Watch The Jeep Wrangler Evolve From War Machine To Rock Crawler

Ask anyone and they'll tell you – the Jeep Wrangler is an icon. Making its debut in 1986, the legendary 4x4 has been updated and tweaked lightly in its 30-plus years on the road, leading up to the fourth-generation model that was shown just a few weeks ago. But Jeep's off-road heritage goes back even deeper than that.

The original Jeep Wrangler was inspired, in part, by the 1940 Bantam Reconnaissance Car (BRC). The BRC was a military use 4x4 with a shocking semblance to the Wrangler we know and love today, and later spawned icons like the original Willys MB, the Jeep CJ5, and the Wrangler more than 40 years later.

In honor of that long lineage, the folks at Donut Media have created a short two-minute video that takes us in depth with the Wrangler, and the military 4x4s that eventually inspired it. The video goes back to the original BRC in 1940, all the way up to the rumored 2018 Jeep Scrambler, which will share its base with the new Wrangler and could come with a diesel engine.

The most recent Wrangler, which will make its debut in full at the Los Angeles Auto Show later in the month, is rumored to come with a turbocharged 2.0-liter engine standard, and an updated version of the Pentastar V6. Already we know that the latter will be rated at 17 city / 23 highway / 19 combined miles per gallon with the manual, and 18 city / 23 highway / 20 combined mpg equipped with the eight-speed automatic.

More details (and images) on the 2018 Jeep Wrangler, and the proposed 2018 Jeep Scrambler should be released closer to the 4x4's debut in L.A. Alongside a range of more efficient engines, the Wrangler will also come with the latest, most advanced version of Jeep's four-wheel-drive system, over 200 available Mopar accessories, and a rumored price tag of $30,445 for the Unlimited version.