Courtesy of The Drive: Taking a Winter Dip With the 2018 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon
Like a lot of northerners this time of year, I’ve been praying that winter has petered out, and that New York’s sidewalks—disgusting enough at any time—have seen their last snowfall of the season. And then the 2018 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon showed up at my door, like a brat in a bright-red snowsuit, begging me to come outside and play.
I obliged with a day of off-roading at New York’s Monticello Motor Club, whose roughly 350 acres of trails were snowbound from a recent nor’easter—including several storm-felled trees that blocked access to some trails. Conditions were frankly not ideal, even for this Rubicon, the most hardcore trail boss in the all-new Wrangler—internally named “JL”—lineup. Yet the Jeep (and its drivers) had a ball anyway, drawing a hoon’s version of snow angels—maybe snow A-holes?— in the deep drifts. [Let’s never call them that again. —Ed.] Chris Duplessis, Monticello’s track director and our favorite rally champ, naturally coaxed some picturesque, snowy roostertails out of the Jeep. Yet low-speed obstacle crawling is the Jeep’s true calling, and this Wrangler is even better for those impromptu commando missions.