What car would you use to escape a dinosaur? It seems that Spielberg had it clear in the first Jurassic Park movie. If you are a fan of the saga, you surely remember the scene in which Alan (Sam Neill), Ellie (Laura Dern) and Ian (Jeff Goldbum) flee from the fearsome T-Rex in an open-top SUV. What you may not have known is that it is a 1992 Jeep Wrangler YJ Sahara customized for filming.
The choice of the Jeep to film this film seems like a real success and this particular model from the American manufacturer, in addition to its proven aptitude for the wild environment of Jurassic Park, reaches a maximum speed of 170 km/h, enough to escape from the T -Rex. The Wrangler YJ Sahara has a 3,960 cc, 6-liter inline gasoline engine. The original model, as well as the one in the movie, has a 5-speed manual gearbox. In fact, in the scene you can see how Alan praises Ian: “Faster, it’s here, speed up, put it in fifth gear!”
Several units of the Jeep Wrangler YJ Sahara were used in Jurassic Park. At the beginning of the film, two cars are used to pick up the protagonists who arrive at the island by helicopter and it is in the one marked with the number 18 where they see the Brachiosaurus for the first time. This is the one that Dennis Nedry (Wayne Knight) later takes to escape with the stolen dinosaur embryos, although he later ends up being eaten alive inside the Jeep by a Dilophosaurus. If you look closely, the car used in the chase is identified with the number 10.
The Wrangler YJ Sahara is a robust Jeep model (weighs 1,500 kilos), but with four-wheel drive and suspension, allowing it to comfortably tackle difficult terrain. The vehicles used in the film have the standard interior equipment, while in the cream-colored body of the number 12, elements such as the retractable headlights or the grille with headlights on the front window stand out. Last year, Jeep launched a customization kit to mark the 30th anniversary of the film, a series of vinyls and details, such as logos and the number 18 for the Jeep Wrangler 4xe and the Jeep Gladiator in an edition limited to 100 units.
As a curiosity, the franchise reached a commercial agreement with Mercedes to give priority to its vehicles to the detriment of Jeep. In fact, it was not until the first installment of Jurassic World until a vehicle from the American manufacturer reappeared. Along with the Wrangler Sahara, another of the legendary cars used in Jurassic Park was the green and yellow Ford Explorer, with a luxurious interior with leather seats, wood finishes and even a video screen.