Towncar by Willoughby

Wills Sainte Claire was an automobile brand manufactured by C.H. Wills and Company, in Marysville, Michigan, from 1921 to 1927. C.H. Wills had worked for Ford before starting his company, which he named for himself and the Saint Clair River. He added the extra 'e' to elevate the cachet of his product.

This example is a 1925 Wills Sainte Claire Towncar by Willoughby Co. of Utica, New York, which specialized in chauffeur-driven town cars, landaulets, and limousines. The original base price was $5,600. The car sports an early intercom system, with a speaker horn located next to the chauffeur's seat. Its special-order paint color is called 'Caprice Rose.' The paint color was included in a brochure sent to Wills by Francis Willoughby, perhaps in hopes that Wills would purchase the car as a gift for his wife. As it happened, the car was bought off the floor of the 1925 Auto Salon in New York by Mrs. Horace Dodge. In 1953, it was recovered from a Long Island junkyard and passed through the hands of several owners before entering the Harrah Collection in the 1960s.

The current owner acquired the car in 1985 in 'derelict' condition and had the restoration mostly complete by December 2012. Only 80 Wills Ste. Clair cars are known to have survived of the roughly 12,000 produced - this is the only known Towncar to have survived.