Author Description

This maintenance manual for the American Bantam Car Company Model BRC 4x4 ¼ ton truck dates to 1941. The Model BRC stood for “Bantam Reconnaissance Car” but it would become famous as the world’s first “jeep”. American Bantam was a relatively small company founded in 1936 using the assets of the American Austin Car Co., which produced civilian cars and motorcycles under license from British Austin. The BRC was the brainchild of an American Bantam salesman and former Navy commander named Charles “Harry” Payne, who suggested that the company should build a compact, powerful and durable car. Around the same time, the Army opened a contract for a low-profile, lightweight, four-wheel drive reconnaissance vehicle that could transport troops and equipment across rugged terrain. Bantam’s chief engineer Harold Crist and company president Frank Fenn worked on the concept in the spring of 1940, incorporating ideas that the Army had listed in its specifications. Crist and engineer Karl Probst designed and built a prototype, which was delivered to the Army in September, 1940. After testing of the initial delivery of 70 vehicles, some design changes were implemented at the suggestion of the Quartermaster Corps, and mass production began on 1500 units at Bantam’s factory in Butler, Pennsylvania. After the Quartermaster Corps determined that American Bantam lacked the capacity to mass produce vehicles at the scale needed by the Army, the awarding of contracts was re-opened. Both Willys-Overland and Ford Motor Company studied the BRC and used it as the basis to develop their own derivative products. While Bantam continued to produce vehicles, eventually building almost 2700 from 1940-43, much of its capacity was diverted to making jeep trailers. Meanwhile, Ford and Willy’s went on to produce nearly 650,000 GP and MB models and variants. While Bantam is generally credited as the originator of the jeep, the Army patented the design in 1942. Willys-Overland trademarked the “