The Hendrick Jeep Commando Is One Bad Mutha’

By Jerry Perez - May 26, 2016

The Hendrick last name is normally associated with racing, but the NASCAR championship-winning team does more than just build stock cars; they build one of the meanest military-grade Jeeps money can buy.

Hendrick Dynamics is the division responsible for working on various government contracts, but by far the coolest and most significant is the Commando Jeep series. This video by Hendrick Dynamics employs the narration skills of ex-wrestler and American bad-ass Bill Goldberg to give us a thorough breakdown of how the Commando Jeep series came to life.

The goal was simple — to protect our soldiers from improvised explosive devices (IEDs). If the task sounds difficult, that’s because it is. Hendrick Dynamics worked with key partners including the Armed Forces to gather enough data to build vehicles with the exact specifications and demands of the people in the field.

Among those demands are off-road mobility, air transportability, power for robotic systems, and the ability to operate on military JP8 diesel fuel. The three trims of Jeep Commando vary from nearly stock and gasoline-powered, to a pickup truck for big cargo loads, to a fully-modified, armored Jeep with rollover protection and a purpose-specific diesel engine.

It’s great to see the vehicle that originally served in World War II return to the field and serve the troops, thanks to Hendrick Dynamics.