The Dakar Concept is based on the Cherokee Trailhawk but is enhanced for more off-road capability.
The Dakar Concept is based on the Cherokee Trailhawk but is enhanced for more off-road capability.

For quite a few years now, Jeep and Mopar have partnered to create some unique concept vehicles for the Easter Jeep Safari. The vehicles are completed back in Detroit, and then they’re brought out to Moab, Utah, and shown to the off-road media. The vehicles are something we all get to drool over (as the media, I guess we get to drool first), and we in turn then post stories so our readers can drool over them.

What makes this annual part of our Easter Jeep Safari experience each year is that the Chrysler group actually allows us to drive the vehicles. While some of them are equipped with Jeep Performance Parts available in the Mopar catalog, many of them are prototypes that are being tested – and in a way, we’re the guinea pigs. Fortunately, our guinea pig cage is the wide-open expanses of Moab, and although we can’t push them so hard that we break them, getting to actually test out the vehicles in an environment for which they were built is very special and unique.

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Impression: 2014 Jeep Cherokee Dakar Concept

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Fox coilovers help provide the Dakar with two inches of lift. When paired with the fender cuts, the Jeep and Mopar team was able to stuff 33.5-inch BFGoodrich KM2s on the Dakar.
Fox coilovers help provide the Dakar with two inches of lift. When paired with the fender cuts, the Jeep and Mopar team was able to stuff 33.5-inch BFGoodrich KM2s on the Dakar.

For 2014, one of the coolest vehicles the Jeep and Mopar crew brought for EJS is the Cherokee Dakar. The Dakar is based on a 2014 Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk platform, and the crew went to work further accentuating its off-road capability. First off, two inches of lift for additional trail clearance is achieved thanks to Fox adjustable coilover shocks. The Dakar then had some serious trimming done to the sheet metal around the wheel wells. The trimming, combined with the lift provided by the Fox coilovers, provides almost 7 inches more clearance compared to the stock Trailhawk. This provides enough space to comfortably fit 33.5-inch BFGoodrich KM2 tires, which are wrapped on 17-inch Trailhawk wheels painted with unique red accents. Prototype fender flares with riveted bolts accent the widened wheel wells to give the Dakar a clean and stylish appearance.

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The prototype fender flares found on the Dakar give the modified Trailhawk an almost stock appearance.
The prototype fender flares found on the Dakar give the modified Trailhawk an almost stock appearance.