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There is no evidence that the Bantam jeep was underpowered or in anyway an inferior product.
The field Army was delighted with both versions of the Bantam (and the Ford too for that matter). They wanted as many as they could get their hands on and railed at the QMC for dragging it's feet, some say to make way for Ford and or Willys, others say the delay was to insure a better, more complete weapon U-Pik-M. Whatever, there was never any indication that the Bantam was underpowered. It's Continental engine was powerful enough certainly for the lighter car, and highly respected. It was in full production right up to 1996!
In the development of weapons the designer must carefully balance the 'costs' of performance against the benefits. Thus the Zero pilots themselves ordered the heavy armament and other safety or non essential equipment off their aircraft. They wanted small car handling not big car comfort and safety. Our airplanes in contrast were built like tanks, but then we had plenty of steel mills and crude oil and they didn't. Likewise the Russians, who were actually fighting the Germans chose the Bantam over it's rivals because of its economy, lightness and strength and better handling: they knew the difficulties of logistics.
Much is made of "what the average GI liked best". In a peacetime atmosphere if you put an 18 year old kid in two cars and one has 50% more horsepower, then ask him what he likes better, what's he going to say? He doesn't have to figure out how to get gasoline to the front. It was not like extra horsepower wasn't available. Had Bantam been allowed to use the next bigger Continental, or even the Go Devil, perish the thought, it would have had an even faster rig than the Willys, being lighter,
Help me out here. Can you point me to FACTS which would change this admittedly arbitrary percentage? Let's hear it.