1969 Jeep XJ001 Concept

For all the many Jeep CJ spin-offs that have appeared over the years, the basic CJ and its concurrent military counterparts stayed remarkably the same. But that's not to say that Willys, Kaiser Jeep, and most recently, American Motors haven't tinkered with the basic concept.

For example, Willys tried grafting a down sloped hood onto a CJ-3B in 1953 to improve forward visibility. The idea never made production, but a surviving photo from Willys Engineering suggests that it probably improved aerodynamics, even though the industry wouldn't have been concerned with such things for decades.

Some 15 years later, Kaiser Jeep created XJ001, a styling exercise on the 81-inch-wheelbase CJ-5 Universal chassis. Boasting a sporty and modern fiberglass body with an open back, door-less sides, and sculptured, car-like contours, it was designed in 1969, just before the AMC takeover.

A company press release described it as "an experimental test platform for innovations in the growing recreational field." But according to AMC historian John A. Conde, Jeep's new owners "didn't know what to do with it, not having the finances to tool up for such a radical departure from the Jeep CJ.

"Fate solved the problem . . . On the way back from the Texas State Fair several years later, the truck carrying the model flipped over, caught fire, and the Jeep XJ001 was lost forever."

Source: auto.howstuffworks.com

Images: American Motors; www.offroaders.com