The first word that comes to our minds when we think of an impossible-to-get-stuck-with vehicle is Jeep: the oldest off-road vehicle, firstly employed by the US Army during the WWII as a General Purpose(GP) Utility Vehicle. An important observation to make is that states that could afford to equip their armies with Jeeps have always outnumbered those that couldn’t, in plain language, Jeep has been a luxury for many.
Few years before the attack on Pearl Harbor, while WWII was being fought mainly in Europe, the US army issued specifications for a general utility vehicle that had to serve as a reconnaissance car as well. The vehicle had to be capable of reaching the 50mph on hard surface, not heavier than 1275 lb(≈600kg), rectangularly shaped, with means for towing and a 30-caliber machine gun mount. The first prototype presented to the US Army was the Bantam Pilot (BRC-60), produced by the Bantam company. Such a model would be followed by Ford`s GP(according to some this is where the word “Jeep“comes from), nicknamed PYGMY, and Willys Quad, from the Willys Company. The Ford PYGMY`s front end is slightly different from both the Willys Quad and the Bantam Pilot: the front headlights are not mounted but are placed in a protected position behind the front grill. The Pygmy`s boxy chassis, as well, was immediately preferred by the army. On the other hand Willys Quad had a particularly powerful engine while being considerably over weighted, not meeting a fundamental condition, that of being light. As each company had put emphasis on different aspects (Bantam on weight, Ford on comfort and Willys on power), the models were all judged satisfactory to be used as reconnaissance cars.
As these cars had to be employed in war, the presence of a blackout lightning capable of providing the vehicle operator with sufficient light to operate the vehicle in total darkness as well as provide minimum lightening to show vehicle position to a leading or trailing vehicle when illumination must be restricted to a level not visible to a distant enemy, was regarded as extremely important. All jeeps did have such a blackout lightning. Moreover, being a reconnaissance car, the Jeep had to have an approaching angle of at least 40-45 degrees. The practical meaning of the approach angle is the maximal steepness of the ramp a vehicle can overcome without being damaged, without hitting the ramp with its front bumper. The approach angle of an ordinary car is about 22-30 degrees, the taller is the car and the greater is the approach angle. Another important detail about Jeeps was that they all had a solid axle(or live axle), whose importance consisted in its major rigidity and adequacy for off-road environments and maintaining constant ground clearance under the axle.
Later on,evolved models sharing the properties described in the previous paragraph would be produced. Ford`s sea going Jeep, the Jeep Forward Control (1956-1965, with several military variations) and the Kaiser Jeep M715(1967-1969) are examples of more sophisticated and efficient Jeeps employed by the army later on.