Sarge - Disney Pixar Cars
An old warhorse-less-carriage put out to permanent pasture, Sarge is a 1942 WWII Willys Army Jeep. Permanently annoyed by the close proximity of Fillmore, Sarge runs Radiator Springs’ army surplus store from a Quonset Hut. When he isn’t barking orders at Fillmore, Sarge is square bashing in his yard. His attempts to salute the Stars and Stripes with the national anthem every morning are repeatedly foiled by Fillmore.
Initially produced for World War II, tiny Willy's-Overland Motors began producing the sturdy, low-cost Jeeps in 1941 after winning a competition with larger Ford Motor for the War Dept. contract. Designed to meet government specifications, Willy's won the contract with a cheaper version and its more powerful Willys Go Devil engine. But in time, when it couldn't meet the demand to produce enough Jeeps, the government also awarded a contract to Ford Motors. Willy retained the name "Jeep" as a registered trademark, although the car is now made by Daimler-Chrysler.
Jeep is an automobile marque (and registered trademark) of Chrysler. It is the oldest sport utility vehicle (SUV) brand, with Land Rover coming in a close second. The word "jeep," uncapitalized, is used as a generic term for any vehicle of this shape and function.
Sarge is a veteran of the Big One, and is solidly All-American, flying the Stars and Stripes and beginning each day with a vibrating version of Reveille. Of course, Sarge runs Sarge's Surplus Hut, providing scrap parts to the locals, and hangs out at his Quonset hut with the perfectly manicured front lawn -- mowed each day to resemble a military flat-top. Near the end of the Cars movie, it is revealed he later opens an Army Camp to train SUVs and 4x4s in rugged and dirt terrain.
Jeeps have always been known for their abilities off-road, and their popularity endures. Today, the Wrangler is the only light-duty vehicle offered in North America with solid axles front and rear. These axles are known for their durability due to their overall strength and lack of rubber boots to get torn on twigs and rocks. Solid-axled vehicles also generally articulate better, especially when traversing ruts. Even the two wheel drive models are equipped with "solid" axles in the front.
Another plus of solid axle vehicles is they tend to be easier and cheaper to "lift." This "lifting" increases the distance between the center of the axle hub and chassis of the vehicle. By increasing this distance, larger tires can be installed, which will increase the ground clearance of the Jeep, allowing it to traverse even larger and more difficult obstacles. Jeep is also known as a symbol of freedom because of the capacity of going almost everywhere. Many people equip theirs with roll-bars, extra lights, and maybe a winch to pull the vehicle out from the mud or sand when stuck.
Useful features of the smaller Jeeps are their short wheelbases, narrow frames, and great approach, breakover, and departure angles, allowing them to fit places where full - sized trucks could never go.
The Willys MB US Army Jeep, along with the nearly identical Ford GPW, was manufactured from 1941 to 1945. They are the iconic World War II Jeep.
Willys was the brand name used by the United States automobile company, Willys-Overland Motors, best known for its production of military and civilian Jeeps, during the twentieth century.
Jeep is an automobile marque (and registered trademark) of Chrysler. It is the oldest off-road vehicle (also sport utility vehicle - SUV) brand, with Land Rover coming in a close second. The original vehicle which first appeared as the prototype Bantam BRC became the primary light 4 wheel drive car of the US Army and allies during the World War II and postwar period. Many vehicles serving similar military and civilian roles have since been created by many nations.
There are many explanations of the origin of the word "jeep", which have proven difficult to verify. Probably the most popular notion holds that the vehicle bore the designation "GP" (for "Gov. Purposes" or "General Purpose"), which was phonetically slurred into the word jeep. However, R. Lee Ermey, on his television series Mail Call, disputes this, saying that the vehicle was designed for specific duties, was never referred to as "General Purpose", and that the name may have been derived from Ford's nomenclature referring to the vehicle as GP (G for government-use, and P to designate its 80-inch (2,000 mm) wheelbase). "GP" does appear in connection with the vehicle in the mode TM 9-803 manual, which describes the vehicle as a machine and the vehicle is designated a "GP" in TM 9-2800, Standard Motor Vehicles, September 1, 1949, but whether the average jeep-driving GI would have been familiar with either of these manuals is open to debate.
This account may confuse the jeep with the nickname of another series of vehicles with the GP designation. The Electro-Motive Division of General Motors, a maker of railroad locomotives, introduced its "General Purpose" line in 1949, using the GP tag. These locomotives are commonly referred to as Geeps, pronounced the same way as "Jeep."
Many, including Ermey, suggest that soldiers at the time were so impressed with the new vehicles that they informally named it after Eugene the Jeep, a cartoon character that "could go anywhere".
The term "jeep" was first commonly used during World War I (1914 - 1918) by soldiers as a slang word for new recruits and for new unproven vehicles. This is according to a history of the vehicle for an issue of the U.S. Army magazine, Quartermaster Review, which was written by Maj. E. P. Hogan. He went on to say that the slang word "jeep" had these definitions as late as the start of World War II.
"Jeep" had been used as the name of a small tractor made by Moline.
The term "jeep" would eventually be used as slang to refer to an airplane, a tractor used for hauling heavy equipment, and an autogyro. When the first models of the jeep came to Camp Holabird for tests, the vehicle did not have a name yet. Therefore the soldiers on the test project called it a jeep. Civilian engineers and test drivers who were at the camp during this time were not aware of the military slang term. They most likely were familiar with the character Eugene the Jeep and thought that Eugene was the origin of the name. The vehicle had many other nicknames at this time such as Peep (the term originally used in the Armored Force), Pygmy, and Blitz-Buggy, although because of the Eugene association, Jeep stuck in people's minds better than any other term.
Words of the Fighting Forces by Clinton A. Sanders, a dictionary of military slang, published in 1942, in the library at The Pentagon gives this definition:
Jeep: A four-wheel drive car of one-half to one-and-one-half ton capacity for reconnaissance or other army duty. A term applied to the bantam-cars, and occasionally to other motor vehicles (U.S.A.) in the Air Corps, the Link Trainer; in the armored forces, the � ton command car. Also referred to as "any small plane, helicopter, or gadget."
Early in 1941, Willys-Overland demonstrated the vehicle's ability by having it drive up the U.S. Capitol steps, driven by Willy's test driver Irving "Red" Haussman, who had recently heard soldiers at Fort Holabird calling it a "jeep." When asked by syndicated columnist Katherine Hillyer for the Washington Daily News (or by a bystander, according to another account) what it was called, Irving answered, "It's a jeep."
Katherine Hillyer's article was published on February 20, 1941 around the nation and included a picture of the vehicle with the caption:
LAWMAKERS TAKE A RIDE- With Senator Meade, of New York, at the wheel, and Representative Thomas, of New Jersey, sitting beside him, one of the Army's new scout cars, known as "jeeps" or "quads", climbs up the Capitol steps in a demonstration yesterday. Soldiers in the rear seat for gunners were unperturbed.
This exposure caused all other jeep references to fade, leaving the 4x4 truck with the name.
Willys-Overland Inc. was later awarded the sole privilege of owning the name "Jeep" as registered trademark, by extension, merely because it originally had offered the most powerful engine.
