Ford Reconnaisance Cars Join The Army, 1941

[@BrenGun1971]

This weekend brings the 3rd annual bantam Festival in Butler, PA which highlights the Bantam Car Co's contribution to the first real jeep!

[@BrenGun1971]

And again, thanks for watching and commenting!

[@57WillysCJ]

I have watch many of your videos. I am wrong these do resemble the first offering, still they were able to change things from their first offering. They say that both Willys and Ford were going over Bantam initial prototype taking notes and making sketches.

[@BrenGun1971]

Yep, both Willys and Ford vastly improved what they built the second time around and the Army did completely open the way for them to copy/ lift ideas and concepts from Bantam. There are alot of hardcore Bantam enthusiasts who are still upset by this. Bantam really got a raw deal, Willys got saved and Bantam was thrown a very temporary lifeline when they were only awarded the contract for the 1/4 ton jeep trailer.

[@BrenGun1971]

By the way, thanks for the subscription and be sure to check out my site for lots more vintage jeep memorabilia!

[@BrenGun1971]

Those are, as far as I can see from the poor print, exclusively Ford GPs in the footage. They were among the first of the 1500 early prototypes delivered by Ford along with the Willys MA and the Bantam BRC-40 for further testing by the Quartermaster Corps. I think that you may be thinking of the Ford Pygmy which was the first prototype delivered by Ford that was indeed underpowered by a re-used tractor engine. It can definitely be considered propaganda, though all 3 could be accused of such!

[@57WillysCJ]

There's very little Ford in that. I think the first one off the line had Willy's stamped on it. They certainly didn't have Ford tractor engines in them. The engines in their prototype stage were tractor engines. They came in last place in performance not to mention they didn't look like the ones in the film. Nice bit of Ford propaganda.