Willys Overland Knight Registry

Willys Knight History

    The history of Willys Knight goes back to 1913 when J.N. Willys met up with Charles Y. Knight whilst on a trip to England.  Knight managed to convince him that the sleeve valve engine had some very desirable attributes over the poppet valve motor.  As soon as he reached England, J.N. Willys hired a Knight sleeve valve powered Daimler and covered 4,500 miles of English and Scottish roads in just 15 days - a pretty good test for those days !   In typical Willys fashion, he didn't bother negotiating for a licence to build Knight engines for his own cars, but instead bought the Edwards Motor Co of New York which saved him the trouble as they already had a licence.  Between 1914 and 1933 he was to sell almost half a million of the relatively low priced but high quality sleeve valve Willys Knights.  His love affair with the sleeve valve engine also saw him buy financial control of F.J. Stearns Co of Cleveland, Ohio in 1925.  Stearns automobiles had been using the Knight sleeve valve engine since 1911, but were aimed at the very prestigious and luxury end of the market.  The reason why Willys Overland was the most successful sleeve valve manufacturer lay in the enormous effort spent on redesigning the engine for minimum manufacturing costs.  Although the sleeve valve engine had a number of advantages such as no noisy poppet valves, no valve springs to weaken under load or heat, a hemispherical head and an engine that could actually show measured increases in compression and power due to carbon deposits on the already close fitting sleeves, it was the machining costs of those close tolerances plus the royalty fee to Knight and his partner L.B. Kilbourne that made the poppet valve motor the sales winner.
During the Great Depression, Willys Overland declared bankruptcy and a reorganization plan was implemented to rationalize the line up of models.  This unfortunately spelt the end of Willys Knight and the last sleeve valve car built in America was the 1933 Model 66E Great 6, also known as the Streamline 6 because the windshield was inclined more than the 1932 model.
Believing that the only way to get back precious sales would be in the small low priced area that the Overland 4 and Whippet side valve vehicles had done so well, production was restricted solely to the Whippet replacement - the Willys 77.   True, a companion 6 cylinder model, the Willys 99 was planned, prototyped and even advertised with a choice of poppet or sleeve valve engines, but the tooling was never completed so it never reached production.

Willys Knight models can get a bit confusing, but the following information extracted from the W.O.K.R. Roster (with permission) can help with identification.  The Nominal Prices column gives open car prices till 1926, then closed cars.  Serial Numbers prefixed with a C indicate Canadian origin.
 
 

Willys Knight Models & Serial Numbers

Year Model Serial No's Introduction
Date
Nominal
Price(US$)
Cyl Bore x Stroke B.H.P. Wheelbase
1914 K-17 1-40   $2750
4
4 x 5 1/2 n/a 120
1914 K-18 1-6   n/a
4
4 x 5 1/2 n/a n/a
1915 K-19 1-128   $2475
4
4 x 5 1/2 45 120
1916 84 1-4999 Aug 1915 $1125
4
4 1/8 x 4 1/2 40 114
1916 84B 5000-12727   n/a
4
4 1/8 x 4 1/2 40 114
1917 84B 12728-15340   n/a
4
4 1/8 x 4 1/2 40 114
1917 88-4 1-9057 Jul/Aug 1916 $1650
4
4 1/8 x 4 1/2 40 114
1917 88-8 1-1419   $1950
8
3 3/8 x 4 65 125
1918 88-4 9058-14123 Aug 1917 $1525
4
4 1/8 x 4 1/2 40 121
1918 88-8 1420-2374 Aug 1917 $2000
8
3 3/8 x 4 65 125
1919 88-4 14124-19544 Aug 1918 $1725
4
4 1/8 x 4 1/2 40 121
1919 88-8 2375-2750 Aug 1918 n/a
8
3 3/8 x 4 65 125
1920 20 1-12679 Aug 1919 $1750
4
3 5/8 x 4 1/2 40 118
1921 20 12680-24545 Aug 1920 $2195
4
3 5/8 x 4 1/2 40 118
1922 20-A 24998-42229 Jan 1922 $1525
4
n/a n/a n/a
1922 27 1-1073 Fall 1922 n/a
4
n/a n/a n/a
1923 64 1-47844 Dec 1922 $1235
4
3 5/8 x 4 1/2 40 118
1923 67 1-4491 Dec 1922 $1435
4
3 5/8 x 4 1/2 40 124
1924 64 47845-80895 Dec 1923 $1175
4
3 5/8 x 4 1/2 40 118
1924 67 4492-6217 Dec 1923 n/a
4
3 5/8 x 4 1/2 40 n/a
1925 65 1-35798 Jan 1925 n/a
4
n/a n/a n/a
1925 67 6218-6310 Jan 1925 $1395
4
3 5/8 x 4 1/2 42 118
1925 66 Great Six 1-9581 Jan 1925 $1845
6
3 1/4 x 4 3/4 60 126
1926 66 Great Six 9582-28614 Aug 1925 $1750
6
3 1/4 x 4 3/4 60 126
1926 70 Light Six 1-38140 Oct 1925 $1495
6
2 15/16 x 4 3/8 53 113 1/4
1927 66A Great Six 28801-35506 Dec 1926 $2295
6
3 1/4 x 4 3/4 65 126 (or 135
from May 1927)
1927 70A Special Six 38200-69409 Oct 1926 $1495
6
2 15/16 x 4 3/8 53 113 1/4
1928 56 Standard Six 25001-46935
C-1 to C-1333
Jan 1928 $1145
6
2 15/16 x 3 7/8 45 109 1/2
1928 66A Great Six 35507-40712 Aug 1927 $1995
6
3 3/8 x 4 3/4 70 126 or 135
1928 70A Special Six 69410-84750
C-1744 to C-3331
Aug 1927 $1295
6
2 15/16 x 4 3/8 53 113 1/4
1929 56 Standard Six 46936-60587
C-1334 to C-1701
Oct 1928 n/a
6
2 15/16 x 3 7/8 45 109 1/2
1929 56A C-2001 to C-2375   n/a
6
2 15/16 x 3 7/8 45 n/a
1929 66A Great Six 40713-42166 Oct 1928 $1895
6
3 3/8 x 4 3/4 70 126 or 135
1929 70A Special Six C-3332 to C-3454   n/a
6
2 15/16 x 4 3/8 53 113 1/4
1929 70B Light Six 85001-110365
C-4001 to C-5261
Jan 1929 $1045
6
2 15/16 x 4 3/8 53 112 1/2
1930 66B Great Six 43001-48819 Jul 1929 $1796
6
3 3/8 x 4 3/4 87 120
1930 70B Light Six 110366-121088
C-5262 to C5665
Oct 1929 $1075
6
2 15/16 x 4 3/8 53 112 1/2 or
115 (Deluxe)
1930 87 Light Six 1001-4627
C-100 to C-256
Jun 1930 n/a
6
n/a n/a n/a
1931 66B Great Six 48820-50409 Sep 1930 n/a
6
3 3/8 x 4 3/4 87 n/a
1931 66D Great Six 1001-6620
C-100 to C-359
Jan 1931 $1095
6
3 3/8 x 4 3/4 87 121
1931 87 Light Six 4628-7168
C-257 to C-369
Sep 1930 n/a
6
n/a n/a n/a
1931 95 Light Six 1001-3798 Jul 1931 $896
6
2 15/16 x 4 3/8 60 113
1932 66D Great Six 6701-7579
C-360 to C-480
Oct 1931 $1395
6
3 3/8 x 4 3/4 87 121
1932 95 Light Six 4001-4812
C-100 to C-255
Oct 1931 $895
6
2 15/16 x 4 3/8 60 113
1933 66E Great Six 7601-8174
C-100 to C-170
Jun 1932 $1420
6
3 3/8 x 4 3/4 87 121

Interested readers should also look through the W.O.K.R. LIBRARY or W.O.K.R. STARTER INDEX  for more information related to Willys Knight vehicles.

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