Jeep Invented 1940

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…and it was good.  In 1940 Karl Probst created the Jeep, and it rocked!  This is the story of how the legendary Jeep came to be…and how it has come to be what it is today…
By 1939 the US military needed a new, universal vehicle to replace the motorcycle and its other vehicles (such as the modified Ford Model-T), so they invited 135 different car companies to compete for a contract to build a new vehicle for the military.  The vehicle had to meet certain specs, such as a payload capacity of 600lbs, a wheelbase under 75 inches, a fold-down windshield, a gross vehicle weight of under 1200lbs, and it must be four-wheel drive. Only three companies entered, Bantam, Willy-Overland, and Ford.

Bantam enlisted the help of Karl Probst, and in 1940 was the first to produce a working prototype for the military, dubbed the Bantam Blitzbuggy and “Old Number One”. Willy’s-Overland and Ford soon followed with their own prototypes, the Willys Quad and the Ford Pygmy, which were basically knock-offs of the Bantam car. Willys eventually won the contract because of their 60hp “Go-Devil” engine, but Ford was also given a contract to help keep up with the military’s demand for the vehicles for use in WWII.  Willys later renamed their jeeps the MA and the MB, while Ford called theirs the GP and GPW.  Many believe, as I do, that the Jeep won the war for the Allies.

As for the name ‘Jeep’, no one really knows for sure where it came from.  Some people believe that it evolved from the Ford ‘GP’ designation, which many think stood for ‘general purpose’, which is incorrect. The “G” was for Government and the “P” was the vehicle class (80″ wheelbase 4×4 ¼ ton truck).   Another possibility is that the name came from Popeye’s magical sidekick named jeep, who could do almost anything.  For a more in-depth look at the origins of the Jeep, click on over to The Jeep, a Real American Hero.