<![CDATA[<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/hoCxunMgVfw" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/hoCxunMgVfw</a>]]>Jeep celebrates its 70th anniversary in 2011, and as we welcome the best Wrangler yet, we pay tribute to the original trail-rated truck. Though Jeep considers its birth year to be 1941, when the first military-spec Jeeps rolled off the line in Toledo, Ohio, the first Civilian Jeeps, or CJs, weren't available until 1945. This Model CJ2A is number 26, and cost $1200 new.
One of only a handful built with a column-shift "three-on-the-tree" three-speed manual transmission, this truck spends most of its time in the Chrysler collection, but it's led a full life. Jeep acquired it from an Indiana collector who had bought it from a school district that was using it to pull parade floats. Before undergoing a full restoration, it was said to have been covered in layers of house paint "an inch thick." Today, it looks just as it did when it rolled off the Willys-Overland production line 67 years ago.
It drives like it, too. Puttering around Motor Trend headquarters, the CJ was only slightly trickier to handle than a modern Wrangler. As in any old truck, there's a fair amount of play in the steering, and it never really tracks straight unless you keep sawing at the wheel. The column-mounted shifter takes a little getting used to, but it's the same H-pattern you'll find on any modern stickshift. Sure, the new Wrangler isn't temperamental on a cold-start, and you don't have to rev-match every downshift to keep from grinding the gears, but you adapt quickly to the CJ's quirks. The seats are actually quite plush, and the 60-horsepower L-head four-cylinder is enough to get the 2200-pound truck down the road. Even the transfer case operates nearly the same as in a new truck.
Easy to drive, easy to fix, nearly impossible to break -- one can see why not much has changed in the last 70 years
Read more:
http://www.motortrend.com/classic/features/1108_1945_jeep_cj2a_classic/#ixzz1WTb034pF
