History Willys Model 77 (1933-1936) roadsters - did they sell them in the United States?

I've seen a fairly large number of Willys coupes and sedans from this era, but the few roadsters I've seen all seem to be from Australia. Did they actually make a Willys roadster in the U.S. during this time period, or were they strictly available "down under"?

They're a handsome little car, I think, but they all seem to get the "street rod" treatment.

-Dave

 

Bump for the after-work crowd.

-Dave

 

Roadsters were strictly an Australian model.


we also had 3w models

Sports Coupe

more http://willysdownunder3.bravehost.com/Willys.33.34.bodystyles..html

 

What a cool car

 

Hey Jimmy B, thanks for posting pix - that's my black '33 as it came out of the upholstery shop. Here's some shots of it before it was repainted

Holden's were the only people to make Willys Model 77 roadsters and production is quoted at 74 units for 1933. There are maybe eight or nine originals left in existence.

 

An odd source...look for stuff on the '32-34 roadster stackcar racing. There's a good article in HRM about '51, several other modern articles. Seems there was a Willys roadster in that--I'm thinking there's a TINY picture in a shot showing a lot of cars, and I seem to remember thinking it looked like a quick hack job to fit the rules...anybody able to post that ancient, grainy picture??
The series died because all winners were always Fords, and in some races all Fords finished before anything else...a '33 Ford capable of passing teardown could touch 100 and lap a half oval/half roadrace couse in the eighties!
A Willys with its little four would likely have been about at last place, since Willys did not yet offer the blown hemi option...

 

Bruce, the second picture I posted is from that race series. There was an article on it in Special Interest Autos in the 1970s.









-Dave

 

No...I have that article somewhere...that article is on a brief outbreak of sporty car roadracing at the time, a mix of European stuff (some of that antique already!) and small USA cars stripped down.
The Stock Car series was strictly new or nearly new USA cars, fenders removed...cars were all '32-33 USA, maybe '34's...I think Mines Field (approx) was their big track, a looong oval on one side and wavy roadcourse on the others. It was a big dollar promotional thing involving the manufacturers. Cars were torn down for inspection of stock specs...I'm sure the 100 MPH Fords were a bit tweaked, but everything in them had to look stock enough to fool the inspectors. All the bigger makes were represented.
The promotional aspect failed utterly due to total domination by Ford.

 

OMG..

that willys highboy is cool as hell..

un loading a race car from the woodie.. even better

thanks for posting..

sawzall

 

I'd love to read that article, it makes me think of this one:











It's about stock car races held in Eglin, IL in '33 in conjunction with the Chicago World's Fair. No Willys cars here, though, the field is 11 Fords, 2 Chevrolets, 1 Plymouth, and 1 Dodge according to the article.

The Ford domination makes sense, though. I had call to look through a '34 edition of the Muskegon Chronicle not too long ago and there was a great 1/8 page advertisement for Ford automobiles bragging about their racing success and featuring a drawing of a fenderless Model 40. I really should go back and have it printed off, maybe to get it blown up and framed.

-Dave

 

Here's my yard ornament.... pair of Brooklands aero screens, bomber seats and quad E&Js on fabricated posts and we're rolling Batman...

 

The Elgin pics are the stock car series of about '32-34...coverage in December '51 HRM, I found it last night right under a cat. Rodders were into history even back then. Cover photo shows 2, maybe 3 77 roadsters in tiny, grainy view, identifiable only by the huge spare tire cutout. There's no way to tell how they became roadsters, whether they are some sort of true roadster or sawn off coupes. Look at those results! De Palma and Shaw way down in the pack! Probably confused by the transmission and not being able to find the hand-pump...

 

To refine the response to the original question, no factory convertible Willys is known to have been produced in the U.S. - Willys have shown artist's renditions of cars in their brochures which they either never produced, or did not introduce until later model years. I have found no evidence of the Panel Delivery being produced before 1935 (with the revised front styling) and yet it is shown as an artists sketch, as a 1933 style model, in the 1933 brochure - fully two years before it hit production.

The convertible or cabriolet (wind up windows) sketch in the 1933 brochure (see image below) probably never even made it to concept model, and I think it would be fairly safe to accept that anything in vintage road racing in the U.S. would have likely been a coupe with the roof cut off and not one of the Right Hand Drive roadsters from Holden's in Australia.

 

1933 Roadster I want one.
Bobs36hotrod

 

what bobs36hotrod said.

 

I have been checking these out recently. Thinking I need to start gathering parts to build one. To me is looks like these roadster quarters have more of an arc than the coupes. Seems like the coupe quarter has a better flow. Can anyone confirm this or is it just the profiles I am looking at are throwing me off.



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I think the roadster bodies were Holden built, so a Toledo- (Willys) bodied roadster would likely share the trunk profile of the coupe.

 

Here's a de-coupe-tated Willys 77 racing at Mines Field in the early '30s.

 

I heard that there were 3 or 4 here in the US. We had 1, well parts of one. We had a body, door, cowl, windshield, and....I can't remember what else. We had the body and I think door, and picked up the windshield and ....? Out in California. That was 30 years ago.
Somewhere, there is a picture of Roosevelt in a Model 77 roadster in a parade.

 

The above is from Amish Mike, my son. We went to the LARS in 1991, and then up to Stockton, California to Bob Panella's and brought Bob a Willys front bumper on the plane. Remember when you could do things like that ? We worked out a trade with Bob. Knowing what I know now, we could have had the missing door made by Wray Schelein ( sp ) in Stafford Springs, Connecticut before he moved to Mass. The roadster body as well as all of my Willys parts were later sold to Jerry Hutchison from Manitowoc, Wi.