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Jeep with 50 cal. Browning machine gunWhen it became obvious that the US was at last soon to be concerned in the war raging in Europe, the U.S. Army made contact with 135
firms asking for working prototypes of a four-wheel-drive reconnaissance href="http://www.denisontoyota.com/toyota/toyota-dealership/Bonham/">toyota dealership Bonham car. Just two firms responded to the request, The american Bantam Automobile Company and Willys-Overland. The army had set what was a most unlikely cut off point of 49 days to provision a working prototype. Willys asked for more time but were refused. The b
ankrupt American Bantam Vehicle Company had no engineering staff left on the payroll and brought in Karl Probst, a gifted
independent designer from Detroit. After turning down an initial request from Bantam, Probst accepted the job after being asked again by the
army, and at first working without income, went to work July seventeen, 1940. Probst absolutely laid out plans for the Bantam prototype in two days, and the next day guessed the total cost of the automobile. On July twenty-two, Bantam’s bid was submitted, complete along with blueprints[4] Much of the vehicle needed to be assembled from existing off-the-shelf automotive parts, and the custom four-wheel drivetrain
elements were supplied by Spicer. The hand-built prototype was finished in Butler, Pennsylvania,[5] and driven to Camp Holabird,
Maryland, for testing by the regiment on 21 Sep 1940. The vehicle met the Army’s factors,
but its engine didn’t meet the Army’s torque requirements.
The regiment felt that the Bantam company was too little to supply the number of vehicles it required, so it supplied
the Bantam design to Willys and Ford who were encouraged to make their own changes and alterations. The ensuing Ford ‘Pygmy ‘ and Willys
‘Quad ‘ prototypes looked similar to the Bantam BRC ( Bantam Reconnaissance Vehicle ) prototype and Spicer supplied
very similar four-wheel drivetrain parts to all 3 makers. 1,500 of each of the 3 models built and extensively field-tested. Willys-Overland’s chief engineer Delmar “Barney” Roos made design changes to meet a revised weight specification ( a maximum of 1,275 lb ( 578 kg ) [6] including oil and water ). He was thus able to utilize the forceful but relatively heavy Willys “Go Demon” engine, and win the primary production contract. The Willys version of the auto would become the standardised jeep design, elected the model MB and was built at their plant in Toledo, Ohio. The familiar pressed metal Jeep grille was essentially a Ford design feature and assimilated into the final design by the army.

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