I'm 15 so I'm still in School and I'm taking speech this year, I decided to write my speech about the history of the Jeep, cuz WHY NOT
so here's my rough draft, Im still working on it so don't judge, BTW it supposed to be around 9 mins
any pointers would be help fun
enjoy!
Thesis: Jeep is more than just a car brand
The year was 1940, the USA was feeling the effects World War 2, Realizing that this war would not spare anyone they started to accumulate supplies, one thing that they were lacking in the previous war was efficient ground transportation, that was one thing that was needed in this war due to its size and modern weaponry, a message was sent to 135 car companies, the army needed a working prototype of a 4wd reconnaissance vehicle in 49 days, only 1 company made the dead line, that company was Bantam, they presented a 4x4 car that made the specifications that the army had, but when the army put in an order for the cars bantam realized they didn’t have nearly the resources to make all of them, due to this the army sent the blueprints of Bantams car to Ford, and Willys Overland, the army would then chose which car they preferred and have the companies produce those cars. Ford presented the Pygmy, and Willys Overland the Quad, the army chose the Willys Quad due to it being lighter and more powerful,
The Willys MB as it was officially named helped tremendously in the war, approximately 650,000 Of Willys cars were made, many were sent to Americas allies in the war to help out. Field modifications were endless, from VIP limousines to artillery platforms, garbage trucks to messenger service or rapid strike assault vehicles the MB could be outfitted for virtually anything, it served very well as a medical vehicle, wounded soldiers were 10X more likely to survive in the 2nd world war verses the 1st due to the Jeeps that would travel to the front lines, pick them up and bring them to the medical camps. I realize that you may be wondering why I keep calling them Jeeps even though they are technically called the Willys MB, there are many ideas as to where the name came from, some think that it came from the Armies previous use of the word Jeep as a name for new recruits, others think it came from Fords model of the Jeep called the GP, still others think it’s from the show Popeye the sailor, where Popeye gets a pet cat/dog hybrid named Eugene the Jeep that is famous for being able to go anywhere much like the Jeep, The first time the public saw the 4×4 car was when it was driven up the steps of the U.S. Capitol. When a curious audience asked what the vehicle was, the driver said, “It’s a Jeep.” Willys Overland filed a trademark application two years later. Nearing the end of the war Willys Overland started thinking about what they would sell after the war ended, now before the war Willys Overland mainly produced passenger cars, but during the war most of their factories were converted to make the MB, this was a problem, obviously, because the war wouldn’t last forever and that means that the army wouldn’t need cars anymore till the next war and the public sure wouldn’t want to buy a tactical war machine, so Willys decided to adapt the MB to be more “Civilian Friendly”. Willys overland released their first Civilian Jeep, or CJ in 1945, the CJ-2A had larger headlights, a tire mounted on the cars side, a tailgate and a higher windshield, including extra equipment such as a rear seat, center rear view mirror, front passenger seat, canvas top, snow plow, welder, generator, mower disc, heavy duty springs, dual taillights, hot-climate radiator, driveshaft guards, heater, side steps, and radiator brush guard, and whole bunch of other stuff unfortunately it didn’t sell very well, it was rough on the road and overall not very appealing to the general public, In 1949 the CJ-3A was released and it had better seats, more leg room and a host of other creature comforts for the average daily driver, unfortunately this didn’t help sales like they had hoped, Willys-overland was going Downhill fast, things just weren’t going right.
Enter Henry J. Kaiser, Henry Kaiser owned ship building company and he wanted to start a car company, but he knew that he couldn’t compete with the larger car companies like Ford and Chevy, He wanted to buy Willys-Overland and he promised to continue to using the Willys badging on the cars, The first Jeep sold under Kaiser’s ownership was the now iconic CJ5, it had much more rounded corners and a refined interior, sales for the CJ5 along with the CJ6 started in 1955, The 50s were what some consider the start of Jeep culture, the Jeep Jamboree is a very popular Jeep event where many Jeep owners come together for some trail rides, it was started by Mark A. Smith In 1953, he and a bunch of fellow Jeep owners drove the Rubicon trail in the Sierra-Nevada mountains, from then on the annual crossing of the Rubicon trail has become a tradition for Jeep enthusiasts.
even though the CJ5 sold pretty well, the Henry Kaisers endeavor still lost money, Jeep found it very difficult to keep afloat in the car industry. Kaiser knew they needed a better foothold in the car industry so they got in touch with the American Motor Company or AMC, who was looking for a more utilitarian vehicle to round out there more performance orientated vehicles, now Kaiser Jeep was already using a few AMC engines at this point so merging the 2 companies wasn’t unheard of, so in 1970 Kaiser sold the Jeep brand to AMC. The first Jeep designed and sold under by AMC was the CJ7, this car was an immediate sale success. It had a 10 inch longer wheel base and was overall comfier.
Around the year 1980, a 60 minutes segment by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety
was aired, it stated that the CJ5 (which was still in production at this point) was apt to roll over even at speeds as low as 20mph in a parking lot, this hurt sales for the CJ5 and eventually led to it along with the CJ7 being discontinued due to the lack of sales, it was revealed years later that it took 435 tries to get it to roll 8 times, what makes it crazier is that there where weights hidden under the fenders where the camera couldn’t see, to ensure that it was “worst case scenario” even to this day I hear people say that you should be very careful driving a Jeep because they can easily roll, all because of a fake rollover test, by 1986 Jeep, was not doing well, law suites due to the faked rollover test were costing them lots of money, as was tradition by now the Jeep name was handed from 1 struggling company to another, this time it was bought by Chrysler, Chrysler immediately released the all new Jeep YJ Wrangler, (this was the first time it was released under the wrangler name) it was an almost total redesign of the CJ, it had more rear occupant protection, softer suspension, larger engine, and many more things, the most noticeable difference was the head lights, they were square, this angered many Jeep fans, every Jeep since the original MB had circle headlights, another noticeable thing about the YJ was that it sat lower and wider than the CJ, this improved on road handling and comfort,
so here's my rough draft, Im still working on it so don't judge, BTW it supposed to be around 9 mins
any pointers would be help fun
enjoy!
Thesis: Jeep is more than just a car brand
The year was 1940, the USA was feeling the effects World War 2, Realizing that this war would not spare anyone they started to accumulate supplies, one thing that they were lacking in the previous war was efficient ground transportation, that was one thing that was needed in this war due to its size and modern weaponry, a message was sent to 135 car companies, the army needed a working prototype of a 4wd reconnaissance vehicle in 49 days, only 1 company made the dead line, that company was Bantam, they presented a 4x4 car that made the specifications that the army had, but when the army put in an order for the cars bantam realized they didn’t have nearly the resources to make all of them, due to this the army sent the blueprints of Bantams car to Ford, and Willys Overland, the army would then chose which car they preferred and have the companies produce those cars. Ford presented the Pygmy, and Willys Overland the Quad, the army chose the Willys Quad due to it being lighter and more powerful,
The Willys MB as it was officially named helped tremendously in the war, approximately 650,000 Of Willys cars were made, many were sent to Americas allies in the war to help out. Field modifications were endless, from VIP limousines to artillery platforms, garbage trucks to messenger service or rapid strike assault vehicles the MB could be outfitted for virtually anything, it served very well as a medical vehicle, wounded soldiers were 10X more likely to survive in the 2nd world war verses the 1st due to the Jeeps that would travel to the front lines, pick them up and bring them to the medical camps. I realize that you may be wondering why I keep calling them Jeeps even though they are technically called the Willys MB, there are many ideas as to where the name came from, some think that it came from the Armies previous use of the word Jeep as a name for new recruits, others think it came from Fords model of the Jeep called the GP, still others think it’s from the show Popeye the sailor, where Popeye gets a pet cat/dog hybrid named Eugene the Jeep that is famous for being able to go anywhere much like the Jeep, The first time the public saw the 4×4 car was when it was driven up the steps of the U.S. Capitol. When a curious audience asked what the vehicle was, the driver said, “It’s a Jeep.” Willys Overland filed a trademark application two years later. Nearing the end of the war Willys Overland started thinking about what they would sell after the war ended, now before the war Willys Overland mainly produced passenger cars, but during the war most of their factories were converted to make the MB, this was a problem, obviously, because the war wouldn’t last forever and that means that the army wouldn’t need cars anymore till the next war and the public sure wouldn’t want to buy a tactical war machine, so Willys decided to adapt the MB to be more “Civilian Friendly”. Willys overland released their first Civilian Jeep, or CJ in 1945, the CJ-2A had larger headlights, a tire mounted on the cars side, a tailgate and a higher windshield, including extra equipment such as a rear seat, center rear view mirror, front passenger seat, canvas top, snow plow, welder, generator, mower disc, heavy duty springs, dual taillights, hot-climate radiator, driveshaft guards, heater, side steps, and radiator brush guard, and whole bunch of other stuff unfortunately it didn’t sell very well, it was rough on the road and overall not very appealing to the general public, In 1949 the CJ-3A was released and it had better seats, more leg room and a host of other creature comforts for the average daily driver, unfortunately this didn’t help sales like they had hoped, Willys-overland was going Downhill fast, things just weren’t going right.
Enter Henry J. Kaiser, Henry Kaiser owned ship building company and he wanted to start a car company, but he knew that he couldn’t compete with the larger car companies like Ford and Chevy, He wanted to buy Willys-Overland and he promised to continue to using the Willys badging on the cars, The first Jeep sold under Kaiser’s ownership was the now iconic CJ5, it had much more rounded corners and a refined interior, sales for the CJ5 along with the CJ6 started in 1955, The 50s were what some consider the start of Jeep culture, the Jeep Jamboree is a very popular Jeep event where many Jeep owners come together for some trail rides, it was started by Mark A. Smith In 1953, he and a bunch of fellow Jeep owners drove the Rubicon trail in the Sierra-Nevada mountains, from then on the annual crossing of the Rubicon trail has become a tradition for Jeep enthusiasts.
even though the CJ5 sold pretty well, the Henry Kaisers endeavor still lost money, Jeep found it very difficult to keep afloat in the car industry. Kaiser knew they needed a better foothold in the car industry so they got in touch with the American Motor Company or AMC, who was looking for a more utilitarian vehicle to round out there more performance orientated vehicles, now Kaiser Jeep was already using a few AMC engines at this point so merging the 2 companies wasn’t unheard of, so in 1970 Kaiser sold the Jeep brand to AMC. The first Jeep designed and sold under by AMC was the CJ7, this car was an immediate sale success. It had a 10 inch longer wheel base and was overall comfier.
Around the year 1980, a 60 minutes segment by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety
was aired, it stated that the CJ5 (which was still in production at this point) was apt to roll over even at speeds as low as 20mph in a parking lot, this hurt sales for the CJ5 and eventually led to it along with the CJ7 being discontinued due to the lack of sales, it was revealed years later that it took 435 tries to get it to roll 8 times, what makes it crazier is that there where weights hidden under the fenders where the camera couldn’t see, to ensure that it was “worst case scenario” even to this day I hear people say that you should be very careful driving a Jeep because they can easily roll, all because of a fake rollover test, by 1986 Jeep, was not doing well, law suites due to the faked rollover test were costing them lots of money, as was tradition by now the Jeep name was handed from 1 struggling company to another, this time it was bought by Chrysler, Chrysler immediately released the all new Jeep YJ Wrangler, (this was the first time it was released under the wrangler name) it was an almost total redesign of the CJ, it had more rear occupant protection, softer suspension, larger engine, and many more things, the most noticeable difference was the head lights, they were square, this angered many Jeep fans, every Jeep since the original MB had circle headlights, another noticeable thing about the YJ was that it sat lower and wider than the CJ, this improved on road handling and comfort,
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