1962 Hotchkiss Jeep 1965 Mustang GT
After 25 years I reckoned I had done everything I wanted to with my Austin Healey 3000 Mkl and decided I wanted to own other cars. I'd had my eye on a Mustang GT for a while after meeting a guy who explained the differences from a standard car and I found a recently imported car in Derby, but should have smelt a rat. I broke the golden rule of car buying of never inspecting a potential purchase in the rain. The paint always looks better than it is when wet and lying on the ground to check underneath isn't appealing ... To cut a long story short, I may write about it again; however, the car was a rust bucket and has been in auto hospital for nearly two years now.
So without a classic, and change from the sale of the big Healey burning a hole in my pocket, I looked for number two on my list of cars to own before I'm too old: a Willy's Jeep. I've always liked cars with a story. The Healey had Le Mans and rallying credentials, the Mustang has become an icon all of its own making, but the Jeep'sstory is legendary.
Something I quickly learned after driving a couple of Second World War examples was that these wartime-built cars are quite fragile. Let's face it, they were thrown together in a time of emergency and their life expectancy was thought to be six weeks. However most of the guys I met who owned a Willys or a Ford GPW also owned a Hotchkiss Jeep.
After the war most of the American equipment was just dumped in Europe and Jeeps continued to be useful until they broke and ran out of spares. French car-maker Hotchkiss acquired a licence to build them and carried on making Jeepsto the same spec right up until 1966. Improvements were made and these Hotchkiss M201 Jeepsare more robust and reliable than the wartime Jeeps. My car came from near Slapton in Devon and is a 1962 ex-Norwegian army Jeep. It has the 24-volt system and waterproofed electrics common to those Jeepsused for radio transmissions, but has standard plug and HT leads rather than the suppressed type fitted which can be troublesome. From the off I fell in love with it and so did my wife and kids. The Jeep is perfect for tootling around the lanes where we live, going to the pub with mates and local events. My wife has threatened to divorce me if I ever dress up as a GI, but apart from that the new addition to the family has been warmly welcomed and is in regular use. The only hiccough so far was a busted diff which broke up along the line of an old weld, as we discovered when we rebuilt it. Working on the car is simple and all parts are available- you can even buy a new body with many of the spares being exwartime stock.