1925 Willys Knight Model 65

John North Willys was an automobile dealer from Elmira, New York who had placed an order for 500 Overland automobiles in 1907. He had placed a $10,000 deposit, but after no cars were produced and correspondence stopped, he traveled to Overland's headquarters at the Standard Wheel plant in Indianapolis. When he arrived, he learned that the company's financial backer, David M. Parry, had lost everything including his house. There were enough parts on hand to build just three automobiles. Willys took over, with production resuming under a circus tent. For 1908, around 465 Overlands were built. Following a dispute, one of the founding individuals of Overland, Claude Cox, left the company in January 1909.

In 1909, Willys acquired a factory in Toledo that had produced the Pope-Toledo, and he acquired a controlling interest in Marion Motor Car Company in Marion, Ohio. Soon, the Willys-Overland Company was formed. In 1914, the Overland was joined by the Willys-Knight, powered by a sleeve-valve engine. The Willys-Knight would become renowned for its engines and would produce more Knight-engined cars than all other manufacturers combined. The engine had been developed by American inventor Charles Yale Knight and up to this point in history, had only been built in Europe by companies such as Panhard, Minerva, and Daimler. Willys was the only United States automaker to employ the Knight engine in any quantity. The first Willys-Knights arrived in 1915, selling for $2,475. A year later, a six-cylinder model was offered, followed by a V-8 in 1917.

The unique double-sleeve design had concentric sleeves which rotated to allow gases in and out, dispensing with the need for poppet valves. The sleeve valves were silent in operation and operated better the more they were driven, since accumulated carbon helped seal the sleeves and prevented oil from migrating to the combustion chamber.

Despite the expensive price, the Willys-Knight were popular, with approximately 50,000 of them built annually during the peak Willys-Knight production years of the mid-1920s.

by Daniel Vaughan | Feb 2020