International Scout

International Harvester had been building trucks, pickups and later Travelalls since 1907. In the late 1950s, they began a design plan to produce a vehicle to compete with the Jeep CJ. By late 1960 the first Scout was available: the Scout 80, with a 1961 model year.

The first Scout was introduced in 1960. A concept for its replacement was initiated in 1964 and approved for production in mid 1965. The Scout II was introduced in 1971. The basic sheet metal remained the unchanged until production stopped on October 21, 1980. During the 20 year period (1960-1980) 532,674 Scouts were produced. The Scout, introduced as a commercial utility pickup in 1960, set the stage for future 4-wheel drive recreational vehicles of the '70s, '80s, and '90s.

Scout SSIIs took top honors in offroad racing during the late 1970s. In 1977, Jerry Boone, of Parker, Arizona, finished first among 4x4 production vehicles in what is the "Super Bowl" or "Daytona 500" of offroad events, the Baja 1000. This is the most challenging of all off-road competitions. Boone completed the run in 19 hours 58 minutes, crossing the finish line at Ensenada, Mexico, almost 2 hours ahead his closest competitor: a Jeep CJ7. Only nine of 21 vehicles that started the race finished the 1000 kilometer (660.3 mile) course. Boone ran even faster than Class IV modified 4x4 racers. Mr. Boone later revealed that they only had a month to prep a stock SSII for the race and they were unsponsored by IH until after the race. Boone also won in 1978 at Riverside, California.