Why the Ford Jeep is the Greatest Vehicle Ever Made -- Jay Leno's Garage

[JoKer]

Jay Leno takes a deep dive into the "original dune buggy"—his authentic 1942 Ford GPW. While many associate the Jeep solely with Willys, Jay explains the fascinating history of how Henry Ford, a noted pacifist, was tapped by the government to mass-produce this legendary 4x4 using the Willys patent.

In this episode, Jay discusses:

The Ford-Willys Collaboration: How Ford’s manufacturing genius allowed them to stamp out grilles and bodies to meet the government’s desperate need for speed.

The "$100 Jeep" Legend: Jay recalls the famous ads in the back of Mechanics Illustrated where veterans could buy surplus Jeeps still packed in original Cosmoline for just a hundred bucks.

Battlefield Engineering: A look at the "bulletproof" 134 cubic inch flathead motor, the blackout lights for nighttime convoys, and the brilliant folding headlights that double as work lights for repairs in the field.

Off-Road Prowess: Why this 2,400-lb vehicle feels more at home on the dirt than on the bad roads of Los Angeles.

A Veteran’s Legacy: Jay shares a personal story about Senator Bob Dole and reflects on the brave soldiers who protected the world in these simple, mechanical machines.

Whether you call it a GPW or a Jeep, this 1942 Ford is a classic example of American ingenuity that helped win WWII.

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[Powelligator]

I had no idea the headlights folded up like that to become work lights. That's cool.

 

[2nd 392]

“It did everything, it went anywhere.
Was as faithful as a dog
as strong as a mule and
as agile as a goat
It constantly carried twice what it was designed for and still kept going”
Killed by Japanese machine gun fire Apr 45

This child immediately spotted ford on the dash plaque instead of Willys and questioned it when Dad had GPW along with the 3A for a while.

 

[631_Islander]

Jay Leno takes a deep dive into the "original dune buggy"—his authentic 1942 Ford GPW. While many associate the Jeep solely with Willys, Jay explains the fascinating history of how Henry Ford, a noted pacifist, was tapped by the government to mass-produce this legendary 4x4 using the Willys patent.

In this episode, Jay discusses:

The Ford-Willys Collaboration: How Ford’s manufacturing genius allowed them to stamp out grilles and bodies to meet the government’s desperate need for speed.

The "$100 Jeep" Legend: Jay recalls the famous ads in the back of Mechanics Illustrated where veterans could buy surplus Jeeps still packed in original Cosmoline for just a hundred bucks.

Battlefield Engineering: A look at the "bulletproof" 134 cubic inch flathead motor, the blackout lights for nighttime convoys, and the brilliant folding headlights that double as work lights for repairs in the field.

Off-Road Prowess: Why this 2,400-lb vehicle feels more at home on the dirt than on the bad roads of Los Angeles.

A Veteran’s Legacy: Jay shares a personal story about Senator Bob Dole and reflects on the brave soldiers who protected the world in these simple, mechanical machines.

Whether you call it a GPW or a Jeep, this 1942 Ford is a classic example of American ingenuity that helped win WWII.

Pretty sure these are now a collector's item that can fetch for a lot of money.

 

[John Eleven]

I had no idea the headlights folded up like that to become work lights. That's cool.

I just found this out a few weeks ago and I thought the same thing.

 

[kah.mun.rah]

The tire tread is the way it is so that the enemy couldn’t tell which direction it was going by the tracks.

Another fun fact about the GPW is that Ford stamped a “f” on many panels and parts of the ones they built so if anything broke down in action, they could quickly prove that it wasn’t the Ford version.

 

[2nd 392]

The tire tread is the way it is so that the enemy couldn’t tell which direction it was going by the tracks.

Another fun fact about the GPW is that Ford stamped a “f” on many panels and parts of the ones they built so if anything broke down in action, they could quickly prove that it wasn’t the Ford version.

Even the bolts maintenance didn’t care and the parts got mixed though.

 

[flyer92]

Man, that reminds me of the first Jeep I ever drove (and drove a lot) many decades ago...a Willys MB. Looking back, I'd gladly dump my plasticky, fragile JL for that old war horse. Really miss the simplicity and reliability...and if anything did break, it was usually easy to fix.

 

[UTME]

Saw one of these at the war museum in Brussels.

 

[Morrepe]

It's a bit ironic that Ford played such a large role in war production given that he was a notorious anti-semite and Nazi sympathizer. I guess it's the age-old story of $$$ over ideology.

 

[GinaC]

When I got my first TJ in 2002, I was working at the Smithsonian, and would often spend my lunch hours wandering the Museum of Natural History.

They had one of these on display in a WW2 exhibit, and my heart swelled with pride when I saw that my TJ soft top was so similar. I had bought it used and it even had half doors.

 

[AndySpill]

"Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe in World War II, wrote in his memoirs that most senior officers regarded it as one of the five pieces of equipment most vital to success in Africa and Europe."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willys_MB

 

[2nd 392]

"Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe in World War II, wrote in his memoirs that most senior officers regarded it as one of the five pieces of equipment most vital to success in Africa and Europe."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willys_MB

They say 5, interesting.
“The Jeep, the Dakota, and the Landing Craft were the three tools that won the war”
- General Dwight D. Eisenhower
https://www.britishjeep.com/intro.html
A pretty good one

 

[Wbino]

However, Willys' advertising and branding during and after the war aimed to make the world recognize Willys as the creator of the jeep.[38] It was engineer Delmar G. Roos who submitted and was awarded design patent 136819, assigned to Willys-Overland which set up the familiar Jeep design having a very slightly tapered front clamshell hood, vertical grille slats and integrated headlights into the front fascia which distinguished it from the original Bantam design.[39] When Willys first applied to trademark the "Jeep" name in February 1943,[40] Bantam, Ford, and other companies objected, because of their contributions to the jeep and the war effort. Although many different companies advertised their patriotic efforts to producing the 1⁄4‑ton jeeps—including Ford, featuring their own GPW jeeps in their ads—nobody took their claims as far as Willys-Overland, and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) opened a case, charging Willys-Overland with misrepresentation in their advertising and news claims, on 6 May 1943.[41] According to The New York Times, the FTC ruled that Willys did not perform the "spectacular achievement"[nb 14] of creating, designing and perfecting the "jeep" together with U.S. Army Quartermaster officers, but that: "The idea of creating a 'jeep' was said by the FTC ... to have been originated by the American Bantam [Co.] of Butler, PA '[with U.S. Army officers] and to have been [conceived and] developed by that company."[3] Willys appealed this ruling, and after a five-year investigation, in 1948 the FTC again ruled that "Willys was unfairly taking credit for the creation and was thus using unfair methods of competition. The FTC ordered Willys to stop claiming they were the sole creator of the Jeep."[38]

Some 70 years later, in a late 2012 article, the Defense Acquisition Research Journal[nb 15] still called the jeep design "...a product of a massive team effort, including all three manufacturers as well as Army engineers, both military and civilian."[43][nb 16]

General Dwight D. Eisenhower, here in his jeep in summer 1944, wrote that the jeep was "one of the six most vital" U.S. vehicles to win the war
Moreover, in 2015, the Pennsylvania General Assembly unanimously adopted a non-controversial House Resolution (382): "...commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Bantam jeep, invented and originally manufactured in Butler, Pennsylvania,"[44] therein explicitly resolving that Bantam of Butler, PA, invented the jeep, calling it "one of the most famous vehicles in the world," were the only party to deliver a working prototype of a light four-wheel drive reconnaissance car within the required seven weeks, which withstood 30 days of Army testing at Camp Holabird, then further developed that car, and manufactured 2,675 jeeps, before losing further production contracts to Willys and Ford Motor Company, for fear that Bantam would not be able to ramp up production to 75 jeeps a day, and after the Army handed Ford and Willys the blueprints of Bantam's detailed technical drawings—though Bantam proved highly capable and productive during the war, entrusted with manufacturing torpedo-motors and more.[4]

 

[AlgUSF]

But did it have two batteries and an Auto Stop Start system?

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