From the 1960s into the 1980s, Hurst Performance was famous for its muscle car partnerships with Oldsmobile and American Motors. But few remember they did a one-time deal with Jeep (right after it was acquired by AMC). The result was the Hurst Jeepster, a Commando that wore red, white, and blue like the Rebel Machine. This rare ’71 Hurst Jeepster may be one of only 100 built and looks to be in fine condition in Salt Lake City, Utah. It’s available here on craigslist for $19,500. Kudos to Tony Primo for this tip!
As the story goes, Jeep went into the AMC acquisition needing to bolster its brand. They had already done some dress-up work on CJ-5s, Wagoneers, and the like. The Jeepster SUV had been around since 1966 and the brain trust at Jeep thought it would be the best vehicle to be treated to a special edition. The transformation, which was largely a visual one, started with a Jeepster wagon, wider wheels with raised-letter tires, a roof rack, a Hurst shifter, and a hood-mounted tachometer, among other things. But nothing changed much under the hood – a Buick-inspired 225 cubic inch V6 plus an automatic transmission would be common fare.
Lore has it that 500 of these special editions were on the drawing board, but industry insiders think the actual number was 100 (which is the figure the seller agrees with, thinking only 10 have survived including this one). Of all the Hurst autos built in cooperation with Detroit, the Hurst Jeepster was the only one that wasn’t a real muscle car. And it may have been the only four-wheel-drive, too. The seller has owned this vehicle for 40 years and has decided now’s the time to sell it.
This rare vehicle has a reported odometer reading of 90, but no claim is made of that being the real number. The tires themselves are said to have 100 miles on them. The Jeepster comes with both hard and soft tops, so you can ride around in this thing in almost any kind of weather. If you’re looking for something to show off that no one else has, this ’71 Hurst Jeepster would have to be it.
Wasn’t the Buick/Dauntless V6 a 225 ci, based on the 215 aluminum V8 that Rover later bought?
Never heard of the Hurst Jeep-certainly a rarity at the local show and shine!
Id like to buy this present 🎁 🎅 🎄 for Howard 🙏 🤲
Well thanks, Stan, that’s the nicest thing anyone has said, however, one Jeep is enough,, :)
The Buick 231 CI V-6 and the Olds 215 CI V-8 are completely different motors. The Buick was an iron block V-6 motor that came out in the early 60’s Buick small cars. It survived into the mid 1980’s, It was the turbocharged motor in the Buick Grand Nationals.
The Olds 215 V-8 was in the Olds version of the GM small cars. It was in Olds small cars in the mid 1960’s, then the tooling was sold and it ended up in a lot of British cars, at least into the late 1990’s.
If you intend to drive this in cold weather.be prepared to wear cold weather equipment. The heater may (or may not) keep the front seat passengers from freezing, but the 1972 Jeepster I had no chance of keeping anyone in the back seat warm.
I still like it, Dad bought it from the local Chevy dealer because it had a really bad bearing rap in the 304 V-8. The rap was in the air injection pump, that’s why the belt was off. It came in sounding fine, but the “Bearing knock” started when the shop put the air pump belt on.
I got it for half price. Not the best piece I ever had, but great for the price.
The “Hurst Jeep” is clearly the most rare, but had an identity crisis from the get-go. 1st, t’was nothing special on a vehicle that few wanted anyway. This was right around the time AMC was getting in the Jeep picture, and Hurst was unquestionably the biggest aftermarket auto supplier, the 2 seemed like a hit. Anything with Hurst name should sell.The CJ or Wagoneer were still the Jeeps of choice, and many Jeep publications don’t even mention the Hurst Jeep as collectible. With Hurst a mere shred of what they were, and if a classic car didn’t have that carved into the shifter, this may not be what people want, again.
the color scheme didn’t help. When I first saw the picture before I opened the article, I thought it was a postal vehicle.
I’m surprised Dennis Collins hasn’t snagged this up yet!
yep…for his show room….
What a total waste of a Hurst dual gate shifter. Not like anyone would ever feel the need to manually shift that V-6.
Our postman drives one that looks like this.
My first thought when I saw the red and blue stripes was this had been a mail delivery vehicle in a previous life.
They did make a CJ 8 postal truck for Alaska, that I think is more rare than this.
https://barnfinds.com/rare-alaskan-postal-1984-jeep-cj-8-scrambler/
Wrong wheels and tires (white letter highway tires and hubcaps were OEM on Hurst), no luggage rack on roof (all Hurst had them) = asking too much for what it is. Also, no pics of the interior seats??
Something doesn’t look correct right side front fender welded or extremely bubbled. I think wheels are correct not the tires
Actually the original Hursts had mag wheels. Dad was an engineer at the plant, the story goes he came into the plant on a Monday morning and the line wasn’t moving. When he went to see why, they told him there was an issue. Going to the end of the line and staging area and they were all on flat tires. Turned out there was a porosity issue with the wheels, resulting in a changeover from them. There was also an issue with the steering wheels that resulted in new steering wheels being sent out to the dealers, but I’d have to find the email dad had sent talking about it.
The Story of the 1971 Hurst Jeepster Commando
https://jeepstercommandoclub.com/hurst/
The guy’s owened it for 40 years. Not many can say that-
I’ve got a least a couple that I can say that. Treated roads just turned a favorite into a parked pumpkin that I’ve been driving for ? more than 30 years.
Something doesn’t look correct the front fender looks welded down the seam or extremely bubbled …just a novice opinion