Although Willys - Overland spew its destiny with Jeep after World War II , production of the 1940s Willys 6/66 concept gondola might have led to a very unlike result .
The sidereal day at the close of World War II were make full with the quiver of victory and were clouded in many American quarter by agonizing uncertainty over what to do next . One such place was Toledo , Ohio , the home of Willys - Overland , where confusion reigned about postwar civilian vehicle .
The mix-up was actually a dissension between primary executive officer Ward M. Canaday and Joseph Washington Frazer , the former sales headman of Chrysler Corporation who took over as W - O Chief Executive in 1939 .
Canaday had arrived six years before Frazer in the wake of Willys ’s imprint - forced failure , and had entertain the firm back to a color of wellness with a steady dieting of low - priced small cars .
By the time Frazer joined up , the original funny - looking Willys 77 had become a more mature compact with " Slip - stream " figure , a nicer interior , and an improved engine . Joe arrange about making it even better .
By the eve of Pearl Harbor , Toledo was selling the patriotically name Americar with attractive Ford - alike styling and prices well under $ 1,000 . regrettably , it did n’t sell very many .
But Frazer give Willys a far bigger nip in the financial arm when he almost singlehandedly landed a contract for build the Army ’s new universal - aim fomite , the Jeep . With that , Willys draw the literal portion of state of war with sales that jump from $ 9 million in 1939 to $ 212 million in 1944 .
By that meter , the firm stood to profit in another elbow room from a Brobdingnagian man-made lake of GI affection for the rugged piffling " Willeeze " Jeep , whose heroic wartime feat were already the stuff of legend .
Continuing this newfound success in the postwar world was the heart of the contravention between Frazer and Canaday . Joe need to pick up where the Americar lead off with a wartime prototype called " 6/66 , " which aimed at a light , roomy , and careful low - price car in the same popular mold as Studebaker ’s 1939 Champion .
But though it looked fresh in a bighearted new Brooks Stevens suit of clothes , the 6/66 owe much to the sometime Americar . Wheelbase , for case , was the same 104 inch , and the engine was all but unchanged : a 148.5 - cubic - in side - valve four churning out 66.5 modest horsepower .
Continue to the next page to see photos and see more about the 1940s Willys 6/66 concept gondola .
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1940s Willys 6/66 Concept Car Features
The 1940s Willys 6/66 conception car features showed promise . Although an ordinary cross folio outflow seem at each end , front suspension employed the novel " Planar " autonomous geometry excogitate by W - O chief applied scientist Delmar G. " Barney " Roos when he was at Studebaker ( and used on the aforementioned Champ ) .
Out back was a " swing independent , semi - floating wheel bearing " axle , though that presumably did not mean half - shafts , which would have been far too expensive for such a cost - witting product .
received transmission system was the common three - speed manual with newspaper column shift key , but optional overdrive was planned along with an automatonlike contagion of undisclosed ( or , more probable , undecided ) design .
The 6/66 get along to a single prevail prototype , a two - door sedan chair that look for all the creation like a wizened mid-1940s Hudson . Designer Stevens , then work as a advisor , also penned a transmutable interpretation with a stylish blind - one-quarter cabriolet top , but it run low no further than his draught board . Stevens doodle legion clipping variations .
Front - oddment physical exertion followed a common theme of a tailored die - cast grill beneath a " coffin olfactory organ " hood resonant of the previous , great Cord 810/812 . Many of Stevens ' rendering , as well as manufacturing plant photographs of the lone image , showed " 1947 " licence plates , suggesting that was the planned introductory poser year . At one point , root word price was targeted as low as – you guessed it – $ 666 .
Somewhere along the way , the 6/66 became the Model 6 - 70 , as shown on a set of general specifications dated April 17 , 1945 . It was the same machine , however , and that was the problem .
Canaday had never liked it , and he like it even less when the paradigm was slay by a train during a tribulation ladder , down the wife of the trial run driver . Joe adhere to his guns , but Canaday also stuck to his , so Frazer impart in mid-1944 for Graham - Paige and his short - lived alliance with Henry John Kaiser .
In retrospect , Willys was wise not to pursue a concordat in 1947 . Demand for small car , however cheap , was very thin in those day , and the 6/66 would have looked pretty see .
Besides , civilian Jeep business quickly proved to be highly profitable , and Willys was able-bodied to offer up a far better cable car by expect until 1952 . Regrettably , its suitable new Aero - Willys sold well only in 1952 and was go within three days , leaving Toledo to rely once more on Jeeps alone .
Of of course , that was hardly tragic , even though the Willys name vanished completely by 1970 . After all , Toledo has never stopped building Jeeps , and some hoi polloi still think of them as Willys product – not a bad fate for a defunct nameplate .
