American Bantam® is serious about off-roading so we take safety seriously from design, engineering and manufacturing. We build safety into our products and our manufacturing processes to ensure the safety of our employees and our customers alike. Whether in the USA or in China our factory facilities and manufacturing procedures build safety for American Bantam® employees into the manufacturing process every step of the way.

American Bantam® meets the challenge of fulfilling government mandated street-legal vehicle safety requirements for an off-road vehicle by engineering safety into mechanical, software and safety systems from the grill to the tailpipe. American Bantam leads the industry in designed-in street-legal off-road safety features including:

• Low Profile Low Center of Gravity Design
• Stamped Steel Body and Steel Chassis Design
• 3-Layer CCC Approved Laminated Safety Windshield
• Integrated A-Pillar Windshield High-Strength Roll Bar
• Removable High-Strength Steel 6-point / 8-point Roll Cage
• Steel Reinforced Lower A-Pillar / Lower B-Pillar / Lower C-Pillar
• Canvas Covered ¾ inch (19mm) Roll Cage Protective Foam Padding
• 35-inch (888mm) CCC Approved 315/70R17 Deep Tread All-Terrain Radial Tires
• Inherently Stable 66.1-inch (1,680mm) Track Width under 65.7 inch (1,670mm) Wide Steel Body
• Always-Active Traction Control with Front/Back Torsen Mechanical Limited Slip Differentials
• Reclinable Steel Frame CCC Approved Seat with Deep Side and Lateral Bolsters
• Street-Legal 3-Point 2-inch (50mm) CCC Approved Seatbelt
• Mountings Ready for Extra 5-Point Racing Harness Seatbelt

American Bantam® Jeeps are designed and engineered with safety in mind. Our vehicles include the safety features off-roaders demand. Remember to Always Wear Your Seatbelt, unless you are wearing a 5-Point Safety Harness!

American Bantam Car Co will initially launch production of its new Jeep in China.

China is a paradise for off-roading. China has an excellent and relatively new national highway system but most of China is sparsely populated. People like to think of China as being very crowded, and the cities are, without a doubt, but 78% of China’s land is relatively unpopulated (the green areas in this map).

China’s terrain is also very suitable for off-roading. More than 58% of China is mountains and 28% of China is desert, so over 86% of China is ideal for a four-wheel drive vehicle. Most of China is empty: more than 98% of the population lives on less than half the land in China.

China has the world’s largest online social network for off-road enthusiasts called FBLife.com with 16 Million members. Every weekend off-roading events are held all over the country with thousands of people participating. And every October millions off-road enthusiasts gather in the desert in western Inner Mongolia to celebrate off-roading during a week long government holiday.

Chinese automobile manufacturers make Jeeps for the military but they are oversized, heavy and underpowered. Imported off-road vehicles are subject to heavy duties and must be outfitted to be safe for off-roading. Even ten year old used 4x4s can sell for over $100,000 in China. So right now there is a dearth of off-road vehicles for a market with a huge demand in China.

China has a special “Type 2” off-road vehicle category which doesn’t require crash tests, airbags or an electronic stability control system which are required in the USA. The Chinese regulations for off-road vehicles make a lot of sense: the idea is these safety systems are not really necessary when off-roading because drivers and passengers always wear seatbelts. Certainly the last thing a 4×4 owner wants is an airbag to deploy when their Jeep just hit a rough patch.

American Bantam has spent the last four years developing our supply chain to produce a quality vehicle at an affordable price. Multiple China vehicle manufacturers have approached us to manufacture the new American Bantam Jeep. We have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with one manufacturer and, subject to Chinese government approvals, vehicle production should begin in 2020.

After the war when military procurement ended American Bantam® struggled to find a place in the civilian trailer market until it was absorbed by the Monroe Company, a division of Willys-Overland, in July, 1947. Willys’ directors assumed control stripping the Butler, Pennsylvania factory of valuable tooling and equipment and siphoning off profits, forcing the company to seek bankruptcy protection in 1950.

In 1946 James Brannan used his contacts within Ford to purchase the Gwinnett County Ford dealership and within 4 years Brannan Auto had built two dealerships in the Atlanta suburbs. In 1962 ‘Jimmy’ F. Brannan Jr. incorporated Brannan Auto Parts, Inc. in Georgia and prospered with expansion into auto part sales. In the early 1960s James Brannan sold the Ford dealerships and the company focused on aftermarket auto parts distribution, building up a chain of auto parts stores and becoming one of the largest parts distributors in the southeast USA.

Charlie Paglee first started working for Brannan Auto in 1980 as a young teenager and in 1993 Mr. Paglee moved to China and began visiting factories and purchasing off-road auto parts in China. Brannan Auto established an office in China in 2007 with Charlie Paglee as the China General Manager. Brannan Auto’s chain of auto parts stores in the USA was acquired by CarQuest in 2008 which is now part of the Advanced Auto group.

Brannan Auto expanded its China operations in 2010 opening offices in Shanghai and Beijing and in 2012 Charlie Paglee became the main shareholder of the company. Brannan Auto leveraged automotive engineering, manufacturing experience and knowledge of China’s off-road industry to become a leading supplier of automotive components for smaller OEM automobile manufacturers.

In 2013 Brannan Auto acquired the rights to American Bantam® brand and in 2015 Brannan Auto delivered its first off-road vehicle to a US customer but quickly realized a much more durable design was required. Brannan Auto began designing and engineering a new jeep in 2015 with an entirely new steel body and rugged chassis design focused on durability and performance. Brannan Auto produced a prototype vehicle in 2018 and after thorough testing determined it still needed a more durable chassis design and a stronger powerplant.

In 2019 American Bantam Car Corporation was incorporated and immediately acquired Brannan Auto Parts, Inc. in the USA and Brannan Auto Engineering Co., Ltd. in China. The combined company has spent the last four years engineering, tooling, testing and validating the new vehicle design for durability and performance. American Bantam® will launch production of the American Bantam® BRC-23 and BRC-25 vehicles in China in 2020.

Charlie Paglee opened up the China division of Brannan Auto in 2007 and became the Chairman of the USA headquarters, Brannan Auto Parts, Inc., in 2010. In 2019 Mr. Paglee became the Chairman of American Bantam Car Corporation after merging with the Brannan Auto USA and Brannan Auto China corporate entities.

Mr. Paglee is recognized as an automotive industry expert by the China State Administration of Foreign Expert Affairs. He also serves as the Chair of the Shanghai International Auto Group and the co-chair of the China Autonomous Vehicle Experts Group.

Born and raised in Maryland, USA, Mr. Paglee earned an Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Auburn University in 1992. Mr. Paglee studied in the Juris Doctor/MBA program at University of Maryland and graduated in 1998.

When Mr. Paglee relocated to China in 1993 he promptly purchased a Beijing Jeep and was part of an early but rapidly growing off-roading community in Beijing. He speaks fluent Chinese Mandarin and over the course of 25+ years he has endured a grass-roots training that gives him a special advantage when doing business in China.

After completing his graduate studies Mr. Paglee spent a number of years working in the telecom industry while continuing to pursue his passion for automotive manufacturing and off-road adventure in China. In 2007, after selling a telecom company which Mr. Paglee founded, he returned to the automobile industry full time.

Mr. Paglee is active in a number of charities and in the expatriate community in Shanghai. When Mr. Paglee is not working he is usually spending time with his family or playing sports with friends.

In 139 BC during a visit to the capital of China, the Prince of Huainan, Liu An, presented the Book of Huainan Masters as a gift to the new Emperor of China. The book collects the teachings on Daoism, Confucianism, Buddhism, Legalism, mathematics and geography outlining “all that a modern monarch needs to know”. One of the book’s most famous passages is often incorrectly attributed to the Bible:

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day;
Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

At American Bantam® our charitable mission is to build a better world through education one community at a time. In addition to the monetary donations we make to charities and the charitable events American Bantam® supports underprivileged communities by providing educational resources for children and adults on a broad range of topics from arithmetic to language studies to farming to business.

Driving 4×4 off the well beaten path inevitably brings adventurous off-roaders to communities that are perhaps not as well-off but still happily live life with vigor. Children in these out-of-the-way towns can miss out on the things American Bantam® owners often take for granted, which is why we at American Bantam® consciously give back to the community.

Every American Bantam® jeep will ship with a box of new or slightly used books for the new owner to give away to children and adults he meets during his off-road adventures. This is how we say thank you to the people we meet along the way in life.

American Bantam® funds a small team called Brannan® Education which is dedicated to acquiring, printing and distributing books, text books and educational materials to our customers, to the underprivileged and to the general public alike. Brannan® Education acquires books through publisher surplus sales, through used books donated or sold by schools and libraries and by editing and printing open-source educational textbooks.

Aside from the books we give away with every jeep we sell all books at cost and when we say “at cost” we mean the cost of buying, shipping or printing the books. American Bantam® covers all the salaries, benefits and overhead for all employees working for Brannan® Education. And American Bantam® covers all costs for books we give away with the jeeps we sell or when we gift books directly to individuals or communities. This is how we “pay it forward”.

In 1940 American Bantam Car Co. designed and built the first Jeep in record time because of their many years of experience building what were at the time comparatively small cars. No other car manufacturer at the time had the small vehicle engineering and manufacturing expertise that American Bantam® possessed and without that expertise the Jeep that helped win World War II may never have been conceived.

The predecessor to American Bantam® was the American Austin Car Co., which was founded in 1929 as a subsidiary of the Austin Motor Co. from England. They manufactured the Austin Seven under license for the American market until American Austin went into receivership in 1934.

Austin Motors was founded in 1905 by Sir Herbert Austin in Longbridge, England and grew to become one of the greatest car manufacturers in the world. Austin engineered automobiles were the first automobiles manufactured by American Bantam, BMW, Mini, Austin-Healey, Rover, Rosengart in France, Roewe in China and Nisaan in Japan.

The Austin Seven was an incredibly popular vehicle at the time and was the largest manufactured automobile in Great Britain in 1930. The American version of the Austin Seven had a 15 hp 747 cc (45.6 cu in) inline-four engine with a top speed of 50 mph (80 km/h) in top gear. The car was a tiny 10 feet (3m) long with a 75 inch (1905mm) wheelbase and weighed only 1,130 lbs (514 kg), enabling the car to achieve 40 mpg (5.9 L/100 km) in 1930! The American Austin sold 8,558 vehicles during the company’s first year of production and produced around 20,000 cars before operations ceased in 1934.

American Bantam Car Co. was founded in 1935 by Roy Evans, a former salesman for Austin, who purchased the American Austin assets out of bankruptcy. American Bantam® car’s were built on the same 75 inch wheelbase chassis but with a new 19 hp (14 kW) engine and a new body with more modern styling designed by Alexis de Sakhnoffsky. Production of the Austin Seven resumed in 1937 and in 1940 the engine was upgraded to 22 hp (16 kW) to achieve a top speed of 60 mph. Around 6,000 Bantam® Sevens were built before America entered World War II.

Charles ‘Harry’ Payne lobbied forcefully with the US Army Quartermaster Corps (QMC) to sell American Bantam® cars to the US military but in 1940 the QMC was in no hurry and lacked the budget to develop an entirely new vehicle. Payne wound up convincing Secretary of War Harry Woodring on the concept which eventually led to General Marshall’s office appointing an Ordnance Subcommittee to visit the original American Bantam® factory in Butler, Pennsylvania, where the first jeep was later invented.

At their headquarters American Bantam showed the Army QMC their existing Roadster and the Roadster Pickup. Indeed, displaying these vehicles would later come back to haunt American Bantam® because this is probably where the US Army initially came up with the idea that the “reconnaissance car” could weigh only 1,200 pounds with a 70 inch wheelbase, 200 pounds lighter and 5 inches shorter than the Austin Seven.

While the American Bantam® Pilot was indeed the first small, light-weight four-wheel drive vehicle, the American Bantam® Seven was the first vehicle the US Army QMC looked at when setting the specifications for the original jeep and was undoubtedly the foundation for the design of the first American Bantam® jeep.

American Bantam® began delivering the first mass production BRC-60 jeeps to the US Army on November 23, 1940. The American Bantam® BRC-60 was the first jeep to enter military combat, used by the British during a campaign in northern Africa. The British SAS relied on heavily armed jeeps in North Africa missions. While the first batch of BRC-60 jeeps was in production the US Army came back with a purchase order for 1,500 more jeeps.

After successfully delivering the BRC-60 the US Army increased the Jeep minimum weight specification to enable Ford and Willys to compete. American Bantam® strengthened their already rugged chassis design and the new jeep was designated the BRC-40. Production of the BRC-40 began on March 31, 1941to fulfill the Army’s 1,500 jeep outstanding purchase order.

By December 6, 1941 American Bantam had manufactured 2,605 BRC-40 jeeps for the US, China and Russian armies. The BRC-40 was the lightest and most nimble of the three competing models, and the Army lauded its good suspension and brakes, and high fuel economy. The American Bantam® BRC-40 jeep was preferred over the Willys and Fords by China and Russian militaries because of its light weight and better gas mileage.

During the summer of 1941 the Army QMC made the decision to award the Jeep manufacturing contract to Willys because their bid was $40 cheaper than the American Bantam. The president of American Bantam Francis Fenn went to Washington to testify in the Senate and protest the award of the contract to Willys. Fenn had been told by his contacts in the QMC that they had been ordered to award to contract to Willys-Overland by John D. Biggers, director of production in the Office of Production Management.

In the end the Army QMC awarded the contract to produce standardized jeeps to Willys-Overland. When Henry Ford heard about this he twisted some arms and half the production was turned over to Ford. American Bantam® was issued a contract to produce amphibious trailers to be towed by Jeeps and other military vehicles. During the war American Bantam® produced 73,689 T3 trailers made its best effort to continue producing civilian trailers after the war.

After it became clear American Bantam® would not manufacture any jeeps for military production American Bantam® resumed their production of civilian vehicles to reduce their parts inventory. On August 18, 1943 the last American Bantam® rolled off the assembly line in Butler, Pennsylvania.

All together American Bantam® delivered 2,676 Bantam® jeeps leading up to the United States entry into WW2 in six different models:

• American Bantam® Pilot (1 units)
• American Bantam® BRC-60 (62 units)
• American Bantam® BRC-60 4-wheel steering (8 units)
• American Bantam® BRC-40 (1,500 units)
• American Bantam® BRC-40 4-wheel steering (62 units)
• American Bantam® BRC-40a (1,043 units)

The invention of the jeep was critical to the allies victory in WW2, both in Europe and in Asia. In the words of the Pulitzer Prize–winning war journalist Ernie Pyle: “It does everything. It goes everywhere. It’s as faithful as a dog, as strong as a mule and as agile as a goat. It constantly carries twice what it was designed for, and still keeps on going.”