1970 Jeep XJ001: The Concept That Invented the Side-By-Side
In 2025, it was estimated that the UTV/side-by-side sector was worth $7.7 billion. By 2035, it’s thought that it could reach as high as $13.8 billion. That’s some serious market growth in a relatively contained period. Yet, from a certain point of view, none of it would’ve been possible had it not been for…Jeep?! That’s right, back when Jeep was a very different company than it is today, the firm may have ironically started a market segment which, today, it has no presence in whatsoever. The reasons why are complicated, and rooted in Jeep’s origins as manufacturers of machines of war.
From the Fires of Conflict
If you parked a World War II-era US Army Jeep next to a modern Polaris Ranger or Can Am Defender, the first thing you’re liable to think is how similar they look. Of course, 80 years of refinement, safety standards, and changing standards from the military to the civilian market, plus decades of changing market tastes have put considerable distance between a 1⁄4‑ton Willys MB and a modern Jeep Wrangler. This was very much by design, for a time when an Army Jeep needed to be light enough to trot around muddy fields for the entire length of the war, and carry enough people or supplies to serve its role as a military vehicle.
Ford and Willys-Overland are the two firms most closely associated with the MB program. The original design was penned and prototyped by the American Bantam Car Company and a little-remembered freelance designer named Karl Probst. With its minute form factor, rugged suspension, skinny yet chunky tires, and its plucky 2.2-liter “Go-Devil” four-cylinder engine, the original Army Jeep resembled a modern side-by-side far more than a civilian off-roader. Back when the name of the game was pure, unadulterated utility, it makes sense why this was the case.
In truth, this formula didn’t change much when Kaiser Motors purchased the Jeep brand from Willys in 1953. Subsequent “Civilian Jeeps,” or CJs, as they were known, still used the same basic UTV-adjacent form factor. They used a direct replacement to the original Go-Devil engine, dubbed the Hurricane, and they were so far removed from being decent road vehicles that taking a CJ-2, CJ-3A or CJ-5 on pavement was a comical notion. They were out and out off-road utility vehicles, and while the Jeep line proliferated with the Wagoneer SUV, Gladiator pickup, and the Jeepster Commando, the CJ stayed stubbornly focused on utility. It was a design philosophy set in stone. At least, while under Kaiser ownership.
The Shift to AMC, and a Shift in Philosophy
The consortium of automakers that’d one day become AMC purchased the Jeep brand from Kaiser for the equivalent of $70 million in 1970. When it did, it acquired a portfolio of vehicles running the gamut from the refined SUV to the bare-bones farm machine that happened to be road legal. Over time, AMC would perform little updates to make the CJ platform just a little bit better at things other than farm work. The tractor-like Hurricane engine would be temporarily supplanted in favor of a GM-sourced “Dauntless” V6 from 1965 onwards. Ironically, GM would ask for the rights to their V6 back a few years later in the wake of the first global oil crisis.
Elsewhere, the CJ-5’s nose and wheelbase was lengthened to support its own in-house line of engines, including its legendary straight-six lineup, as well as a 304-cubic-inch. Even then, the CJ-5 had to be extended once again to accommodate a contemporary automatic transmission, called the CJ-7. The CJ-7 sported an optional molded plastic hardtop, making rain and snow driving far more tolerable, while Dana 30 front axles and optional front disc brakes and power steering brought a real sense of modernity to a platform typecast as a road tractor. On the trim side, AMC introduced special editions like the Renegade and the Laredo, nameplates that’d serve Jeep very well decades later under Chrysler ownership.
All these advancements were paramount to evolving into what we now identify as the modern Jeep Wrangler. And yet, right before AMC’s acquisition, Jeep’s design leading man Jim Anger was working on turning the CJ from a farm vehicle into something far closer to a Polaris RZR or Can-Am Maverick than a modern Wrangler. It was barebones, it was sporty, and it could rip across dunes and trails all day long for maximum thrills long before it was a selling point for sporty side-by-sides.
The 1970 Jeep XJ001 Concept: Polaris and Can-Am, Take Notes
What Jeep’s lead designer came up with was a prototype dubbed the XJ001. With a front end more akin to a Mustang or Camaro than a typical Jeep, no doors, and a rear end you could be forgiven for calling a fastback, it was like a short wheelbase Jeep CJ-5 had sweet relations with a pony car, and this was the end result. Under the hood, there was an AMC 360-cubic-inch V8 making 245 gross horsepower and 365 lb-ft of torque to the rear wheels. Paired with full-time Quadritrac four-wheel-drive, this was a serious performance machine.
If a modern equivalent could be seen as a Polaris RZR Pro R or a Can-Am Maverick R, well, the XJ001 just barely had them beat in the power-to-weight department. Weighing in at just 2,100 lbs, all that low-end torque, sent through Goodyear Polyglas GT 60-series and chrome wheels, made the XJ001 a genuinely quick little off-roader. Being shorter yet wider than a first-generation Mazda Miata, it was agile off jumps and around corners as well. In short, a vehicle like this simply didn’t exist before the XJ001 came around. If we’re honest, an equivalent modern example wouldn’t come to pass for another 30 years, when Yamaha’s Rhino and Polaris’ RZR later on proved the form factor had real curb appeal.
Sadly, only a handful of people were able to witness the XJ001’s splendor in person at the 1970 New York Auto Show. The reception there was, as you might expect, very warm indeed. So warm, in fact, that it wound up on the cover of Popular Science Magazine. Yet, that was about as far as the XJ001’s cultural zeitgeist could reach before disaster struck. On its way to the Texas State Fair soon after its stay in New York, the transport trailer hauling it overturned, caught fire, and consumed the XJ001 along with it. From there, the project was quietly shelved, never to be mentioned in any official capacity again. It’s a real tragedy, especially when you think about what could’ve been.
Could Jeep Have Been the First Name in Sporty UTVs?
Just imagine a world where the XJ001 made it to Texas unharmed, continued its tour around the world, and introduced America to the medium of recreational side-by-sides decades before they became popular in our reality. Could this alternate reality really have a world where Jeep, Polaris, Yamaha, and Can-Am compete in the exact same market, one that’s due to be worth tens of billions in the next few years? In truth, that reality came far closer to coming true than automotive historians often give it credit for.
In the end, Jeep was purchased by Chrysler in 1987, forming the backbone of Stellantis Group’s North American operations. Depending on who you talk to, Jeep is one of the only Stellantis subsidiaries that routinely pull a profit year after year. Yet, imagine how much more profitable it’d be with a Polaris RZR rival out on the dunes? It’ll have to remain in the realm of our imagination from here on out.
Source: Mac’s Motor City Garage, Stratview Research
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