Thursday, March 10, 2016

Face Forward: Jeep FC150 Concept Is a Blend of Old and Older

FC150

Out of respect for its sheer awesomeness, we are just going to lay down some facts and get out of the way: The Jeep FC150 is a genuine 1960 FC150 steel body dropped atop a 2005 Jeep Wrangler chassis. Cool, right? Well, here is something else cool: It’s powered by Jeep’s venerable 4.0-liter six (Jeep likes to call it PowerTech I-6), the final version of the hardworking inline six-cylinder that has roots stretching back to the early 1960s; a three-speed automatic transmission keeps things appropriately simple in the power-delivery department.

Now that you’ve had a moment to wrap your head around the genius of the FC150 concept, we’ll share a few more details. The 2005 Wrangler TJ chassis was modified to fit a Dana 44 front axle, and a Dana 60 rides out back. 33-inch BFGoodrich Mud-Terrain T/A KM2 tires are mounted to 17-inch white steelies. Inside, the FC150 features vinyl seat covers, a custom headliner wrapped in a vintage duck-hunting pattern, an analog compass, Mopar all-weather mats, and, arguably our favorite interior bit, a CB radio.

Originally designed as a clever packaging solution to provide a short, maneuverable vehicle for use in harsh environments and rough terrain, the Brooks Stevens–designed, CJ-5–based FC remained in production from 1956 to 1965. But this isn’t the first time the intrepid Jeep designers have taken a stab at resurrecting the Forward Control concept. For the 2012 Easter Jeep Safari they created the Jeep Mighty FC, a much larger interpretation that used custom sheetmetal and rode on a stretched current-generation Wrangler (JK) chassis.





Cool as it is, we have one question we hope Jeep can answer for us when we connect with them at the Easter Jeep Safari: Where the hell did they find the donor FC150, and more importantly, do they have any more?


from Car and Driver Blog http://blog.caranddriver.com/face-forward-jeep-fc150-concept-is-a-blend-of-old-and-older/


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