Gear Patrol

If you’re looking for quite possibly the most stylish cute/brute-ute on the planet, you won’t have to look much further than the 2012 Land Rover Range Rover Evoque. Not so loosely based on 2008′s LRX Concept, the Evoque is meant to turn heads, empty wallets and generally be driven by urban dwellers who have no…

Niche British car maker Bowler has been making road rally vehicles that can take serious punishment since 1989. Now they’ve gone all pedestrian on us by making a street-legal passenger vehicle. With the assistance of Land Rover in the creation of its powertrain, the all new Bowler EXR S ($242,000) delivers some serious automotive firepower…

Here at GP, we’re all about refinement and sophistication. But sometimes you just want the kind of visceral brashness that creates shock and awe. This is where a vehicle like the VWerks Red Jacket Jeep ($115,000) fits in nicely. VWerks is a custom builder in Michigan that’s in the business of building specialty vehicles and…

Topless cruising in a Jeep Wrangler is a rite of passage for off road enthusiasts, serving as the perfect combination of man, machine and Mother Nature. Getting caught out in the bush when the she changes her mind and things get wet just plain sucks, drain plugs or not. Rugged Ridge and its Georgia based…

American Expedition Vehicles has teased more information and photos of their highly anticipated AEV Brute Double Cab — which will officially launch at SEMA. The ruggedized monster appears to be a double helping of the original Brute launched back in 2002 and is based off the new JK wrangler frame. Inspired by the coveted Land…

With the blessing and assistance from Ford MoCo in the way of CAD files, archivals and tech support, ICON began the project to bring this stunning ICON 1968 Ford Bronco to life. It began with five extremely hard to come by uncut-fender late 1960′s Ford Broncos. ICON then garnered both emotional and financial support from…

The current Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8 is undoubtedly a rubber roaster. Heck, it’ll even cook unwitting sports cars just for fun. The Hennessey version is even more ferocious. Well, Bulgarian tuner Vilner decided to dial up the heat even more with the 2011 Vilner Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT600. Still utilizing Hennessey’s Vortech turbo powered 5.7…

Armageddon is just around the corner. Okay, maybe not. But just in case, there are some niche vehicles out there that are up to the task (you know, traversing washed out roads, bludgeoning snowbanks and mowing down zombies). American Expedition Vehicles knows. They just built one such vehicle by outfitting a standard Jeep Rubicon 4×4…

Looking like the illegitimate child of a flattened Humvee and an angry warthog, the Shadow Hawk Steel Hawk might also fit in nicely as the Tumbler’s stand-in during Gotham chase scenes. The Steel Hawk is powered by a 6.6 liter V8 engine with turbocharging that provides a healthy 360 horsepower and a meaty 650 pound…

The reimagined stock Toyota FJ can’t exactly hold a candle to the rough and rugged original that is still an icon in the SUV world and practically invented the term in the first place. That’s all changed with the XPLORE Adventure Series FJ Cruiser, a seriously beefed up version that essentially makes the FJ ready…

The Merecedes Benz G-Wagon LAPV 6.X and the Icon CJ3B definitely have off-roading capabilities in spades, but they certainly don’t have a Loftop with 9 feet of interior stand up height, a queen-size bed, a 25 gallon fresh water capacity, a toilet, shower, sink, cooking facilities, and a solar-powered fridge. In case you were wondering…

After Land Rover updated the Range Rover Sport , the car specialists at Project Kahn decided to follow suit with their lava-inspired Vesuvius edition. The new iteration features an orange and black aero package that’s matched by the SUV’s custom quilted and perforated leather interior, proving that Kahn Designs clearly had Gear Patrol in mind…

The 2010 BMW X3 is about to pass the baton to the long-awaited X3 redesign for the 2011 model year. The first-generation X3 spearheaded the way for the near-luxury mid-sized SUV category in 2004 and spawned a wave of similar vehicles, like the Acura RDX and the Audi Q5. The X3 is labeled an “SAV”…

Though we have a glaring weakness for classic 4×4′s, in general we tend to be against the gas guzzling SUV. It’s not that we don’t like the extra cargo room, passenger seats, and “off-road” capabilities. We just have a hard time rationalizing those likes with our increasingly balmy planet not to mention our wallets. The…

If you happened to be a loyal Gear Patrol fan browsing last week in between feasting, you might have a seen a brief video of yours truly and our resident car reviewer Bradley Hasemeyer experiencing the non-casino side of Vegas. Well besides using our time to toy with death, we also had some extended sessions…

With most of the items that we review here at Gear Patrol, we strive to curate and highlight gear that’s attainable for most guys. Yes, some of it will still be ridiculous and unaffordable, but we are trying to focus on the staples. In a continued effort to attack products with our signature G.E.A.R. treatment…

Ahead of the 2009 New York Auto Show, Gear Patrol got an advance look at a few rides we think you might find pretty interesting. One of those is the 2010 GMC Terrain, for which we attended the press unveiling (our photos to come). Before you shrug off the new GMC Terrain as just another…

People who buy Mercedes Geländewagens are often (for the worse) categorized as soccer moms or as guys who don’t care about money. There are a select few, though, that buy them for the reasons G-Wagens were originally conceived: quality off-road vehicles intended for the military (see: Land Rover Defender). The profile of the G-Wagen is…

By Jay Shoemaker | The Truth About Cars They say the longer the job title, the smaller the job. In the automotive world, the longer the model name, the more hype, money and technology involved. For those of you new to this game, the BMW X5 xDrive 35d is BMW’s biggest SUV with all wheel-drive…

An SUV Worth Its Salt Lets turn back a little over one decade ago to 1997. A year when men were mired in news about Princess Diana’s passing, cloned sheep, and photos beamed from Mars. Oh, and Land Rover would be forced to stop selling the Land Rover Defender due to airbag regulations. Most of…

Sorry, You Can’t Get One Jeep J8 Heavy Duty. Grrrrr…. The Jeep J8 Heavy Duty. Further evidence that great vehicles don’t always make it to the United States. A diesel powered Jeep makes sense. Not just because diesel vehicles are fantastic and efficient, but the notion that a heavy-duty Jeep would answer the calls and…

19 Years Old, 64,000 Miles, And Pretty Damn Perfect I’d trade in a Land Rover for a Jeep Wagoneer anyday. If you haven’t gathered, the GP team works hard to bring unique products you don’t see rehashed across every website or blog from here to the end of the web. From time to time, we…

Someone’s Finally Getting The Crossover Right This ain’t no Coupe De’Ville   [click on image to enlarge] When it comes to Cadillac’s Science & Technology design scheme it’s either love it or hate it. But the men in Detroit are definitely finding a rhythm, what with the 2009 Cadillac CTS-V and Cadillac CTS Coupe Concept. For…

[click on image to enlarge] When you think of a “hybrid” do you immediately think of an exorbitantly priced underpowered vehicle with questionable styling? Do you also think that with today’s gas prices and fuel uncertainty a hybrid vehicle is becoming an ever more viable option? Now, when you think of a Chevy Tahoe do…

When a sports oriented vehicle company like BMW decides to make a crossover one wonders where it’s intentions will lie more heavily with. Then one wonders exactly how that vehicle is going to look, especially when the claim is to be a coupe-crossover, an even trickier mixture. BMW’s new X6 is touted as a Sport…

Evidently the Germans at Porsche HQ have been reading Gear Patrol because they’ve created what appears to be our new spokesvehicle. The Cayenne S Transsyberia. Taking an otherwise staid vehicle and turning it into something I doubt anyone would have imagined coming from the Deutschland factories. Equipped with a 385 horsepower V-8, permanent all wheel…

For the first time, Acura has caught our discerning eye on their SUV line-up. With the release of the RDX the compact SUV has placed their sights directly on the BMW X3. The RDX features an all new 2.3-liter turbo four-cylinder engine with i-VTEC, making an impressive 240 hp and 260 pound-feet of torque. Acura…

A luxury SUV wrapped around a tough-as-nails truck frame. That’s the Tahoe in a nutshell. Best served black. The 2007 Tahoe brings on a new look that we hear at Gear Patrol can’t get enough of. It’s 320 horsepower V-8 will never fall short for hauling you and your four compadres to the links, lake,…

The all new 2008 Land Rover LR2 is a 4-door, 5-passenger luxury sport-utility, available in one trim only, the i6. It’s a great one, even if pricey. 3.2-liter, inline 6 cylinder 230-horsepower engine 18-mpg and an oddly disproportionate 33-mpg on the highway 6-speed automatic transmission with overdrive Available in Tambora Flame (the color shown) What…