Description
Author: Bill Munro, Hardbound, 192 Pages, ISBN: 9781861263193, 1st Edition, 2000
The Supreme Allied Commander in World War Two, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, once said that the Jeep was one of the three tools that won the War, and today's Jeep Wrangler and Cherokee models are its direct descendants.
The US Army requirement was for a light reconnaissance vehicle that would also provide light armed support for the infantry. It needed to be able to travel off-road at speed and carry four people.
Four-wheel drive and a powerful engine were considered essential, but the three initial manufacturers, Bantam, Willys-Overland and Ford, soon changed the fragile lightweight buggy envisaged by the Army into the tough, quarter-ton truck we recognize today.
It survived in harsh conditions with limited maintenance, carried loads in excess of its design limits and became a symbol of the Allied forces.
Willys-Overland were able to acquire the post-war commercial rights to the Jeep, introducing their first civilian model in 1945. The CJ (for Civilian Jeep) series had to compete against ex-military Jeeps that were cheap to buy, but despite this and other difficult trading conditions, new Jeeps found ready buyers.
Since then Jeep has changed hands four times. Successive owners have evolved the range, but have stayed true to the original concept of a powerful engine, four-wheel drive, good ground clearance and supreme off-road capability.
Bill Munro tells the full story of the Jeep, from pre-war Bantam to today's Wrangler, in this carefully researched book.
Far from being jus.t another history of the military Jeep, this covers the civilian Jeep in detail, and gives the reader a clear insight into the continued development of one of the world's most successful motor vehicles.
Author Bill Munro cannot remember a time when he was not interested in cars.
A Londoner by birth, he is a third-generation licensed cab driver. His grandfather drove a horse cab in Brighton before taking a London motor cab driver's licence and his father completed the famous Knowledge of London to gain his licence in 1933.
Bill started writing for Drag Racing and Hot Rod Magazine while still at school and has written a regular column in Taxi, the largest circulating cab trade journal.
He has also contributed to a number of magazines as well as producing newsletters for classic car clubs.
A visit to a motoring writer's seminar at Beaulieu resulted in him completing his first book, Carbodies: The Complete Story, which was published by The Crowood Press in 1998.
