この６月のHemmings Motor News の記事によるとレーガン元アメリカ大統領がカリフォルニアのランチで実際に使用していた 1962年型のJeep CJ-6が National Register of Historic Vehicle (ＮＲＨＶ、合衆国の歴史的な車で国家によって永久保存される）に選ばれた。現在CJ－6はワシントンＤＣに運ばれ4月にはガラスケースに入れられて一般公開もされた。ＮＲＨＶに選ばれた車はタフト大統領の1909年の Model M に続いて2台目である。
Reagan’s CJ-6 one of two presidential vehicles going on the National Register of Historic Vehicles
Daniel Strohl on Mar 28th, 2016
Photo courtesy Ronald Reagan Library, Historic Vehicle Association.
It’s got dings and dents. It’s been rolled. It’s neither the first nor the last of its breed, has no particularly special equipment, and is one of thousands like it to roll off an assembly line. But the Historic Vehicle Association saw fit to choose President Ronald Reagan’s 1962 Jeep CJ-6 – even over the pristine CJ-8 that the president also owned – as one of a pair of presidential vehicles to go on the National Register of Historic Vehicles.
“It’s the one he loved the most,” said HVA President Mark Gessler. “He used it all the time; it was his ranch hand.”
Indeed, as Marilyn Fisher of the Reagan Ranch Center noted, the Jeep that Reagan bought new essentially defined Reagan the man, as opposed to Reagan the president. “He could’ve afforded an expensive vehicle, but this Jeep represented his freedom, the freedom he felt when he was on his ranch.”
In his lifetime, Reagan owned two California ranches. The first, Malibu Creek Ranch in the Santa Monica Mountains, he bought in 1951. To tend it, he eventually bought the extended-wheelbase CJ-6 (serial number 21156), originally painted green and fitted with the 134-cu.in. F-head four-cylinder, T90 three-speed manual, Spicer Model 18 transfer case, Dana 25/44 front/rear axles, and factory optional Ramsey 8,000-pound PTO winch. Though he sold the ranch in 1966, he kept the Jeep and moved it to his second ranch, the 688-acre Rancho del Cielo in the Santa Ynez Mountains.
The purchase of the second ranch, in 1974, came during a time of transition for Reagan. He was on his way out as governor, and to mark his time in office, members of the California National Guard repainted the CJ-6 for him in red with white pinstripes. However, according to Fisher, patches of green paint remain visible and the California National Guard left the original green seats as well as the various dents Reagan had inflicted on the Jeep.
According to Gessler, Nancy Reagan disliked the red Jeep and later bought the president a blue 1981 Jeep CJ-8 Golden Eagle. Yet the president insisted on driving the CJ-6 whenever he made it back to the ranch, including during an interview with Barbara Walters, who shared the First Lady’s feelings toward the red Jeep. “This is the scroungiest Jeep I’ve ever…” she told him during their interview. “I know we have an austerity program, but this is ridiculous.”
The Jeep remained with Reagan through his presidency, though as his health declined in the mid-1990s, Nancy Reagan decided to sell the ranch intact (“down to the toothpaste, china, and furniture,” Fisher said), minus the three vehicles on the ranch: the CJ-6, the CJ-8, and a 1978 Subaru Brat, all of which she gave away to friends. The organization to which Nancy Reagan sold the ranch, Young America’s Foundation, eventually tracked down and repurchased all three, though it didn’t have to go far for the CJ-6: Nancy Reagan had gifted it to Courtney Trisler, the ranch’s manager, and the Jeep had remained on the ranch the entire time.
According to Fisher, the CJ-6 remains in the exact condition the Reagans left it, though the foundation has drained its fluids and kept it in dry storage to preserve it.
“The fact that it’s now going to Washington is really amazing,” she said. “It’s never made a journey anywhere except just out of the vehicle bay.”
The Jeep’s journey to Washington, D.C., will take place as part of the HVA’s second Cars at the Capital event, which Gessler noted will take on a different format than its predecessor. Instead of featuring several cars in a tent on the National Mall over a weekend, the second Cars at the Capital will include just two vehicles: the Reagan CJ-6 and the 1909 White Model M 40-hp steamer that William Howard Taft ordered and that comprised one-third of the first presidential automobile fleet.
ABC 20/20
レーガン元大統領は大統領という位に有りながらクルマに対しては非常に質素であった。１９８０年代に20年前のジープを愛用してた。当時ファーストレィディである妻のナンシーさんにとっては赤いCJ－6は乗り心地が悪かったらしく、仕方ない気持ちもあってCJ－8を手に入れた。CJ－8を手に入れた後もCJ－6を手放す事なく愛用した。もう一台の愛用車はSUBARU BART であった。
ところで、
なぜレーガン大統領はCJ－6を愛したのだろうか？
その答えはこの一節にある。
this Jeep represented his freedom,
the freedom he felt when he was on his ranch.”
このジープに、自由を感じる。
ジープは自由の象徴だ！
そういった意味でこのジープがNRHVに選ばれた事の意味は大きい。将来において人々がこのジープCJ－6を観て感じる事はなんであろうか？ それは文章や解説の直接的な説明が無ったとしても、大統領が愛用していた質素なジープからからは自由という磁気が発せられているはずだ。僕ももし将来機会があったならばこのCJ－6を観てみたいと思う。きっと、青くて広くて大きなカリフォルニアの空の様な自由という世界をこの古びたジープを通じて感じる事であろう。
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