Developed in response to a tender from the US Military for a tough dependable workhorse vehicle, the Jeep became synonymous with the Allied war effort in World War II. The basic design was set out in only 49 days by the winning company Willys-Overland (49 days being the tight deadline set out by the US War Department for presentation of the competing designs). The company alone did not have the ability to build the required number of vehicles however, so the Ford Motor Company also built the Jeep. In all, 586,000 were built during WW2 and were used by all of the Allied powers in the war, including the American, British, Australian and the Russian armed forces. In fact, so useful was the Jeep to the war effort, that the supreme commander of Allied forces in Europe, General (later President) Eisenhower named it as one of the 3 main tools of war that helped win the conflict, the other two being the Bazooka and the Douglas DC3.
What made it such a useful machine was it's simplicity, enabling it to be easily maintained in the field, and it's go anywhere ability, thanks to a four wheel drive system. Power was courtesy of a 60bhp four cylinder petrol engine. Driver safety was a weak point however, and many GI's met their end by being impaled on the exposed steering column following an accident.
The name 'Jeep' some feel came about as a corruption of the 'GP' or 'General Purpose' nature of the vehicle, while others say it was named after a 'Popeye' cartoon character called 'Eugene the Jeep'. Either way the name stuck, and is now used as a generic name for all 4x4 type vehicles, in the same way vacuum cleaners are often known as 'Hoover's'! The Daimler-Chrysler Corporation however own the trademark 'Jeep' and produce a highly successful range of 4x4 vehicles under the brand. These are the direct descendants of this machine.
UT Models make this model of the Jeep, and it is not one of their best efforts. Firstly it is not quite accurate to 1:18th scale, and is slightly too large. Also, there is no engine detail whatsoever. The windscreen, which on this model (like on the real car) folds down, unfortunately cannot be left in the up position as it is slightly warped. I think this is a quality control failure on my model, as other UT Jeeps I've seen did not have this problem.
Overall it gets 4/10 marks from me.
