The history of the American Bantam really begins in Great Britain with Herbert Austin, a self-made engineer and tool maker. While working as the manager of the Wolseley Tool and Motor Car Company, Austin felt he could make a better car on his own and founded the Austin Motor Company in 1905 just outside of Birmingham, England.

The early days of Herbert Austin’s company were helped by contracts for military vehicles with the onset of World War I, and Austin was knighted for his efforts. After the war, the company resumed production motor cars based upon one model, powered by a 20 horsepower, 3.6 liter engine. Sales were slow so Sir Herbert moved the single model into a commercial version, and built good tractors with the same chassis. With sales still lagging, the company was facing bankruptcy.

In 1922, Austin introduced a car that he felt certain would turn the company around, the Austin 7. The new car was aimed at penetrating the mass market by being smaller, lighter, well built and economical. The "7" represented the engine's horsepower rating putting it into the current micro-car class and avoiding higher taxes.

The Austin 7 was an instant success, not only in Great Britain, but also in what was the most difficult motor car export market of the time, North America. Austin licensed a move of a part of its operations to the United States in 1929, setting up a factory to produce the Americanized Austin 7 in Butler, Pennsylvania. As production started, the company claimed it had close to 200,000 orders for its new ultra-light, ultra-economical car. Sir William Lyons used the Austin 7 chassis to build his own car, the "Swallow" which gave him the knowledge and profits to form Jaguar in 1935.

The American Austin sold fairly well, but the deepening of the Depression, and a resistance to tiny cars, brought the American Austin into bankruptcy in 1934. A top American Austin salesman, Roy Evans, bought the bankrupt American Austin, renaming it to American Bantam in 1935, but had no money left to build cars. It wasn't until 1938 that the first Bantam "60" passenger cars and trucks began rolling off the production line.

Evans updated the body and put in a new engine to avoid having to pay royalties back to Austin. Improvements to the Bantam engine included changing the main bearings to a babbitt type, increasing the compression to 7.0 to 1, and using a different type of carburetor. Full pressurized lubrication was employed, along with a pump circulated cooling system. Horsepower increased from 13 to 19, with an increase in torque.

Still, the Bantam couldn't make a significant American market penetration even though by 1938, the Bantam was on a par with Chrysler, Buick, and Mercury as far as quality, reliability, and appointments were concerned. With five new models added to the line in 1939, prospects seemed bright. In the following two and one-half years, the company produced approximately 6700 cars and trucks, but at an average loss of $75 per vehicle.

In 1941 the Bantam Car Company developed the Bantam Reconnaissance Car, the prototype of the Jeep, in response to a U.S. Army request for an all-purpose military vehicle. It was rigorously tested by the Army for several weeks, and then declared to exceed expectations, but the government decided that the American Bantam Company’s plant was too small to produce the numbers of vehicles it needed and gave the contract to Willys and Ford.

In May of 1943 the Fair Trade Commission charged Willys with false and misleading advertising by claiming that Willys had created the Jeep. The court determined that the Jeep was fostered and conceived in Butler, Pennsylvania, by the American Bantam Car Company.

Evans sold the company in 1946, but the factory buildings are still there today. The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission placed an historic roadside marker on Hansen Avenue in Butler, commemorating the development of the Bantam Reconnaissance Car, the "Jeep."

Photo © Michele Hamer