Monday Oct 31st 2022 at 5PM

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CoolToys TV Host Scott Bourquin and Dominique Simon from Nantes et Vous TV talk about Jeeps. We thought the question would be “Sahara or Rubicon” but apparently Scott’s French is not that great so something different happened. There are subtitles available in French or English on the YouTube version of this video.

Music provided by Mar-Tune Music, All Rights Reserved.

English Text As Translated.

Scott

Hey, guys.
Welcome to CoolToys.

I’m here in the Jeep, heading over to do a Jeep vs. Jeep.

If you saw the Volt vs. Volt we did years ago at Vance, in the Volt generation one.

We’re gonna do Rubicon vs. Sahara today.

Very cool episode.

I’ve got producer Craig and intern Liam back here.

We’ve got Dominique Simon, a motorcycle racer, 24-hour of Le Mans winner,
and he’s got the jeep Rubicon he wants to talk about with us for his show in Nantes, France, Nantes&Vous.

He owns a shop in Nantes called Le Garage Musée and this will be transcribed, so that there’ll be subtitles in French and English, depending on where you watch it from, France or England or the US.

So welcome, everybody. We’re going to go check this out.

We’re heading to the marina, the exact same spot where we did Volt vs. Volt to talk about it.

And hopefully Dominique could be here soon.

He’s notoriously on French time.

He gets here when he gets here.

Well, it’ll give us time to set up the camera and get ready for him, but hopefully it all works out and we get to see a Rubicon.

We’ll talk about the differences.

This, of course, being the Sahara, the luxury model, which for long drives is nicer.

Both of the new ones, though, all the JLU’s, you get the acoustic windshield,

which quieted them down quite a bit over the J case, and a lot of cool stuff.

So we’ll look at the differences between the Rubicon and the Sahara, and then they’ll take all that back to France for Nantes&Vous, and then we’ll use it here on CoolToys, so you guys get to see it, too.

We’ll be there in just a moment.

Well, here we are at the marina pulling up.

And, of course, as expected, monsieur Dominique is a little tardy, but that’s okay.

We’ll wait here for a minute, see what he brings in this Rubicon.

Let’s go check it out, and see what he’s doing.

Hey, guys, here we are, Huntington harbor arena, waiting on the Jeep Rubicon that Dominique is bringing.

And we’ll talk a little bit about Jeeps.

Of course, the Sahara, our favorite toy.

And the thing that makes Jeeps a cool toy is the fact that it’s a toy.

You can break parts, you bang a fender, you go buy a new one. No big deal.

There’s no other car like it. And that’s what makes a Jeep fun, and that’s what makes it a cool toy.

And I’m just filling time because, you know, Dominique, the Frenchman, he’s late again.

Oh, there he is now.

So Dominique, right on cue… Late.

Hey Dominique!

How are you?

Dominique:
All good.

Sorry for the delay.

Scott:
You’re late as always. Nantes&Vous star, Dominique Simon.

Dominique:
Thank you Scott, and all the CoolToys team for hosting us, Nantes&Vous, here on a sunny day in California.
It’s my pleasure.
To see this amazing Jeep Rubicon.

Let’s go.

Scott:
Sahara

This is the luxury, the Rubicon is more off-road. and this is our Cool Toys Jeep.

So we play with it on the different episodes, and we have a lot of fun offroad with it.

And the Rubicon?

Dominique:

Jeep is now 81 years old, starting with the Willys,

Scott:
in France?

Dominique:
It was called Jeep back in 1955.

And now, when we see this vehicle with all the comfort it brings, it’s incredible.

We would’ve never thought that the Willys, after 81 years, would have electronic windows, air conditioners, GPS, and so on.

Scott:

Okay, I agree.
The Jeep is one of the most fun cars.

The maintenance is different.

Like we talked about earlier, we’ve talked about on every show, you break something, there’s parts everywhere.

You want new fenders, you bust this off, you just get new fenders.

Nobody cares. That’s what makes it a Jeep.

It’s a toy.

And you said you’re bringing a Rubicon. Where is it? Where’s the Rubicon?

Dominique:
It should be here.

Scott:
Ugh, French…This is what it’s like, Nantes&Vous TV: Everybody late.

Okay, so let’s take a look over here and see if we can figure out where this guy is coming from.

But while we do that and we’re waiting for the Frenchman to arrive, let’s talk about the Jeep.

Dominique:
Can you introduce this Jeep to us?

Scott:
Yes, so, a two-liter Sahara turbo.

So in the mountains, it keeps all the power.

So if you have the big hemi down here, it’s faster.

But in the mountains, there’s no air, so it can’t breathe, normally aspirated.

I like the Sting-gray, kind of the military look.

Dominique:
This has 4 cylinders, right?

Scott:
Yes
And that works better than the Hemi, on a V8.

Dominique:
Okay.

That’s what you told me.

This one is four.

Two liter, four cylinder motor.

So, it’s a 4-cylinder, 2-liter.

Scott:

Yes, Turbo.

Dominique
Turbo!

Scott
The V8 doesn’t have Turbo.

Dominique
But, it performs better in the mountains.

Scott
Correct

But, you also get, with the Sahara, more luxury suspension.

So it’s much softer for the road for driving,

the Rubicon is very stiff for going on rocks.

But this one is all Led lighting, newer.

So Led lighting, it has radar, cruise control.

You can just set the button and follow the car in front of you on the free way, totally automatic.

Dominique
Okay.

Do you know how much this car weighs?

Because the first Jeeps weighed 1.1 tons, up to 1.4 tons,

based on the setup, whether it was a 4-wheel drive or a 2-wheel drive.

Scott
This one is a 4-wheel drive.

Dominique
And the weight?

Scott
(confused) So he’s asking if it’s a 4-wheel drive.

So it can be two, or four.

Some new Jeeps can be All-wheel-drive, I’m not sure how you say it in French

This one is 4-wheel drive.

Dominique

So, 4.

So there’s a difference.

Scott
And the other fun thing with this one is the top.

This comes off in pieces.

So, like, this here just pops off. This is the convertible version.

And I think we can remove the back as well.

There you go.

The top comes off.

Everything about the Jeep is just fun.

Just put it away, no big deal,and everything goes.

So, there it is.

So put four clips, easy as a piece of cake,

put a surfboard rack on the roof, go anywhere or do anything.

That’s a Jeep.

So, a lot of fun with the four door,

a little longer than the two door, since this is maybe 15ft.

So, like three and a half meters, maybe. (bad public math)

And in the two door, you can see here, this piece for the four door, it’s gone.

So, it just connects here to here.

Dominique
The Coupé version is 4.33 meters long, and 4.8 meters for the extended, 4-door version, like this one.

And this one weighs around 2 tons.

It can be slightly less, with the motor configuration, but it can go up to 2.2 tons.

It’s a bit too far from the original 1.1-ton version.

Scott
There’s a lot of different things.

Also in the newer Jeeps, this one, there’s an option for all wheel drive,

this is four wheel drive, but there is an all wheel drive option.

Dominique:

And engines. There’s a lot of engines.

Scott:
This one is the two-liter. We’ll pop this real quick.

Two-liter turbocharged with two batteries.

And it has an auxiliary battery, so it stops at stop lights very much like Europeans.

We do that now here in the US.

So that’s something new to us. But you guys have been doing for years.

Dom:
200 HP?

Scott:
254 horsepower.

Plus or minus. There are some that are a little different.

And there’s also a plug in electric version that has a slightly different version with this motor.

Like all Jeeps, the trademark from the 1940s, from the earliest Willys on, is the seven bars.

These 7 bars have always been there, and they’re the DNA of this car.

Dom
Exactly.

Scott
The only vehicle that has the seven bars, is the Jeep, which is sort of the unique thing.

You can take the front off, you can put the…

Dom
The round headlights, and these 7 bars.

Scott
Yes.

So, still here we are, waiting on another late Frenchman.

There he is.

That’s not a Rubicon!?

No, that’s a beast!

So the only thing left Rubicon on this thing is a sticker right here.

But this is exactly what we talked about about Jeeps.

You bang a fender? Look at this, nice big steel fenders.

This one? Plastic.

This one is solid metal.

Dom
Let’s welcome Wulfran, who’s a friend who lives in the area as well.

We asked him to bring a Rubicon, but I thought the SWAT teams were coming our way.

Scott
This does look like a beasty police car out of a movie.

The thing is just totally reinforced.

I don’t know. How do you see out of the window?

Can you see when you’re driving it?

Because the window is all covered.

So, look at how small this hole is where he’s sitting.

There’s nothing.

I mean, he’s in this protected box.

And look at these tires, 40 inches.

What is it in centimeters?

Big!

I thought I had pretty decent sized tires with 32.5, and then 40 just…

Dominique
Can you share some details about the engine of this monster here?

So, this was made by some, an American artist.(Craftsman)

Scott
How was it to drive?

Wulfran
It’s good, it’s quite easy.

It’s true that’s it’s a bit of an overkill inside the city, but it’s really nice, just as nice as if you were in the desert.

The tires are a little too big, but it’s still great to drive.

Dom
Is everything here in the front made of steel?

Everything on this one is made of plastic and aluminum, and yours is all made of metal.

Wulfran
It’s a 4-millimiter thick mixture.

An American artist helped me with this, even the rims.

Dom
Are your tires custom made?

Yes, for sure.

Scott
When you drive it, can you hear the metal whistling?

Wulfran
Yeah, the big problem is the sound.

Sounds very loud, and the tires, too.

Yeah, very noisy.

Scott
And he said it was very easy to drive.

But you could hear the power steering working really hard to park right there in the spot.

So the 40s, there is a big issue when you go over 35, if you don’t put in reinforced bearings,

they’ll get the death wobble where the bearings start to go….

And that’s one of the problems in Jeeps.

And you can even see, look at this tire.

You can see the grooves in the tire are warping because the bearing is already getting a little weak.

And that’s the problem when you go that big.

Wulfran
It’s fun.

Especially when you’re driving very slow. It’s dancing.

It gets better at higher speeds.

At low speeds, it’s a bit destabilizing at the beginning, the car feels like it’s dancing a little bit.

But it’s a matter of adaptation, because we’re used to lower cars.

Dom
Do you know how much this car weighs?

Wulfran
In essence, they should weigh the same, but with the modifications made, it weighs a little more.

Dom
So, around 2 tons?

Wulfran
A little more, even. 2 to 2.2 tons, perhaps.

In terms of fuel consumption, the manufacturer claims it eats up 9 to 10 liters.

Well, I have to admit that this one consumes significantly more fuel, around 19 to 20 liters.

Especially on highways.

If you’re going less than 70, it’s fine, but over that, it consumes a lot.

It’s because it’s heavier.

The size of the tires plays a role in that as well.

In the end, this car is for fun, not everyday use.

Dom
Exactly.

Can you show us the interior?

Wulfran
Yeah, sure thing.

It’s the same engine, a 2-liter turbo,with 8 gears.

Dom
2-liter turbo,with 8 gears.

Wulfran
It has 270 to 280 horsepower.
It’s very well designed.

I think they made the Rubicon an everyday car as well.

It used to be less comfortable.

Wulfran
It has everything, even air conditioning, and the detachable roof, like the other one.

Scott
So the basics are the same.

The Rubicon and the Sahara, we’ve got the same freedom top.

The same similar style leather interior.

We both got the same two liter turbo motor, which in my opinion, is the best motor

because it doesn’t lose power at altitude.

When you go up into the mountains, it still just goes.

It also gets good gas mileage.

I don’t know. This one maybe not so good, but mine is 24, 26 miles per gallon.

Dom
Very nice.

Scott
And then you can see, again, rear fenders. Look at the metal on the back, there’s all kinds of great stuff this one has been hopped up, but the interior looks pretty stock.

It doesn’t look like anything in the inside has been changed.

So it’s very similar to the Sahara.

But you do have the extra metal down here, more metal up here, and then metal back here.

So you’ve got three different pieces of metal to bounce off the trees and the rocks,

when you’re out four wheeling in the mountains,

that the plastic would just rip right off.

Scott
But again, it’s a Jeep. Plastic rips off. Guess what?

I know where to buy these, makes it easy.

40 inch, but look at this, this is the other thing with these 40s.

Look at how big this thing is and how much weight it puts on that back door.

So you have to have special hinges just to make this tire work on here.

Because if not, when you open the door, do you hear that? The hinge is not even that strong.

This is too small, too big of a tire for that hinge.

You should see a much larger hinge on this one.

They didn’t do it, whoever modified this one. So there’s still a little bit of work to go.

But it’s a Jeep. You always play.

It’s just fun.

So that’s hopefully in Nantes, on Nantes&Vous TV, they can go play with a Jeep like this.

Dom
Yes.

So, this one has everything that was made in plastic replaced in metal.

We see reinforced suspensions, over-sized rims,

I don’t think it’s the rims though, the tires are the over-sized part.

It’s massive, but we still find all the comfort of the luxury version, in which Scott arrived.

All the pieces here were custom made by the garage, you can customize absolutely everything.

Wulfran
The differences are the added fuel consumption, the extra weight, and it’s a more fun car.

The weight is there, but it still drops jaws, it’s amazing.

Scott
So shall we go for a drive?

Dom
Yes.

Let’s give this a try.

We’ll try the Rubicon version, and the heavier version, with its incredible look.

So we’re going to look at the two different versions.

I think the nice luxury one is going to be the easier one to drive, for sure.

Scott
But this one is going to get a lot more looks going down the road.

Everybody’s going to look at this beast.

So this really is a fun, fun toy, but let’s take it for a ride.

Let’s put a camera in each of them and run around the block and take a look.

Dom
Let’s roll!

Scott
Yup. Alright, let’s go.

Dom
We’re now on a test drive.

We’re in an everyday car, we can roll with this every day.

It was harder to say that about a Jeep before, but it’s now more comfortable.

You have a GPS, the electronic windows, the anti-collision systems… This car has everything.

Navigation as well.

It also has a board computer.

Dom
Yes.

It’s amazing, this car has everything.

So, the Sahara is very much luxury.

So we have media for CarPlay, for Apple and Google, Android phone.

Every luxury item you could ask for in any big luxury vehicle is in this Jeep.

Scott
That’s the Sahara.

So the funny thing is, the Rubicon has most of the same things.

The good cruise control, the navigation, all options are available.

So when you get the higher end Jeeps, now, they’re very luxury,

and I talked about this on some old CoolToys, that it’s almost too nice to be a Jeep.

Dom
You feel almost bad to go off roading in the mountains,

but then you go look at the fenders and you break it, you just put a new one.

Scott
So it’s fun.

Dom
We can also remove this, as we did a little earlier.

We can remove the back as well.

We keep the frame for security reasons, lest we roll over or anything.

It has stereo, with 12 speakers.

Dom
And I also love this little tribute to the Willys, on the glove box and on every rim,

we have a little reminder of the Jeep Willys, and it’s such an amazing tribute to the people who built this car, it’s very heartwarming.

There’s everything you want in a luxury car, in a Jeep.

So it’s kind of the everything vehicle.

We can literally go anywhere, and we’re sitting very comfortably.

It really feels like a limousine, with which you can go to pick your groceries with, or just go anywhere.

So, Jeep evolved in such a way that, we think of Jeeps as these old bouncy military vehicles,
with uncomfortable vinyl seats and all this.

Scott:
Yeah, we put the diver down neoprene in here, which is for the leather, when you go surfing, it’s a little nicer because you don’t get the salt water in the leather.
It lasts a little longer. It’s just one of the options we put in.

But everything else in here, dash’s leather, the screens, it all says luxury vehicle.

But I have taken this jeep on Rubicon trail. I’ve taken it to Moab trail.

I’ve taken it to Four Wheeling in Zion National Forest.

And it is an absolutely, completely ready offroad vehicle for four wheeling anywhere in the mountains.

Dom
Beautiful vehicle.

Scott
So now we should go drive the other one, The Beast.

Dom
And the beast.

We can pick our families up, and head to Texas, no worries.

It’s really nice to drive this vehicle, I feel very comfortable.

It’s really easy to handle and steer.

I think even a new driver can roll with this easily, especially with the power steering, it’s really a comfortable car.

Scott:
So now, once we drive by and I look at The Beast with those 40 inch tires, and I just think of the Death Wobble, which is a known thing with Jeeps.

The bearings are designed really for up to about a 33 or 34 inch tire that comes stock on the Rubicon.

When you go up to those 40s, it’s a lot of weight that you’re moving around.

And when you have a 17 inch rim versus an 18, that’s on this one, you also add a lot of rubber.

And that rubber flexes and moves where the rim is a little bit more solid.

So it’s a little bit less bouncy onto the bearings.

So you’re not putting, you know, the stresses are different kinds of stress.

But the 32 inch, 33 inch tires are more than enough and have taken this thing everywhere offroad

in the snow and the whole nine yards.

But admittedly, like we talked about already, everybody’s going to look at The Beast.

That thing is just cool looking to see, it attracts the eye.

Dom
We’re now going to try the Rubicon.

We’ll see its extreme version.

With this jaw dropping look.

Scott will drive it now, and we’ll see how it feels.

Scott
Let’s go.

Holy cow this thing is tall.

Dom
It’s so fresh.

Scott
So we got in the beast, and, yeah, it’s very different.

This is an Electronic differential. So, these things can disconnect.

So this allows the front to lock or to go like this.

The front wheels, for rock crawl.

Dom
It locks the differential, and deactivates the sway bars in front.

Scott
So that is another difference in the Rubicon we didn’t talk about on the outside,

is the fact that this has a way to lock the differentials and to release the sway bars.

So if you’re going to go rock crawling, you don’t rip parts apart.

If I really did some deep, deep rock crawling in the Sahara, I might do some damage, but otherwise very similar.

Dom
This one just says, Wrangler, it doesn’t have the bar

Scott
Yes.

So when you’re with your wife…

So Dominique’s wife has a desert racer that he’s afraid of.

You won’t admit it, but he’s scared.

Anyway, you can feel, well, you’ll even see the camera shake because the tires just…

Dom
We can already feel the tires shaking more.

So, as Scott explained it earlier, we can block the differentials, in the front, and in the back.

And we can also deactivate the sway bar to get out of certain situations.

My first impression is that we feel the traction of the tires.

It’s impressive.

So when you get that kind of traction, though, and you do it differently if you’re on flat surface like this, because the tires have to go the same speed,

the whole thing will just hop and jump.

Scott
And right now, in fact, the computer and this one is telling us that the front tire,

remember, we looked at the cupping, it’s saying the front tire is out.

So the computer even knows that the differential is not lined up correctly,

that you don’t see in the old Jeeps, in the very classic ones.

This one has all the computers, and it’s telling me that you have a problem with the front.

So it’s pretty impressive.

When you really look at this thing for a Jeep, all the stuff it does is just amazing.

But, you can feel the shifting difference.

So the computer is not quite adjusted for these tires yet because of the way it’s shifting.

And sitting up this high, though, is kind of cool.

It’s really nice to be that high, because look at the view we have.

We have this bulletproof shield around the window.

Dom
We feel so high inside this car, it’s as if we’re on a ship.

Scott
Yes, but we have this.

Dom
But, the idea of having all these modifications is impressive. We feel very elevated right now.

Yeah, it’s a very different experience driving the luxury Sahara versus the Beast.

Just even putting around here at 10, 15, 20 miles an hour, it’s a very different experience, clearly.

We’ll get it up to speed here and see how bad it shakes and how much noise it makes.

The friend from the other garage (Wulfran)said that the whistling is very noisy in the tires.

But you know, that’s one of the trade offs that you make with a Jeep like this.

When you want to get the looks, when you want everybody to see you in the Jeep,

you have to have some things you give up.

In fact, this one is just as comfortable as the other one. You have the GPS, and there’s also a chip.
I saw that it was an option. You can light the car in whatever color you like.

There’s this little reminder of the original Willys here, we’ll show it to you in a bit.

We see on the rims of the other model, and it’s their tribute to the original Willys.

It represents the origins and the DNA of that car.

Scott
Yeah, and it’s nice that they pay respect to the original CJ and the original Willys,

because really this started as a Willys that the US government made to a general purpose, so the name Jeep, GP is what it originally was.

And the fact that they put the original Willys style, the early, early Jeep logo all over, it’s a very nice, respectful move to the old days and to keep that connection to the history of the Jeep because it’s one of the longest running vehicle lines in history.

Dom
So the same Jeep basic seven bar grill, they have two doors still, but now we have the four door, the unlimited.

So, these are both unlimited.

But the two door, the Coupé, you call, they’re still very much the same style since 1940.

And that’s an amazing… There’s no other car that looks the same in 1940 that you say, Ah! A Jeep!, in 2022.

So, 50 years later you say a Jeep, a Jeep.

Scott
A Mustang today doesn’t look like a Mustang from 1965.

Like the Mustang in your shop that we looked at, or the Corvette in your shop.

The new Corvette doesn’t look like a Corvette. It’s all very different.

But a Jeep is a Jeep.

Dom
A Jeep is a Jeep.

It’s now been 81 years since the first Willys that we were fortunate to test out in the second season of Nantes&Vous TV, we had the opportunity try the Jeep Willys.

And we now find ourselves testing this amazing Rubicon, totally modified.

And with all this comfort, we wouldn’t think this car went through all that it did.

81 years separate these two editions.

There’s just so much that connects it all that we can’t do any other way.

But, it’s been a lot of fun.

Scott
Yes!

Nantes&Vous TV, and CoolToys.

Thank you CoolToys.

Scott
Thank you Nantes&Vous TV

Dom
Great!

Scott
Well, there we go. We had a great time.

The team from Nantes&Vous TV is on their way back to France.

We looked at Jeeps. Once again, COOLTOYS®.

I mean, come on. What vehicle comes with a toolkit to take the doors off?

That’s just great.

And the fact that you can do all the stuff that they did to make that thing into the beast that it was, that’s even better.

So, super cool toy. A lot of fun.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a mall crawler or a rock crawler.

Jeeps are just cool toys.

So I hope you had a great time watching this episode.

If you did, please subscribe here, at YouTube

or, both, go to COOLTOYS.TV, grab a T-shirt like this, grab some swag, show it off,

and hopefully we’ll see you next time when we go pick up the Erspalmer surfboard.

Thanks for watching.


Sahara or Rubicon – Text and Video Copyright CoolToys® TV 2022.

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