kitchen and flooring.* Deepest thought of the month: "Trying to sell a Jeep in this market is rough. It isn't modify or not ... it's sell it or just keep the thing cause I can't get what I want for it."* Shallowest thought of the month: "Heidi Montag wants to date me."
Not Jeep's Electric Jeep
Last issue we introduced Jeep's electric concept Wrangler. But while Chrysler is determining which end is up, there's a top-secret electric project building steam: Project Green Leaf. Land in Century, Florida, is being eyeballed as a potential location for a future plant that would build electric vehicles, and that vehicle's parts are rumored to be coming from a plant in France. According to northescambia.com, the Century plant would produce a vehicle that looks like a Willys Jeep, would hold a charge for about 60 miles, and would have pricing guesstimated at $20,000. The electric Jeep-like vehicle in France? We're guessing it's the Scarlette 4x4 from Tender. Its two-seater models feature 12 batteries located underneath the seats, and come in long and short wheelbases.
Reader's Ride: NASA Style
Jeeps come a tiny bit close to seeming a lotta bit lame when compared to what NASA calls off-road vehicles. This time, it's the newest lunar rover prototype. NASA engineers, astronauts, and geologists spent some time in the Arizona desert (often confused for Mars) doing field testing in two configurations. One allowed the crew to get on and off the SPR whenever they wanted to with spacesuits on, while the other configuration-referred to as Small Pressurized Rover, or SPR-added a module atop the rover's chassis that would allow the crew to sit inside and drive, sporting the spacesuit as needed for outside exploration. The testing was used to determine how the configurations performed on day trips and how comfortable the vehicle would be for longer durations.