American bantam

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
American Bantam (1939)
American Bantam (1939)
American Bantam Model 60 Coupe (1938)
American Bantam Model 60 Roadster (1938)
American Bantam Model 60 Cabriolet (1939)
Prototype of the American Bantam Jeep (1941)

The American Bantam Car Company was an American small car manufacturer that manufactured in Butler, Pennsylvania from 1937 to 1941 .

The predecessor was the American Austin Car Company , which was associated with the British Austin Motor Company . It was founded in 1929 and manufactured the Austin 7 for the US market from 1930 to 1934 . Then it had to file for bankruptcy and was re-established as American Bantam the following year. Cars were manufactured from 1937 to 1941 and the first prototype of the jeep was also designed .

American Austin Car Company

The American Austin Car Company was founded in Butler, Pennsylvania in 1929 to assemble the US version of the Austin 7 , which was named American Austin . The cars had a wheelbase of 1905 mm and their four-cylinder in-line engines developed 15 bhp (11 kW). The cars without any further model designation were initially created as roadsters, coupés and deluxe coupés. From 1932 a runabout, a convertible and a business coupé were added. After some initial sales successes, the global economic crisis set in . The sales figures fell so drastically that production eventually had to be stopped. After producing around 20,000 cars, the company went bankrupt in 1934.

American bantam

In 1935 Roy Evans , a former Austin model agent, bought the bankrupt company and started it up under the name American Bantam. "Bantam" is a particularly small-bred chicken, and so it is likely that the name referred to the size of the cars made there. All relations with the British company Austin were broken off. The construction of the American Austin was revised; a modified engine (with 19 bhp = 14 kW power) was used and the outer shell was redesigned by Alexis de Sakhnoffski . In 1937, production of the Model 60 was resumed and continued until 1939. In 1940 the more powerful 65 model came on the market, the engine of which was now producing 22 bhp (16 kW). Although a large number of different bodies were manufactured (standard coupé, master coupé, master roadster, coupé-convertible, sedan-convertible and station wagon) only 6000 bantams were made. The 1938 Model 60 became known as the template for Donald Duck's car.

The jeep

American Bantam also designed and built the first Jeep , the prototype - delivered in September 1940 - was followed by 69 modified BRC-60 vehicles . Some of them had four-wheel steering . From the spring of 1941, 1500 BRC-40s (Bantam Reconnaissance Car) followed, again modified . Most of these jeeps were delivered to allies (Great Britain, USSR). Some of the engines and chassis of the Bantam civil vehicles were imported into the UK by the Austin Motor Company ; The bodies were in adopted by American Austin works in Detroit ( Michigan ) and Butler (Pennsylvania) produced. The orders for the mass production of the Jeep went to Willys and Ford. Since the time of the competition the opinion has been spread that Bantam did not have sufficient capacity to deliver the quantities required by the US War Department. There is no precise evidence for this view. Former Bantam employees disagree and, based on their experience with the construction of approx. 2500 BRC-40s, suggest that Bantam would have been able to make these deliveries. The only really large manufacturer among the three applicants was Ford. Apparently due to Bantam's capacity and financial problems, it was decided to outsource the mass production to Willys-Overland . A little later, Ford was won over to build Willys' car under license, which was done with minor differences. After the BRC-40, Bantam no longer built cars, but the T-3 jeep trailer.

Web links

Commons : American Austin / American Bantam  - collection of images, videos, and audio files