Youtuber’s dad owns a TJ Wrangler Rubicon and a JKU Rubicon. Both of them have a giant V8 under the hood.
Believe it or not, there are some cool dads out there. That’s right. Not all fathers are squares who wear dorky jeans from the ’90s (aka “dad jeans”). Some of them are into cars, like Youtuber Evan Shanks‘s dad. He has three Jeep Wranglers and two of them are powered by V8s from General Motors.
The first one Shanks highlights is a 2010 JKU Rubicon with the usual goodies. It sports a front light bar, a 3.5-inch lift, Fox shocks, and 37-inch tires. When the senior Shanks bought the Jeep, it had an Angry Birds grille on it, which he promptly removed. The decorative inserts that remained in the seven slots blocked airflow too much, so he also yanked those out and stuck with an all-black setup.
Under the hood, there’s a crate LS3. Unlike the rest of the Jeep, it’s stock. Output is 430 horsepower, which is routed through a six-speed automatic. Shanks takes it out on the road with his father riding shotgun. The previous owner paid $33,000 for the engine swap, but it seems to be money well spent. The juiced-up JK is smooth and comes across as an OEM-level build.
Then it’s time to get behind the wheel of the heavily modified 2006 TJ Wrangler Rubicon. It’s decked out with a stinger, armor, an on-board air compressor, front and rear air lockers, and a 5.5-inch long arm kit. As the humorous sticker on the back implies, it also has a thirsty engine – as in nine miles per gallon. The 6.0-liter Vortec V8 features an LQ9 iron block and LS2 heads, as well as headers, which help give it the exhaust note of a muscle car.
It’s great to see not only two V8-powered Wranglers, but a father and his son bonding over Jeeps. Something tells us that Shanks’s dad is easy to shop for when Father’s Day rolls around.
Derek Shiekhi's father raised him on cars. As a boy, Derek accompanied his dad as he bought classics such as post-WWII GM trucks and early Ford Mustang convertibles.
After loving cars for years and getting a bachelor's degree in Business Management, Derek decided to get an associate degree in journalism. His networking put him in contact with the editor of the Austin-American Statesman newspaper, who hired him to write freelance about automotive culture and events in Austin, Texas in 2013. One particular story led to him getting a certificate for learning the foundations of road racing.
While watching TV with his parents one fateful evening, he saw a commercial that changed his life. In it, Jeep touted the Wrangler as the Texas Auto Writers Association's "SUV of Texas." Derek knew he had to join the organization if he was going to advance as an automotive writer. He joined the Texas Auto Writers Association (TAWA) in 2014 and was fortunate to meet several nice people who connected him to the representatives of several automakers and the people who could give him access to press vehicles (the first one he ever got the keys to was a Lexus LX 570). He's now a regular at TAWA's two main events: the Texas Auto Roundup in the spring and the Texas Truck Rodeo in the fall.
Over the past several years, Derek has learned how to drive off-road in various four-wheel-drive SUVs (he even camped out for two nights in a Land Rover), and driven around various tracks in hot hatches, muscle cars, and exotics. Several of his pieces, including his article about the 2015 Ford F-150 being crowned TAWA's 2014 "Truck of Texas" and his review of the Alfa Romeo 4C Spider, have won awards in TAWA's annual Excellence in Craft Competition. Last year, his JK Forum profile of Wagonmaster, a business that restores Jeep Wagoneers, won prizes in TAWA’s signature writing contest and its pickup- and SUV-focused Texas Truck Invitational.
