Features
Mojave dunes await Jeep s newest Gladiator
Hardcore off-road race machines that are built to tackle the Mojave and Baja dunes can cost anywhere from $500,000 to $1 million to build. But Jeep, with an eye on a growing market, now builds a desert racer for $50,000 or so.
Jul. 10 2021 @ 7:53pm
The 2021 Jeep Gladiator Mojave. (Jeep/FCA US LLC/TNS)
Hardcore off-road race machines that are built to tackle the Mojave and Baja dunes can cost anywhere from $500,000 to $1 million to build. But Jeep, with an eye on a growing market, now builds a desert racer for $50,000 or so.
Not that it s in the same league as the 4x4 truck that Larry Roeseler, aka Mr. Baja, took top honors with in this year s grueling Baja 500. But the Jeep Gladiator Mojave, the first to wear Jeep s new Desert Rated badge, is specifically engineered to withstand the intense heat, sand and dust of high-speed desert racing.
In a year when some automakers see little reason to even offer sedans, or offer a handful of aging perfunctory models at best, Volkswagen has given its premium sedan, the