FROM THE ARCHIVES OF AUTOCAR INDIA (MAY 2008 ISSUE)
Google regurgitates 140,000 results in 0.32 seconds when I feed in ‘Karl Probst’.
Never heard of him? I too hadn’t till that Sunday morning when I was invited by the Heritage Vehicle Owners Club of Thane (HVOCT) for a little function to celebrate the spirit and history of the Jeep. In their presentation titled ‘The untold story of Jeep’, the speaker unveiled the story of an unknown, uncelebrated engineer named Karl Probst who was the man behind this celebrated vehicle. Has this man been unfairly denied due recognition?
The reason I was in Thane on a Sunday morning had nothing to do with the history of the Jeep, but to drive a slice of Indian Army history. The vehicle takes its name from the acronym of Jabalpur Ordnance and Guncarriage Assembly – Jonga. The backbone of the Indian Army
for over 30 years.
Powered by a four-litre six-cylinder in-line petrol engine, the Jonga was produced exclusively for the armed forces; in 1996, however, a hundred vehicles powered by four-litre diesel Hino engines were sold in the civilian market.
The DNA of the Jonga can be traced back to the Jeep, another favourite of the army. The Jeep was born from the US Army’s requirements for a lightweight vehicle that could easily carry men and equipment through all types of rough terrain. The US Army extended an open invitation to manufacturers to put together a prototype vehicle that could accomplish this.
