The Jeep Wrangler Rubicon 392 is a home-run-slam-dunk-touchdown-kinda-car – but you’ll need deep pockets

HERE’S a car that reaches parts others cannot reach.

Like Horseshoe Bend on the east rim of the Grand Canyon, see lower down the page.

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Jeep’s all-American Wrangler is a V8 sports car is a family cruiser is a convertible is a tow truck.

But, more than anything else, it’s a hard-as-nails 4×4 that sticks a middle finger at “road ends here” signs.

Just drop a pin on the satnav and go.

Remember, Jeep started in the 1940s with a crude general purpose military vehicle known as the GP – hence a jeep.

Land Rover followed.

Fast forward to today and this Jeep Wrangler Rubicon 392 is simply the G.O.A.T.

If you can’t outrun it, run over it.

By the way, that picture of the Jeep key dangling over the edge of Horseshoe Bend in Arizona isn’t fake.

I took it with my iPhone.

I gripped that key tighter than a newborn baby.

It was worth risking the embarrassment of an SOS to Jeep and a long walk back to civilisation in the scorching heat.

Right, Wrangler 392.

Under the hood is a 6.4-litre HEMI V8 producing 470hp.

Noisy, then? Yes, very. Just as you’d hoped it would be.

Pass a cemetery at full throttle and heads push up from the graves to see what’s going on.

It’ll box off 0-60mph in four seconds flat, that’s Porsche 911-fast, but this thing rolls on meaty 35in all-terrain tyres. The downside is 12mpg.

When you do want to go off-grid, Wrangler is full-time 4WD with low range, front and rear locking differentials, sway bar disconnect button, high-performance Off-Road Plus mode, skid plates and more. No excuses.

But should the worst happen and you do come a cropper, there’s a front winch to drag yourself out.

As well as an air compressor, tool kit and, er, fold-out picnic table.

Most of the time, though, you’ll be on normal roads drawing admiring glances absolutely everywhere you go.

The cabin is like a padded cell with big squishy wipe-clean seats.

The dash is crowned by a slick 12in touchscreen that talks to your phone.

There are nets and pockets for all the usual family debris.

We clocked up 1,000 miles in a week in this motor and it didn’t miss a beat.

It really is a home-run-slam-dunk-touchdown-kinda-car.

Sadly, you can’t buy a Wrangler V8 this side of the pond, but the 2-litre 272hp Wrangler Rubicon costs £63k and is every bit as cool.

• OK, I’ll admit it. You can reach Horseshoe Bend in any motor. There’s a car park half a mile away and you can walk to it. But the picture is real – and so was the fear.

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