80 years of off-roading
Our focus here is only on the big players in the 4x4 SUV market (no bakkies) as it’s impossible to name every 4x4 vehicle here.
This meant that we had to leave out a few. Sorry, all the Fiat Panda and VW Amarok owners!
THE FORTIES
The 1940s is dominated by World War II, and during this time the personal off-road vehicle and off-roading becomes popular as a hobby.
When the US military sees the British army use a tiny two-wheel drive Austin 7 for reconnaissance at the outbreak of the war, they immediately order the development of a similar vehicle for military use: a vehicle that eventually becomes known as a Jeep.
1940 Work on the Bantam BRC begins on 17 July 1940. It takes designer Karl Probst only two days to come up with the BRC on paper and a working prototype is delivered to the US Army within 49 days. Unfortunately, Bantam’s modest plant is unable to manufacture the first order of 3 500 BRCs on its own and the Willys-Overland and Ford manufacturers are each asked to deliver a third of the order.
The Bantam BRC (Blitz Buggy), Willys MA (Quad) and Ford GP (Pygmy) drive ashore in Europe in 1941. American GIs soon give these little off-road vehicles a collective name: Jeeps. The origin of the name is unclear; some historians say it a slurring of GP from Ford’s buggy
