Willys ( ) is a brand name used by Willys-Overland Motors , an American car company renowned for the design and production of its military jeep (MBs) and civil version (CJs) during the 20th century.
Video Willys
Sejarah awal
In 1908 John Willys purchased the Overland Automotive Division of Standard Wheel Company and in 1912 renamed the Willys-Overland Motor Company. From 1912 to 1918, Willys was the second largest automaker in the United States after Ford Motor Company.
In 1913, Willys obtained a license to build the Charles Knight sleeve valve machine used on a car carrying the Willys-Knight signboard. In the mid-1920s, Willys also acquired F.B. Stearns Company from Cleveland and is assumed to continue production of Stearns-Knight luxury cars, as well.
John Willys acquired Electric Auto-Lite Company in 1914 and in 1917 formed the Willys Corporation to act as its parent company. In 1916, he acquired the Russell Motor Car Company in Toronto, Ontario, in 1917, the New Process Gear, and in 1919 acquired the Duesenberg Motors Company plant in Elizabeth, New Jersey. The New Jersey plant was replaced by a larger new facility in Indianapolis, and would be the production site for the new Willys Six in a nearby location, but the 1920-21 depression brought Willys Corporation to its knees. The bankers hired Walter P. Chrysler to sort out the mess and the first model to go was Willys Six, which was considered an engineering disaster. Chrysler has three car engineers: Owen Skelton, Carl Breer, and Fred Zeder (later nicknamed The Three Musketeers) began working on a new car, commonly referred to as Chrysler Six.
To collect the necessary cash to repay the debt, many of Willys Corporation's assets are placed in the auction block. The Elizabeth plant and the Chrysler Six prototype were sold to William C. Durant, then in the process of building a new third empire. The plant builds low-Durant stars, while the Chrysler Six prototype is substantially reworked to become 1923 Flint.
Walter Chrysler and three engineers who had worked on Chrysler Six all moved to Maxwell-Chalmers where they continued their work, finally launching the six-cylinder Chrysler in January 1924. (In 1925, the car company Maxwell became Chrysler Corporation.)
Maps Willys
Depression era
In 1926, Willys-Overland introduced a new line of small cars called Willys-Overland Whippet. In the economic depression of the 1930s, a number of Willys automotive brands faltered. Stearns-Knight was dissolved in 1929. Whippet production ended in 1931; the model was replaced by Willys Six and Eight. Willys-Knight production ended in 1933.
In 1932, Ward M. Canaday, who began in 1916 to do advertising for the company before becoming a full-time employee, had assumed the role of chairman. She helped guide the company through its current curator.
At this time, Willys decided to clean the board and produce two new models - Willys 77 cylinder 4 and 6 cylinder Willys 99 - but since the company was once again on the verge of bankruptcy, only 77 went into production. The company was forced to sell its subsidiaries in Canada, itself in weak financial form, and embarked on a massive reorganization. JOnly the main assembly plant and some small factories remain owned by Willys-Overland. Other assets are sold to a new parent company that leases some properties back to W-O. The parent company is thus capable of passing through the storm.
In 1936, the Willys-Overland Motor Company was reorganized as Willys-Overland Motors.
In 1937, Willys redesigned a 4-cylinder model. It gets a semistreamlined body with a slanted windscreen, front headlights embedded integral to the fenders, and a round, spherical one-round stretched loose on the back.
For the year 1939, Model 39 featured Lockheed hydraulic brakes, two-inch wheelbase upgrades to 102 inches, and a four-cylinder DID engine with increased power from 48 to 61 hp. Model 39 is marketed as Overland and as Willys Overland rather than as Willys.
In 1929, the company built a factory building vehicle located in what is now 6201 Randolph Street, Commerce City, California. During the war, the factory built aircraft assemblies for the Hudson bomber. When the war ended, the factory re-produced the car and was one of two locations to build the first CJ2A, as well as Willys Aero. The factory closed in 1954. This location is now occupied by Prologis Eaves Distribution Center.
World War II and Jeep
Willys-Overland was one of several bidders when the War Department searched for automakers who could start light truck fast production based on a design by American Bantam.
In 1938, Joseph W. Frazer joined Willys of Chrysler as chief executive. He sees the need to fix the company's 4 cylinder engine to handle the abuse that Jeep will incur. This goal was achieved brilliantly by former chief engineer Studebaker, Delmar "Barney" Roos, who wanted it
a machine that can develop 15 horsepower at 4,400 rpm. and run for 150 hours without failure. What he started with was a machine that developed 48 horsepower at 3,400 rpm, and it can run continuously only two to four hours... It took Barney Roos two years to perfect his engine, with the whole complex of revisions that included a closer tolerance, harder, aluminum pistons, and flywheels reduced from fifty-seven to thirty-one pounds.
The production of MB Willys, better known as Jeep, began in 1941, split between Willys, Ford, and American Bantam. 8,598 units were produced that year and 359,851 units before the end of World War II. Willys-Overland was ranked 48th among US companies in the contract value of World War II military production. In total, 653,568 Jeep military was produced.
Origin of" Jeep "
The origin of the name "Jeep" has been disputed for years. Some people believe "Jeep" is phonetic pronunciation of the abbreviation GP, ​​â € <â €
Postwar struggling
After the war, Willys did not continue production of the passenger car model, choosing to concentrate on Jeep and Jeep-based vehicles. The first postwar product of Willys was the CJ-2A, an MB stripped of military features, particularly illumination, and with the addition of a truck tub.
Willys initially struggled to find a market for vehicles, first trying to sell them primarily as an alternative to agricultural tractors. Tractors are in short supply, which has been out of production during the war. However, sales of "Agri-Jeep" never took off, mainly because it was too light to provide an adequate draft.
The CJ-2A was one of the first civilian vehicles equipped with four-wheel drive from the factory, and gained popularity among farmers, ranchers, hunters, and others who needed light vehicles for use on bad roads and trails..
In 1946, a year after the introduction of CJ-2A, Willys produced the Willys "Jeep" Utility Wagon based on the same engine and transmission, with a clear styling effect from CJ-2A Jeep. The following year came the Utility Truck "Jeep" with four wheel drive. In 1948, the cart was available in four-wheel drive, making it the ancestor of all sports vehicles.
Willys plans to re-enter the passenger car market in 1947 with a Willys sedan 6-70. Its name comes from the fact it is powered by a 6-cylinder engine that produces 70 hp. The 6-70 is touted as the 'first stock car' in America that offers independent suspension on all four wheels, but never goes into production.
In 1948, under a contract from the US Army, Willys produced a small four-wheeled utility vehicle called the Jungle Burden Carrier that evolved into a M274 Utility of ½ tons of vehicles.
Willys later produced Je38 Jeep for the US Army, and continued the CJ series from civil Jeep. One variation is the Jeepster, which comes with a 4-cylinder or 6-cylinder engine, but only with two-wheel drive to the rear.
1950s
In 1952, Willys re-entered the car market with a new compact car, Willys Aero. Initially available only as a two-door sedan, it is available with an L-head engine or a six-cylinder F-head. The export market can get Aero with four-cylinder engine. A four-door sedan and a two-door hardtop were added for 1953 along with a taxi model. Aero cars are called Lark, Wing, Falcon, Ace, or Eagle depending on the year, the engine, and the trim level, except for the small production that goes on in the last year (1955) with a model called Custom and Bermuda. Bodies for Willys Aero are supplied by Murray Body company, which also makes corpses for short-lived Hudson Jets. Also in 1952, CJ3B Jeeps started production. In 1968, more than 155,000 were sold.
In 1953, Kaiser Motors bought Willys-Overland and changed the company's name to Willys Motor Company. In the same year, Kaiser's car production was moved from Willow Run, Michigan, to the Willys plant in Toledo, Ohio. Despite the steady production of Jeep, Willys and Kaiser car sales continue to fall. Willys set up an assembly plant in Brazil in 1953, after the government banned the import of assembled vehicles as part of an import substitution program. In 1954, CJ5 debuted there at the start of running three decades.
After Willys's last passenger car was built in 1955, Willys sent Aero equipment to Brazil, where it was built from 1960 to 1962, virtually unchanged. Brooks Stevens revived Aero for 1963, and was built by Ford (who bought the Willys factory) until the 1970s.
In America, the company changed its name in 1963 to the Kaiser-Jeep Company; Willys's name disappeared afterwards.
Brazil
Willys-Overland established its operations in Brazil in 1953, just before the Kaiser-Frazer takeover. Tools for Aero went to Brazil, where it entered production in 1960. In 1956-1957, the Brazilian Executive Group for the Automotive Industry (GEIA) approved Willys-Overland for Aero production, Je Je Willys Jeep, a truck version of Jeep called Rural, and small cars Renault Dauphine France. Also, a failed plan was made to create a company called Chrysler-Willys do Brasil SA to build 1956 Plymouth Savoy and a Dodge truck there, hoping to take advantage of Willys's "made in Brazil" credibility. Willys strives to emerge as a Brazilian company, even selling most of his company's shares to Brazilian shareholders to prevent possible nationalist reactions, and qualify for government incentives.
The small-engined Dauphine is the result of the Kaiser Renault connection, and was produced by Willys do Brazil from 1959 to 1968. Willys-Overland was one of the first companies to enter the Brazilian passenger car market, and their initial entry originally paid off, with sales spikes in 1954 when Willys became the number one sales car. Distributed by the closest advisor family of Donas ºlio Vargas, Osvaldo Aranha also helped, and Willys-Overland achieved a 52% share of Brazilian passenger car production in 1959. Willys held a market share of about 30% in Brazil from 1960 to 1966, the last full year as independent company, mostly owned by Brazil.
Willys entered the Brazilian market in hopes of offsetting their market depreciation and losses at home. However, unlike in the case of the Argentine Kaiser's operation, which was basically developed around hands-down, Willys built a very modern factory from the ground up in Brazil. The original promise was to build cars for re-export to the United States, but such a situation never materialized. However, by the end of 1961, the Brazilian-made Jeep Willys began to be exported to Chile. Willys expanded to a poor Brazilian northeast in the early 1960s, when they built an assembly plant for Jeep and Rural in the state of Pernambuco.
In 1962, Willys began building the Alpine A108 as Willys Interlagos. It was manufactured until 1966 and was the first Brazilian-made sports car. It's also a car where many Brazilian racers cut their teeth, including greats like Emerson Fittipaldi. Willys also designed and demonstrated a larger sports car called the "Capeta" (Devil) in 1964, powered by a 2.6-liter 2.6-liter six-cylinder engine. In 1965, Willys Overland do Brazil and Renault began collaborating on a new front-wheel drive vehicle, called "Project M" and intended to replace the aging Dauphine. Developed in parallel with Renault 12, which is antedated, the car finally sees light as a Ford Corcel. Early Corcels had a "Willys" stamping on the glass, and the Corcel line (which continued in production until 1997 as Ford Pampa) always shows the origin of France in its distinctive three-wheeled bolt. In 1967, Ford took control of Kaiser and thus mastered the Willys-Overland do Brasil.
The Aero-based itamaraty continued to produce until the early 1970s, in recent years wearing the "Ford" badge. Dauphine production ended in 1968, but the Willys Rural/Pickup and its derivatives were built as the Ford F-75 until 1983. The only visual difference is that the post-1970s car had a rear door with "Ford" rather than "Jeep" stamped inside. The military version of the Jeep Pickup is called the F-85.
Legacy
Kaiser-Jeep was sold to American Motors Corporation (AMC) in 1970 when Kaiser Industries decided to leave the car business. After sales, AMC uses engines developed for other cars in the Jeep model to improve performance and standardize production and service.
Renault bought a major stake in AMC in 1979 and took over the company's operations, producing the CJ series until 1986. Chrysler bought AMC in 1987 after CJ had been replaced with Jeep Wrangler (also known as YJ and then TJ), which had little in common with the series CJ in addition to outside appearance. Jeep marque, owned by DaimlerChrysler and later Fiat, produces Jeep vehicles at the new Toledo Complex.
DaimlerChrysler introduced the Overland name for the trim package on the Jeep Grand Cherokee 2002. The badging was a recreation of the Overland signboards from the early twentieth century.
In 2014, the trademark Willys was purchased by Italian Carrozzeria Viotti, a statement Emanuele Bomboi (head of design Viotti). Carrozzeria Viotti with Fabbrica Italiana Maggiora introduced at Bologna Motor Show 2014, Willys AW 380 Berlineta, a concept car inspired by the original Willys Interlagos assembled by Willys in Brazil under the Alpine French license. Viotti and Maggiora plan to produce vehicles in a limited edition and re-launch the Willys marque.
Racing
Coupe 1933-36 and pickup is a very popular gasser. The most famous is 1933 Willys 77. Only 12,800 sold in 1933, 13,234 in 1934, 10,644 in 1935 (including new panel shipments), and 30,825 years past the company, made it a puzzle why it became popular: not cheap or abundant.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
0 Comments