jeep willis

The origins of the name jeep have been argued about pretty much since the vehicle appeared and are happilly still as obscure as ever. The top theories in no particular order are:




A contraction of the initials 'GP' from General Purpose although Ford say that 'G' stood for Government and 'P' for the wheelbase.



Derived from the ubiquitous character in the popular Popeye cartoons, Eugene the jeep was a happy little character from the cartoons of E C Segar.



Eugene was given to Popeye's goilfriend Olive Oyl by her Uncle Ben in 1936. He could appear and disappear at will, tell the future and travel in the fourth dimension...



Willys is pronounced as ' willis - not ' willies' !

SAS Jeep - Three Vickers 'K's and a Browning M2A1 gave the jeep a lot of punch. Its role was to attack enemy airfields at night, often after a desert journey of hundreds of miles - hence the large amount of extra water and petrol carried. The cylinder on the front is a condenser which allowed water boiling over from the radiator to be re-used.