WILLY'S JEEP US ARMY

The Bantam Car Company won the opening round of the contest to satisfy the US army's 1940 specification for a light four wheel drive but Willys Overland won the battle and, some would say, the war. To ensure supply in war-time the Army decided on a second supplier - Ford. Between 1941 and 1945 Willys and Ford built about 700,000 of the vehicle.

Easiest ways to tell a Ford GPW from a Willys MB:

The Willys chassis front Cross-member is tubular, whereas the Ford cross-member is an inverted U section. Other ways include looking at the tops of all the nuts and bolts, Fords should all be script F marked, though this is not reliable as some restorers replace all the nuts and bolts with new ones. Most of the panels on a Ford Jeep will be stamped with a script F somewhere or another. For example in the middle of the seat frames (back panel), top of the mud guards, on the bonnet hinge, on the rear foot rests, even on the reflectors for some models. I think that the Ford Motor Co. made sure that their stamp was on every sub-assembly of their vehicles.

Willys Overland Jeep MB : Specifications

Abarth

Alfa Romeo

Allard

Alvis

Amphicar

Armstrong Siddeley

Auto Union

Bertone

Cadillac

Delahaye

DKW

Dodge

Du Pont

Ginetta

Gordon Keeble

Gregoire

Hanomag

Hummer

Iso

Jösse

Kawasaki

KIA

Lagonda

Lincoln

Morris

Nelson

Norton

Oldsmobile

Opel

Packard

Panhard

Pegaso

Pininfarina

Smart

Steyr-Puch

Tata

Tatra

Treser

Yamaha

Please click on the links above to find out about these famous automotive makers. If your company is not included and you would like to be listed, please let us know.

The well known designer of exotic vehicles such as the Borzoi and the Bluebird Electric series, knows when he's on to a good thing. Nelson previously insured his vehicles with the Royal for about 10 years then General Accident for another 10 years. Which proves we tend to be loyal to our insurers - but are they loyal in return? These days it pays to shop around.

About four years ago Nelson's policy went up by about 30% at which point he decided to check out the market. He obtained quotations from most of the firms advertising savings online such as Churchill, Morethan and Direct Line, but was pleasantly surprised to find his local company could beat the best quote he'd obtained by quite a bit and offer a better policy. Sold. Nelson says: "Why don't you give Hastings Direct a try online and help us maintain this site." It won't cost you a penny more, but it will help us out a lot. For every policy sold through us, Hastings Direct will contribute to our running costs - so please mention us.