Each Friday on the Jeep_® Blog, we explore the Jeep brand’s iconic heritage by highlighting a different historical vehicle. This week’s vehicle is the 1971 Jeepster Commando Hurst Edition.

The 1971 Jeepster Commando Hurst Edition was born out of a partnership between Kaiser Industries and Hurst Performance, a company best known for performance parts. The vehicle was still in the works when American Motors took bought the Jeep brand, but that didn’t stop this special Jeep vehicle from hitting the showroom floors. Well, a few of them, anyway – the 1971 Jeepster Commando Hurst Edition is considered one of the rarest and most unique Jeep vehicles ever manufactured, with an estimated 100 vehicles built.

From the beginning of the collaboration, the Jeepster Hurst Edition was meant to draw attention. The vehicle only came with a champagne white exterior, with distinctive red and blue stripes adorning the cowl and the lower tailgate. Hurst badging was featured on the either side of the hood and on the tailgate.

The Jeepster Hurst Edition had a hood scoop with a Hurst 8,000-rpm tachometer. Manual-transmission vehicles featured the Hurst T-handle shifter, while the automatic transmission featured the Hurst Dual Gate shifter.

The Toledo-assembled vehicle was always designed to be in limited production, but even fewer vehicles were built than initially planned. Most estimates have the total production at about 100 vehicles, making it one of the most unique Jeep vehicles ever produced.