JL Wrangler body in white shell shows fender lights + vents, hood latches + design, roll cage frame

[Billy]

I'm pretty sure that thing sticking out of the top is the taped up grille from photo #8.

Yup, now that you mention it.

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[kacper244]

Is that a new trail rated emblem?

 

[The Great Grape Ape]

I'm pretty sure that thing sticking out of the top is the taped up grille from photo #8.

Yep, was going to mention that, but it's still interesting that the grill seems far bulkier and wraps around at the edges vs the current relatively flat piece of light plastic on the JK.

The fender side vent holes seem rather small compared to what I expected, but hopefully that's enough to reduce resistance significantly.

 

[Billy]

The fender side vent holes seem rather small compared to what I expected, but hopefully that's enough to reduce resistance significantly.

My guess is that they are more form over function.

 

[AVENTUS]

Just noticed drivers side footwell room doesn't look improved at all. Sh!t was way too narrow on JK/JKU.

Any necessary functional reason for not letting us big men spread our feet spread wider ?

 

[The Great Grape Ape]

My guess is that they are more form over function.

Yeah, that's my concern, where the current hood vents are functional, but nowhere near as effective as they could be as shown by moding them full open (I have 2 sets one open for summer, one stock for winter).

The unfortunate thing is with the side vents the metal portal limits any additional effort to improve the flow further without taking somewhat more drastic measures.

~edited for typos~

 

[The Great Grape Ape]

Any necessary functional reason for not letting us big men spread our feet spread wider ?

To End the Scourge of Man-Spreading !! :cwl:

 

[JeepinOutfitters]

My guess is that they are more form over function.

Yeah, the body substructure is right there immediately behind them. Doesn't look like there's really any room for fitting a vent tube for air direction. I'm wondering if they'll be functional at all now. Seems like a lot of design change for a non-functional vent though...

 

[MockBarbecue82]

New hood latches look strong and the tailgate handle looks to have some girth. I was worried from other pictures that the handles looked smaller than whats on the current JK.

Also liking how we can see how the taillight wraps around the corner.

 

[Billy]

Again, guessing here, but it looks like the gap between the outer sheet metal and the substructure might be the path through the vent. This might be enough at highway speeds to relieve pressure in the wheel well and streamline air flow in this area. Most likely it was designed using CFD (virtual testing) and spent significant time in wind tunnel testing.

Billowing air from the well is no doubt very disruptive far outside of physical structure, even causing more parasitic drag than the grossly inefficient parachute shapes of the open front, flares and such on their own. A good analogy might be the difference between an open flat hand with closed fingers and cupped, versus spreading those fingers out. The Wrangler will never be the hand turned into the streamline, but every little bit helps.

 

[Emoto]

You mean the "mud ejection ports" ?

Possibly too many people have complained that their side steps, or rock rails, blocked a nice even coating of mud from forming on the sides of their Wrangler. These "mud ejection ports" would solved the problem by allowing the mud to channel directly from off the tires and onto the body sides.

I dunno about mud, but as I looked at the pictures, I was thinking about rainwater and all of the dirt it carries. Wondering if that will be shot all along the side of the vehicle and if so, how high will it go? Will it hit the windows? Now, maybe they did their homework and nothing but air will be coming out of those fender vents. We shall see.

 

[Billy]

I dunno about mud, but as I looked at the pictures, I was thinking about rainwater and all of the dirt it carries. Wondering if that will be shot all along the side of the vehicle and if so, how high will it go? Will it hit the windows? Now, maybe they did their homework and nothing but air will be coming out of those fender vents. We shall see.

Pretty sure they did their homework.

 

[The Great Grape Ape]

Yeah, it's like opening the zippers a crack in the back of the soft top, they are only small holes, but it does affect the turbulence inside an open sunrider soft-top by giving the pressure a direction to flow. It doesn't take much to make an impact, especially compared to dojng nothing at all.

Sure, it's not as effecive as a larger hole, but does a larger hole cause more issues for debris, etc.

That interior flat metal piece is just so close to the vent it's annoying from a design perspective, because it doesn't seem directed the way I would expect something to be, but that's likely the job of little plastic bits that likely press right against that.

 

[Emoto]

Pretty sure they did their homework.

With any first release of any new thing, users in the field will find things that the design and test teams did not know about, or that the teams failed to test in a manner that sufficiently emulated real world use. I am actually very interested in the vents and hope that once JLs find their way into the hands of competent journalists for testing, we will learn a lot more about their function and effectiveness. And, yes, if they have any down sides.

 

[Billy]

With any first release of any new thing, users in the field will find things that the design and test teams did not know about, or that the teams failed to test in a manner that sufficiently emulated real world use. I am actually very interested in the vents and hope that once JLs find their way into the hands of competent journalists for testing, we will learn a lot more about their function and effectiveness. And, yes, if they have any down sides.

I really hope they don't whistle like a beer bottle.

However, If they have a beer bottle opening function, I'm stoked!

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