I have heard that the modern day Jeep Wrangler was created by the Willys-Overland company for the army in WWII. Is this so?
No! Karl K. Probst designed the original vehicle and in 1941, the Bantam Car Company of Butler, PA, developed the Bantam Reconnaissance Car in response to a U.S. Army request for an all-purpose military vehicle. This vehicle became the prototype of the Jeep, later manufactured by Willys and Ford, and is the direct ancestor of the four-wheel drive vehicles of today. It easily met every requirement called for by the army, however Bantam didn’t get the army contract and sereptiously the design was passed onto Willys who called it the General Purpose Vehicle, shortened to GP which became known as Jeep. The contract changed to AMC which was bought by Chrysler in 1987 and the headlight design was changed from round to square and then called the Wranger. The original 2.5 liter engine is still around, but the 258 straight six carbureted engine has been replaced by a fuel injected engine in 1991.
