Willys-Knight 66-A
Varsity Roadster

The Willys-Knight car is significantly different than most other cars. Its Knight-licensed sleeve-valve six cylinder engine ran quieter than any poppet-valve engine of its day, and the marque built more of them than nearly every other manufacturer in the world combined.

• Power came from an inline six-cylinder Knight sleeve-valve engine displacing 255 cubic inches and producing 70 horsepower.
• Running on a 126-inch wheelbase chassis, it is the longest of the three offered in 1929.
• The 66 series debuted in 1925 as the most expensive line Willys-Overland built; by 1929 it had evolved into the 66-A.
• The Willys-Overland Company produced 13,366 Model 66 series cars between December 1926 and October 1928 for the model years 1927, 1928, and 1929, of which, 5,206 were manufactured for the 1929 model year.
• A new 66-A Varsity Roadster carried a factory price of $1,850 — a substantial sum in 1929, roughly equivalent to a well-appointed luxury car today.
• Sleeve-valve engines traded easy manufacturing for a genuinely quiet, smooth-running motor, at the cost of burning more oil than a conventional poppet-valve design — a known trade-off enthusiasts of the marque accept as part of the ownership experience.
• Willys-Overland built Willys-Knight models continuously from 1914 until late 1932, when the Depression pushed the company back toward its lower-cost, poppet-valve Willys line.
• This car is serial number 41424, with engine number 42117.
• The Varsity Roadster body was built by Anderson Body Co. of Indianapolis, IN. It is estimated that around 250 Varsity Roadster bodies were built for the 66-A frame. Today, only three are known to still exist; two in the Detroit area, and one in Florida.
• This 1929 model year car was purchased in 1928, which is why it is titled and registered as a 1928; Some states used to assign the year purchased to the title and registration regardless of the manufacturer's model year.
• The complete history of the car is unknown, however, the earliest known owner was Bill Segafoase, then Elwood and Rusty Myers, Elmer Manin, Mark and Barbara Young, and finally, me.
• Around 1983 or 1984, Hibernia Auto Restoration of NJ did a complete restoration and engine rebuild.