The name 'Jeep' came from a corruption of General Purpose (or 'GP') vehicle. At the beginning of the second World War the American government called for tenders to produced a small four wheel drive general purpose vehicle for military use. Only 3 companies tendered and the contract was won by the Bantam BRC model, but the US Army Quartermaster considered that Bantam could not manufacture their Karl Probst design in sufficient quantities, so the US Army passed the design onto the other bidders Ford and Willys. 1500 Bantam BRC 40, 1500 Willys MA Quad, and 1500 Ford Government Pygmy were ordered for trials, and both Ford and Willys borrowed from the Bantam. Willys won this contest, developing its design into the Willys MB, and being awarded a contract for 16,000 vehicles in July 1941. By October 1941 Ford was asked to also manufacture the Willys MB as the Ford GPW and both cars had only minor differences, and in any case components were often made by the same sub contractors regardless of whether Ford or Willys assembled the Jeep. A 2199cc L-head 4-cylinder Willys 60hp engine powered the Jeep. 350,000 Willys MB were manufactured and 280,000 Ford GPW.