2021 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon 392 First Drive Review: Mud and Muscle

The 2021 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon 392 is as subtle as a frying pan to the face.

Or the frying pan to … the entire kitchen, in that classic ’90s anti-drug PSA. Another remnant of the era: Home Improvement. While many saw the never-too-much-power antics of Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor as a laugh-tracked cautionary tale, I’m pretty sure the Mopar folks took it all as a challenge.

How else do you explain a V8-powered Wrangler with more horsepower than a freakin’ Viper from back then? The Rubicon 392 defies puny concepts like sense, or reason. This is the ultimate heart-over-head vehicle, a laugh-out-loud experience—with a price tag that isn’t funny at all.

For the first time in 40 years, there are eight cylinders behind the seven-slotted Wrangler grille. Jeep has crammed the big 6.4-liter V8 from the Grand Wagoneer in here, with a full 470 horsepower and 470 pound-feet of torque. Like the plug-in hybrid 4xe, the 392 comes only in the longer four-door shape. It’s also only available in off-roading Rubicon flavor.

What that means is that, despite all that muscle, the 392 isn’t (solely) a street rod. The full-time Selec-Trac four-wheel drive system is present, with a two-speed transfer case and locking differentials front and rear. Jeep’s electronic front sway bar disconnect is also standard. Under the skin, Jeep has fit unique Fox aluminum monotube shocks, and treated the 392 to a 2.0-inch (51-millimeter) lift in ride height over the regular Rubicon. That makes for a total of 10.3 inches (260 mm) of ground clearance. Approach, breakover, and departure angles are 44.5, 22.6, and 37.5 degrees, respectively.

From the outside, there’s not a whole lot to give away all the power. The biggest tells are the hood scoop, replete with “392” badging lined in bronze—the color of choice for the V8—and the four exhaust tips poking out from the rear bumper. There’s clever engineering behind both. Under the hood is something Jeep calls Hydro-Guide, a three-level duct system capable of pulling up to 15 gallons of water per minute away from the engine intake. And on fun side is a driver-selectable exhaust system, to unlock the full chorus from the eight cylinders. Heck yeah.

Haul yourself up into the cabin—a climb indeed, without side steps and with that bump in ride height—and it’s a Wrangler alright. From the driver’s seat, it still feels like driving around in the world’s largest (and quickest) mailbox. That’s all part of the charm, of course. All the controls are big, legible, and easy to use with gloves on. The seats are wide and flat, accommodating a wide variety of sizes and shapes. They’re easy to shift around in during low-speed, technical off-roading, making the most of the excellent sight lines inherent to the Wrangler’s shape. Rear-seat space is good, too. Bronze stitching matches the exterior badging, lifting the ambience.

There’s a lot of leather in here. It feels suitably lux, even if it will prove harder to clean given the 392’s immense off-roading abilities. The other big change is poking out from behind the steering wheel. Are those … paddle shifters? In a Wrangler?! Yes, yes they are. It’s about time to use them.

The Rubicon 392 is an excellent physics teacher on the road. It might weigh on the wrong side of 5,000 pounds (2,268 kg), but an exploratory stab of the throttle has all that weight slingshotting forward. The rear squats low, the prow rises like a boat on the waves, and the 33-inch all-terrain tires still manage to transmute the prodigious power to forward motion. The accompanying soundtrack, especially with the baffles open, is real Flight of the Valkyries stuff. Jeep says it’ll tackle 60 mph (96 km/h) in 4.5 seconds, and the ol’ buttometer suggests that’s accurate, if not conservative.

Stopping and turning are less impressive. The extra 185 hp and 210 lb-ft doesn’t come with a commensurate upgrade to the braking system: this is still the regular Rubicon setup, in fact. Since the 392 is capable of piling on speed so quickly, you’ll want to leave yourself extra room when hauling it back down. On tarmac, the steering is still vague. Not surprising, and completely manageable for those familiar, but worth mentioning nonetheless.

Driven through a dedicated off-road course at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, the Rubicon 392 never breaks a sweat. Steep climbs, articulation-testing yumps, blind crests—the Rubicon gobbles it up like a kid at the buffet ice cream stand. A 48:1 crawl ratio plus 470 lb-ft means nothing here is too much for the 392 to handle. The A/T tires find purchase everywhere, and when the nose is pointing skyward, the front-facing camera shows the way forward. Bottom line: the Wrangler 392 makes you feel like an off-roading superhero, with the soundtrack to match.

The Wrangler comes with an 8.4-inch touchscreen embedded within the dashboard, running Uconnect 4. It might be getting on in age, but Uconnect 4 remains one of the better systems on the market, with clear menus and reasonably quick responses. The Rubicon benefits from an Off-Road Pages menu, which shows the current pitch and roll angles, plus GPS coordinates, including altitude.

There’s also the front-facing camera, which helps avoid jagged rocks or branches unseen from your high vantage point. My short drive didn’t afford me the opportunity to test out the Alpine sound system, but it’s the same one found in the regular Rubicon, so it should prove effective—maybe even necessary—to drown out the wind noise on the highway. Then again, now you have that V8 to do the same job…

A heated steering wheel and front seats are all standard. Both are super-effective; on the slightly chilly test day, I have to turn off the bunwarmers mid-trail. The wheel gets genuinely hot, too.

The 2021 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon 392 is pure id in vehicular form. See that small mountain in the distance? Go conquer it, all to a soundtrack inspired by the massive tectonic power display that formed the peaks. Rejoin civilization, and the 392 will still out-perform darn near everything from stoplight to stoplight.

It’s noisy, expensive, and a handful on tarmac. It’s also one of the most gleeful automotive experience I’ve had all year, and a unique one, too. If you can, do it—this sort of mud-loving monster won’t be around for long.