Jeep Willys MB

In 1940, the US Army issued a call for tenders for a light four-wheel-drive reconnaissance vehicle, to be delivered within a few weeks. The small manufacturer Bantam built the first prototype, but Willys won the contract with the Willys MB, also built under licence by Ford.

Square, compact and practically indestructible, it could go anywhere thanks to its four-wheel drive and its “Go Devil” four-cylinder engine. It served as a liaison vehicle as well as an ambulance, a tractor or a machine-gun carrier. The origin of its name is still debated: a contraction of “GP” for “General Purpose”, or a nod to Eugene the Jeep, a creature from the Popeye comic strip.

More than 640,000 were produced during the Second World War. For many Europeans, the Jeep is associated with the Liberation. After the war it became the CJ, the “Civilian Jeep”, and gave rise to the whole family of off-road vehicles and SUVs.