The authentic and timeless world of Ralph Lauren
March 2025
RL/Sport

Long-Distance Runner

Of all the remarkable cars in Ralph’s collection, his humble 1976 Jeep CJ-5 has seen the family through a half-century of just about everything
By Tyler Thoreson
Over the past few decades, Ralph Lauren has amassed one of the world’s preeminent automobile collections, but the car that was among one of his firsts is a white 1976 Jeep CJ-5 that he and Ricky bought to use at the beach. These days, parking lots are packed with big-tired trucks that may never leave the pavement, but 49 years ago, a 4x4 was a pretty uncommon sight, and a CJ-5, which had then recently been considered a true utility vehicle, even more so. “You didn’t see them around at all,” says Ralph. “It was a cool thing that was very rare.” And not easy to drive. “I didn’t know how to drive a stick shift,” Ricky recalls, much less one as cranky as a tractor. Soon enough, she was ferrying the kids to the local supermarket for groceries and comic books, and driving over to East Hampton, as Dylan recalls, “to find the new Barbie doll.” “I watched Grease and Star Wars at drive-ins at 8 years old in it,” David adds. But no one loved the Jeep more than the family dog, Rugby. “He’d take over the whole back,” Dylan says. “Sometimes my dad would have to take Rugby for a fake drive around the circle—just for a two-second drive so he felt like he got his ride.”
At the time, Ralph also had a 1971 280 SE Mercedes Cabriolet—the “company car,” used in the city—and, in 1979, he bought his first Porsche, a black 930 modified by RUF. “The Jeep was about a different use, about utility, fun,” Ralph says. “It’s like a pair of jeans or a white knit shirt with a polo player on it. It’s got the same sensibility.” It was also built to work hard and to last. “I remember our parents at the helm,” Andrew says, “and Dylan, David, and I, in tandem on sleds, merrily sliding around the back roads of East Hampton as they navigated through the snow in four-wheel drive.” Through the years, whatever the season, the Jeep just kept going. “It was beaten up, rusted, filled with sand, and lived outside through hurricanes,” David adds, still in disbelief. “It was like a magic car. It would be snowing and freezing at the airport in Montauk, and we’d all pack in. And all of a sudden the car starts up. We’d all applaud!”
By 2010, though, after 30-plus years in the sand and salt air, the Jeep was in need of some serious TLC. The body had rusted through in several spots, the interior was showing significant signs of wear and tear, and various other components needed repair or replacement. (The engine, however, still ran like a dream.) It was then that Ralph decided to have the car restored. Just as you’d expect, no detail was left unconsidered. The seats were sent out to a specialist tasked with replicating the patterns of the original upholstery, and when it was discovered that the replacement body lacked the embossed “Jeep” logo, the team cut it out from the original and grafted it onto the new one. Ralph, unsurprisingly, wanted to make sure the restoration didn’t strip the Jeep of its character. “I don’t want it to look brand-new,” he told Mark Reinwald, who oversaw the restoration. So, with matte paint and artfully chosen replacement parts, Reinwald and his team brought the Jeep back to a perfect state of broken-in. Now the Jeep is getting the kind of attention reserved for its more exotic garage mates. Driving around Montauk, Dylan says, the Jeep gets a lot of “thumbs-up and double high-beam flashes from other cars when they go by. You would expect that for a Ferrari or one of the other rare race cars, but it’s just a Jeep, you know?” “People stop me now,” Ralph says. “They want to know if I want to sell it.” He smiles. “The answer is no. I hardly sell anything.”
Tyler Thoreson is former editor in chief of Ralph Lauren Digital.
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