Just take a look at our roads to see how much SUVs dominate the current automotive landscape. These vehicles with a raised driving position, a certain adventurous aesthetic yet unmistakable family orientation, have captured the vast majority of registrations in Europe and North America.
Although their commercial surge arrived between the late 1990s and the 2010s (when models like the Nissan Qashqai helped popularize the format), their roots go much further back. Specifically, to the panic felt by the US Army in the summer of 1940 at the devastating effectiveness of Blitzkrieg, the lightning war strategy with which Nazi Germany was conquering Europe at an unprecedented speed.
A Race-Against-Time Design and the U.S. Government’s Controversial Maneuver
The Blitzkrieg had shown that speed and mobility could decide the outcome of a military campaign: motorcycles with sidecars and World War I-era adapted vehicles had become obsolete in the face of that new pace of combat, so the U.S. Army decided to search for a solution from scratch. Thus, on July 11, 1940, it issued an urgent request to 135 American automobile manufacturers.
The specification was so demanding that most brands believed it was impossible to meet: it required all-wheel drive, capacity to carry around 250 kilograms of payload, a very low profile with a fold-down windshield to avoid being seen by the enemy, and a functional prototype in just 49 days. Only three companies accepted the tremendous challenge: the modest American Bantam Car Company, Willys-Overland, and, later, the giant Ford.
But the great unsung hero of this first phase was Karl Probst, an independent engineer who agreed to work for free for Bantam and drew the initial prototype’s plans, the Bantam Reconnaissance Car, in just five days. Thanks to that time-crunched work, the company managed to deliver the vehicle on time in September 1940 for the Holabird military camp trials.
The Bantam Reconnaissance Car was the first prototype presented to the U.S. Army after the 1940 call.
There, one of the main problems of the project was exposed: the Army had set a maximum weight of only 590 kg, a figure that soon proved unrealizable for a vehicle with all-wheel drive and the robustness needed to operate in combat. The military authorities ended up raising that limit to about 980 kg, smoothing the path for the definitive model.
Still, Bantam faced an even tougher obstacle: its limited industrial capacity. Although it had been the first to respond to the challenge and had met the deadlines, the authorities knew the company could not manufacture the thousands of units demanded by a global-scale conflict—and they decided to share its plans with Willys and Ford to accelerate development and guarantee large-scale production.
In the end, the vehicle that would reach the front combined elements from all three projects: Bantam’s original concept and part of its chassis, Ford’s stamped-steel front grille, and Willys’ engine. But the decisive factor that tipped the balance in favor of Willys-Overland was its propulsion system—the “Go Devil” engine—designed by engineer Barney Roos.
This four-cylinder demon of an engine developed 60 HP and offered a traction capability superior to that of its rivals; and it could overcome steep hills, move through mud, snow or sand, and maintain a reasonable highway speed. Between 1941 and 1945, more than 640,000 units of the Willys MB and its twin produced by Ford, the GPW, were manufactured. These were the specifications of the MB:
- Engine Willys L134 “Go Devil” (inline 4, 2,197 cm³)
- Power: 60 HP at 4,000 rpm
- Torque: 142 Nm at 2,000 rpm
- Top speed: 105 km/h
- Transmission: Warner T-84J manual, 3-speed
The performance of the little off-roader in combat was so brutal that it ended up becoming an indispensable tool for the Allied forces: it served as a reconnaissance vehicle, ambulance, artillery tractor, fire engine on aircraft carriers, and even ran on rails equipped with adapted wheels.
From Military Vehicle to the Birth of the Modern SUV
Jeep Wagoneer, 1963
The general George C. Marshall even defined it as “America’s greatest contribution to modern warfare,” while Dwight D. Eisenhower counted it among the decisive elements for Allied victory. Years later, Enzo Ferrari would describe it as “the only American sports car.” And that versatility that made it famous also fed the legend of its name.
The historian Patrick Foster records two main theories about the origin of the word “Jeep”: one points to the pronunciation of the initials G.P., used by Ford to identify this type of vehicle; the other traces back to Eugene the Jeep, a Popeye comic character able to appear anywhere and solve any problem. When the war ended, Willys registered the brand and launched the CJ-2A, the Civilian Jeep, increasingly oriented as a work vehicle for farmers, ranchers, and forestry workers.
The decisive step toward the modern SUV came in 1946 with the Willys Station Wagon designed by Brooks Stevens. Its all-steel bodywork, seating for seven, and the option to add 4×4 from 1949 demonstrated that the capabilities of an off-roader could be seamlessly adapted to everyday family use.
Jeep Wagoneer, 1978
But the formula evolved even further with the 1963 Jeep Wagoneer: considered the first luxury SUV in history, it added an automatic transmission, a more comfortable interior, and a concept far closer to today’s SUVs. Thus the 1940 request to 135 manufacturers also laid the groundwork for a formula that has dominated the car market for more than 80 years, far from being a passing trend.
Images | Stellantis, Jeep
