Grensboro Community Watch

Jeep with 50 cal. Browning machine gunWhen it became apparent that the US was finally soon to be concerned in the war raging in Europe, the U.S. Military made contact with 135
corporations asking for working prototypes of a four-wheel-drive reconnaissance toyota Dealership SHerman car. Only 2 companies responded to the request, The North American Bantam Vehicle Company and Willys-Overland. The division had set what looked like an impossible cut off point of 49 days to provision a working prototype. Willys asked for more time but were refused. The broke American Bantam Auto Company had no engineering staff left on the payroll and brought in Karl Probst, a proficient
independent designer from Detroit. After turning down an initial request from Bantam, Probst accepted the job after being asked again by the
division, and initially working without income, went to work July 17, 1940. Probst totally laid out plans for the Bantam prototype in a couple of days, and the day after estimated the total cost of the auto. On July twenty-two, Bantam’s bid was submitted, complete along with blueprints[4] A
lot of the vehicle needed to be assembled from existing off-the-shelf automotive parts, and the custom four-wheel drivetrain
parts were supplied by Spicer. The hand-built prototype was completed in Servant, Pennsylvania,[5] and driven to Camp Holabird,
Maryland, for testing by the division on 21 Sep 1940. The automobile met the Army’s standards,
but its engine didn’t meet the Army’s torque necessities.
The division felt the Bantam company was too little to supply the number of cars it needed, 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 very similar to the Bantam BRC ( Bantam Reconnaissance Car ) prototype and Spicer supplied
terribly similar four-wheel drivetrain components to all 3 makers. 1,500 of each of the three models built and extensively field-tested. Willys-Overland’s chief engineer Delmar “Barney” Roos made design changes to meet a revised weight design ( a maximum of 1,275 lb ( 578 kg ) [6] including oil and water ). He was so able to use the powerful but comparatively heavy Willys “Go Devil” engine, and win the first production contract. The Willys version of the vehicle would become the settled jeep design, elected the model MB and was built at their plant in Toledo, Ohio. The familiar pushed metal Jeep grille was actually a Ford design feature and assimilated into the final design by the division.

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