Motorweek's 45th Anniversary Episode

General Discussion
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This provides a nice retrospective of their incredible 45 years on the air, and there is a very nice tribute to the late Pat Goss:

On a related topic, one of their other recent episodes had a segment on the history of the Jeep, and they stated–incorrectly–that the Jeep “was developed by Willys”.

As most of the older forum members are probably aware, the original Jeep was developed by the struggling American Bantam company, but because American Bantam didn’t have sufficient production capacity, manufacturing was done by both Willys and Ford. Undoubtedly, there were some design revisions, after American Bantam’s original prototypes, but the bottom line is that Motorweek was incorrect when they stated that the original Jeep design was a Willys project.

But, Motorweek is a good show overall, despite that historical gaffe.

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The iconic Jeeps slotted grill was developed by Ford. Bantam did not have a stamping press big enough to make the single piece grill.. But Ford did and reduced the cost of the grill panel for all Jeeps produced for WW2.

Willys supplied the Go-Devil engine and made modifications that reduced the weight and lowered the height.

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Yes, if the original Austin-designed engine had been used, the Jeep would have a whole lot less power output. Among the weight-reduction methods that were used was a simple revision in the way that the vehicle was painted. Other steps were even more important, but just revising the painting process saved a few pounds.

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