The history of Willys Knight goes back to 1913 when J.N. Willys met with Charles Y. Knight in England. Knight persuaded Willys to consider the sleeve valve engine over the poppet valve motor. J.N. Willys then hired a Knight sleeve valve powered Daimler and test drove 4,500 miles of English and Scottish roads in 15 days.In 1926 Willys offered two 6-cylinder vehicles: the Model 66 or the Great six had a 126 Wheelbase and Model 70 had a 113 inch wheelbase. It was equipped with a 53 Hp, 6 cylinder engine with a 2 15/16 inch bore and 4 3/8 inch stroke. This Model 70 Light Six Sedan was introduced October of 1925 with a $1495 price tag.Depression forced Willys-Knight and Stearns-Knight production to end in 1933 when the company stopped building higher priced cars and instead focused on the manufacture of the inexpensive but durable Willys 77. The last Willys-Knight was made in 1933. As conventional engines were improved, the Knight was finally forced out of production by its high manufacturing costs and high oil consumption. Coming out of bankruptcy in 1936 at the end of the Great Depression, the company was reorganized as Willys-Overland Motors, Inc., building only the lower-priced Willys.Instead of negotiating with Knight for a license to build the engines, Willys bought the Edwards Motor Co of
John North Willys bought the ailing Overland Company of Indianapolis in 1907. A year later, the name was changed to Willys-Overland. The Willys-Knight is an automobile that was produced between 1914 and 1933 in Toledo, Ohio.
1926 Willys Knight Sedan