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

Long-Distance Runner

The story of the family’s 1976 Jeep CJ-5, which never failed to start.
By Tyler Thoreson
When Ralph is at his house in Montauk, one of his favorite cars to drive happens to be one of the first he ever owned—a white 1976 Jeep CJ-5 that he and Ricky bought that year to use at the beach. The photographs of him driving it with the entire family aboard suggest the kind of memories it holds of so many drives on the beach and the different Hamptons villages they’ve called home through the years. He may own rarer cars, but the Jeep might just be the most sentimental—and for good reason.
Forty-nine years ago, a 4x4 was a pretty uncommon sight, and a CJ-5 was then considered a true utility vehicle. “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. “Sometimes,” Dylan says, “my dad would have to take Rugby for a fake drive around the circle—just so he felt like he got his ride.” As with so many of the things Ralph finds interesting, the CJ-5 had a practical purpose. “The Jeep was about a different use, about utility, fun,” Ralph says. “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. Ralph, unsurprisingly, wanted to make sure a restoration wouldn’t strip the Jeep of its character. “I don’t want it to look brand-new,” he told Mark Reinwald, who oversaw the project. So, with matte paint and artfully chosen replacement parts, Reinwald and his team brought the Jeep back to the ideal state of perfectly broken-in. 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 had the original cut out and grafted onto the new one. Now the Jeep is getting the kind of attention previously reserved only for its more exotic garage mates. “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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