NEW BUILDS: Wicked Willys!

The popularity of the 1939-41 Willys “Americar” coupe in racing circles needs no explanation; known today just as the “Willys”, the model name has almost been lost in the sands of the time (but as an interesting note, the name “Americar” was chosen for its patriotic sound as the US was on the verge of a world war that, by that time, everyone knew was coming). Sadly you’d never find a car company naming one of their models like that now, but just call it a Willys and everyone knows what model you’re talking about! I often wonder, are there any stock ones left? I’ve never seen one!

Well this one sure isn’t; in fact this is the most customized Willys I have of the many that are now in the muscle racing fleet, although unlike the red one that I did as a “barn find”, I did not do this one myself; the credit for this flame job goes to Model Motoring.

There’s an old song that claims “black cars look better in the shade,” and to this I will add they also look better mounted on colored chassis! In my post from last week about my first test drive of the Dash Motorsports “Mondo Grip” chassis I mentioned I was looking for another one of those chassis in yellow and I wanted it for this car. I’m still looking for that, and when I find it, it will swap out for what I used here, a translucent red Ultra G. Not that the red chassis doesn’t look good; it does, but these red and blue translucent chassis have been very poor performers; there’s a couple of exceptions, to be sure, but most of them have been disappointing, and I pulled this one out of retirement in order to put this car on a platform almost more to see how it will look than anything else, so you’ll probably see this car being profiled again once I have assembled the way I really want. In the meantime, how does she look? Pretty badass, if you ask me, wearing a set of Vincent chrome reverses with thick silicone meats on the back and super skinny “skaters” on the front. No one expects a Willys to handle, right?

Which makes you wonder what “The Duke”, the name of this Willys, is doing on a road course; you would have to ask owner Sam “Pitbull” Pitkin of Poway, a “graybeard” and veteran driver who has been racing all kinds of cars for much of his life. Now retired and enjoying his fortune, he’s built this car almost as a “lark” and arrived at Drag City to enter the time trials for the 1985 muscle car racing season; foregoing the usual Chevy motor-vation, The Duke is powered by a 421 big-block Super-Duty Pontiac V8 with 3 deuces mated to a M23 Syracuse 4-speed gearbox, a modern-day interpretation of the classic GM Muncie unit bolted to a full posi-traction 3.90:1 rear axle. “Pitbull” Pitkin’s trial results will tell us soon enough if black cars really look better in the shade, or on the victory stand!