Quote:
Originally Posted by Sapphireho
A friend of mine has one of the 194x willys jeeps made by ford.
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If it hadn't been for Ford, there would be no Jeep name and no Jeep brand. We would probably be calling them "Mubs" instead, or maybe "Borcs" or "Bricks."
The Jeep we know started out as the Bantam Reconnaissance Car (BRC). Willys-Overland and American Bantam had both bid on the contract, and Willys lost because they couldn't meet the government deadline. Legend has it that the BRC design was laid down in blueprint in
two days.
However, American Bantam was too small to be able to meet the production demands of the US government, so the government gave the BRC blueprints to Willys and Ford as a jump start to design their own prototypes. The Willys version was called the MB, for "Military model B."
The Ford version was the "GP," for "Government P platform," where the P platform differentiated it from other Fords. The guys who tested the prototypes (before it even had a Willys motor in it) initially pronounced GP as "geepee," then shortened it to "jeep."
Willys won the contract because the Ford engine was a turd. But Willys also couldn't meet the production demands of the US government, so Ford was given the Willys design and also began producing the GPW, for "Government P Willys."
If Ford hadn't been involved, we might have been stuck with the MB and would be calling it the Mub. But luckily the Ford Jeep nickname stuck.
If Willys hadn't been involved, we might have been stuck with the BRC and would be calling it the Borc. Or maybe the Brick. Or Brack. It would be funny for my other vehicle to be a Brick Cherokee. That would still be better than the Mub Cherokee.