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While the Jeep is famous in its history of serving the US
military there is some misunderstanding concerning who created
the original Jeep. Many incorrectly attribute the development of
the first Jeep to Willys. The true inspiration of the first Jeep
design came from a small and relatively unknown company by the
name of the American Bantam Car Company based in Butler, PA.
The American Bantam Car Company was first established as a
subsidiary of the Austin Car Company, a British car
manufacturer, and was originally called American Austin Car
Company. Austin made a small and economical car called the
Austin Seven, which was very popular in England. Unfortunately
for the Austin Car Company, the Austin Seven never saw
popularity here in the states and the American Austin Car
Company nearly went bankrupt. It was eventually taken over by
its Chairman who changed its name to the American Bantam Car
Company (Bantam). Bantam took the original Austin Seven design
and made a number of improvements. It was a slightly bigger
version than its British cousin and was capable of longer
drives.
The Bantam folks were pioneers and saw a need for a light
military vehicle. They provided a few of their autos to the
National Guard in an effort to sell the military on the use of
such vehicles. The military finally realized a need for a light
mobile vehicle and finally agreed to discuss a design with
Banatm in 1940. The outcome of this meeting was a proposed
military 4X4 hybrid that was to weigh less than 1300 pounds. In
1941 Bantam developed a Bantam Reconnaissance Car in response to
the U.S. Army's request for an all-purpose military vehicle.
This vehicle ultimately became the prototype of the Jeep, which
was later manufactured by Willys (Willys MB) and Ford (GPW).
The US military was concerned about Bantam's ability to produce
the necessary amount of vehicles and because of this they
decided to offer other manufacturers the opportunity to produce
the vehicle. The requirement was to design a vehicle and with
the approval of the US military, the manufacturer was then to
build and deliver a prototype within 49 days. With the
military's approval of the prototype, an additional 70 working
rigs were to be delivered in 75 days. The required weight limit
caused many manufacturers to turn away from the project with
only Bantam and Willys participating initially, and Ford joining
in later.
Bantam's drawings were the closest to the military's
requirements even though their design had problems with the
weight restrictions. The company completed their design and
built and delivered the prototype on schedule. The military
having tested the vehicle to its fullest was satisfied with the
design and performance, and commissioned the additional 70
vehicles to be built. This is where the Military began to be
concerned about Bantam's ability to produce enough vehicles. The
company was fairly small and had a limited capacity. What the
military did was to grant Willys and Ford access to the trials
of the Bantam prototype and to their actual designs, even though
Willys failed to submit a prototype on time and Ford showed
little interest in the endeavor up to that point in time. Both
Ford and Willys were allowed to submit prototypes, the Quad
(Willys) and the Pygmy (Ford), well outside the specified time
frame and well above the required weight limit. Both the Ford
and Willys versions "borrowed" quite a bit from Bantam's design.
The Bantam vehicle, Bantam GPV (General Purpose Vehicle), was
delivered on time, met the majority of the specifications, and
performed well in the tests. By all accounts Bantam should have
been awarded the contract, and there was a large controversy
over how the contract was handled. The military, unfortunately
for Bantam, identified strengths and weaknesses of each vehicle.
The Bantam was to high off the ground and was underpowered,
while the Quad was well over the weight limit but had a more
powerful engine, and the Pygmy was underpowered and had suspect
steering components but handled best of the three vehicles. The
military still concerned about the capability of two of the
companies, Bantam and Willys, decided to place an order for 1500
vehicles with each company producing 500, as long as they met
the original specifications with the only change being an
increase in the weight limit to a little over 2200 pounds.
All three companies took the best ideas from each other and from
Bantam's original production design to further develop their
vehicles causing the 3 vehicles to be extremely similar. In mid
1941 the military decided that the 1500 vehicles should be of a
standardized design and not three different types. They
ultimately chose the Willys design due to its lower cost, and
that version was adopted as the standard army vehicle. Willys
went on to secure the contract to provide the next 16,000
Willys. This contract award called for a series of alterations
to the design, which lead to the classic standard Jeep design.
Bantam continued to produce its production version, known, as
the Bantam 40 BRC, but the US Army did not want it because it
was non-standard. The already produced vehicles and the new
production units were forwarded to the Russian and British
armies. It is very interesting to note that after watching the
testing trials the Russian military actually chose the Bantam
over the Willys' and Ford's units. The eventual Willys' design
closely resembles the 40 BRC.
In the winter of 1941 the army wanted to develop a second source
for the vehicle because Willys couldn't keep up with production
requirements and a wanted a safeguard against the possible
sabotage at the one production facility. In November the US Army
awarded Ford to build 15,000 jeeps to the Willys design and
drawing. The Willys MB and the Ford GPW vary in minor details
only as the military required that the parts be interchangeable.
The GPW in the Ford model's name was reference to G for
government vehicle, P referred to its wheel base size, and the W
was for designating that it had a Willys' engine. The one change
Ford made, which was adopted by the military as standard design,
was the now all-familiar grill. With Ford now producing the jeep
along with Willys, the military was able to provide the jeeps to
its allies and production of the Bantam 40 BRC was discontinued.
Combined production of the Willys MB and Ford GPW during WW II
was over 500,000. A total of 2,675 of the Bantam 40 BRCs were
built. The company reportedly never produced vehicles again. The
US military awarded Bantam contracts to build trailers as a way
to make it up to them for not receiving the jeep contract.
So, who created the original jeep? Well historically this has
seen a bit of controversy going back as far as 1943 when the
Fair Trade Commission ultimately charged Willys with false and
misleading advertising claims stating that Willys had created
the Jeep. The court determined that the Jeep was fostered and
conceived in Butler, PA, by the American Bantam Car Company. The
primary designer who worked on the Jeep project for Bantam was
Karl Probst, and, now you know who really created the first Jeep!
Find Jeep parts for the Willys MB and GPW with XtremeTerrain.com
About the author:
In his spare time, Al likes to learn more about a true American
Automotvie Legend, The Jeep! When he's working, Al is a
marketing manager for one of the leading on-line retailers of
aftermarket Jeep parts and accessories, Xtreme Terrain Concepts:
http://www.xtremeterrain.com
Written by: Al Oberm
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