Note: I rather stupidly did not use a 1972 Jeep here, this is a later 1984-1991 body In 1972, a man named Gene Henderson, a Dearborn, Michigan police officer, showed up to a rally race in a Jeep Wagoneer nicknamed after a certain infamous great white whale due to it's size and color scheme. This was the Michigan Press on Regardless Rally, the first FIA-sanctioned rally event in the United States, a three-night, 330+ stage mile event, pushing it's competitors to the breaking point. What Gene's opponents, a Mk I Escort 1600, Datsun 510, and Lancia Fulvia, didn't know was that this Jeep would gain a status rivalling that of the mythical creature it was named after. AMC's new Quadra-Trac AWD system and Gene's skillful driving, using techniques that wouldn't be popularized for another 10 years, combined turned the unassuming family wagon into a mud-slinging, power-sliding, rally monster, beating it's 3 top-of-the-line opponents so badly it created a controversy among rally fans and rally racing organizations to the point that any all- or four-wheel drive systems were banned entirely from the sport, only being repealed 12 years later with Audi's introduction of the Quattro into Group B. In conclusion, Gene Henderson and his full size Jeep Wagoneer were just too fast for the world of rally to handle until over a decade later, even further cementing Jeep's reputation as THE off-road vehicle, no matter what the situation.
