Tuesday 2nd June 1936

The American Bantam Car Company was incorporated with Roy S Evans as President. It was originally formed in 1929 as American Austin Car Company and then in 1936 reorganized as American Bantam after filing for bankruptcy and was a manufacturer of limited number of smaller British cars. Its opportunity for growth came with the competition for the development of a new 1/4 ton, four wheel drive vehicle for the US Army. Out of this competition with Ford and Willy-Overland American Bantam’s design laid the ground work for what would be forever known as the Jeep. However, due to limited facilities the US Army, needing a production capacity of 75 a day before WWII began, let alone the increased demand after World War Two started, gave the high volume contracts to Ford and Willys-Overland.