If  the Brooks Stevens-designed Wide-Trac had been approved for production, the familiar Jeep pickup would have looked a whole lot different.

Introduced in late 1956, the Willys Jeep Forward Control pickup was a handy vehicle, but it did have one obvious shortcoming. (See our feature on the Jeep FC here.) Based as it was on the standard Jeep CJ chassis, the FC had a small and narrow footprint, limiting its cargo capacity and highway stability.

Willys Motors and noted freelance designer Brooks Stevens addressed the matter head-on in 1960 with a prototype vehicle still based on the basic Willys platform, but it featured a track width of approximately 72 inches—similar to a modern heavy-duty truck. Among its virtues, this vehicle boasted a wider, roomier cabin with seating for three and, we estimate, a good 30 percent more cargo volume. Naturally enough, it was called the Wide-Trac.

To add more utlity, Stevens and Associates engineered the Wide-Trac with a modular body system that could be assembled as a pickup, a cargo van, or a passenger bus. Additionally, there was an open-air mobile cargo-deck version for the military similar to the Willys Super Mule. (See more on the XM443E1 here.)

To illustrate the possibilities, the Milwaukee design firm built a number of scale models and full-sized mockups, as shown above. In the foreground are three engine options: the Willys L-head Hurricane six, the F-head Jeep Hurricane four, and the 164 CID, air-cooled Willys flat four that powered the Super Mule. The ladder-frame chassis, 4WD system, and front/mid-engine layout are similar to the production Willys, simply wider.

Crown Coach, the Los Angeles-based school bus manufacturer, was commissioned to build at least one running prototype, a stylish single-cab pickup. A slide-in camper unit for the prototype was constructed by Sport King, also of Southern California. But from there, it seems the Wide-Trac project never went any further. The reasons were never explained but if we had to guess, they could involve Willys Motors’ limited resources and the relatively small sales volume for the existing FC truck line.

But maybe the program didn’t end there. We don’t know the formal connection to the Wide-Trac project, if any, but in 1963, Vehículos Industriales y Agrícolas of Spain, better known as VIASA, adopted much the same interchangeable body system for the Jeep trucks it built under Willys license. The Spanish trucks lack the Wide-Trac’s broad stance and Brooks Stevens styling flair, but the modular concept is the same. The SV product line included single-cab and crew-cab pickups, a cargo van, passenger vans, ambulances and more, and under various corporate names the trucks were produced through 1980.