UPDATE: Kudos to Greg Zyla for updating his column with the history corrections I suggested. You can read about it here: http://www.hamburgreporter.com/article/20121105/NEWS/121109944/-1/sports
(Published 10/30/2012)
I ran across this article about Jeep History: http://www.enterprisenews.com/lifestyle/columnists/x255960865/Greg-Zyla-Jeep-American-Bantam-and-Willys-Overland
If you read the article, you will see there are a few of the usual historical errors. I wrote a letter to the author with some thoughts on corrections. I’ve included them below to help those that aren’t as familiar with jeep history. I’ve also included them just in case I got something wrong.
1. The first jeep sold by Willys-Overland in 1945 to the public was the Willys CJ-2A. Very Early CJ-2A production units used some left over parts from the military versions, making VEC CJ-2As highly collectible among civilian jeep collectors.
2. The Willys Quad was the first prototype Willys-Overland developed in 1940 (the second Prototype was the Willys MA).
3. The Willys Quad wasn’t exactly a ‘copy’ of the Bantam BRC, although there were similarities, partly because Willys got to look at the Bantam plans before shipping the Quad.
4. Ford’s first Prototype was the Ford Pygmy. A second prototype was the Ford Budd (http://www.ewillys.com/2009/03/12/the-1940-buddy-a-ford-pygmybudd-prototype/ ). Their third prototype was the Ford GP (which doesn’t stand for General Purpose, but for G=Goverment and P=80″ Wheelbase). The WWII production jeep was the Ford GPW (the W standing for Willys Design).
5. Willys and Ford battled over the name Jeep. Willys didn’t win the right to use the name Jeep until the 1950s, which is the reason the hood and windshields of the CJ-2As and the CJ-3As were stamped Willys. There are a few rare CJ-2s that are stamped “JEEP” ( http://www.willys-overland.com/index.htm ).
6. While the original Bantam BRC is considered the first jeep, the jeep in the photo accompanying the article is a Bantam BRC-40 which was the third Prototype. (see the three different bantams here http://www.ewillys.com/2011/08/14/the-three-bantams-brc-brc-60-and-brc-40/ )
7. I am not aware that Bantam imported parts from England. I will have have to ask some friends about that.
8. Despite having arguably the worst of the three designs, Ford initially won the Army Quartermaster contract. However, there was enough push-back that the contract was transferred to Willys-Overland and Ford assigned as a second-source status.
NOTE: After reading this again, I probably should change the term prototype type to pilot for everything but the BRC, as the BRC was the real prototype/proof of concept, but that’s a little nit-picky for our purposes.
