Features 1937 to 1942 Willys Picture Thread

My humble old sedan. The orange hue in the photos is from a forest fire that was about an hour away. It was a fun day at the Arlington Drag Strip Reunion.  One of the best parts was meeting Terry Scatena.

 

My buddy and crew man Joe's 40 Willys coupe was rght on the weight for B gas in '65. The class records looked very doable in C gas so he welded an 800 lb. 3/4" steel plate right over the rearend. He wound up owning the class records at San Gabe/Irwindale, Fontana, Famoso, Pomona, and top speed for C/gas at LIONS.

 

Atts Ono’s coupe was out of Long Beach. My friends dad was pals with him growing up, car was sold and never seen again. He was wondering if anyone knows if it’s whereabouts.

 

Paging @jnaki. If anyone knows, he will!

 

Hello,

Thanks for thinking of my contributions to the threads/posts. I grew up in the same neighborhood as Atts Ono on the Westside of Long Beach. We went to the same junior high school and high school as he did. The whole Westside kid’s groups funneled into the big high school just a few miles East of us.

I just can’t say enough of our fun times together as he was a very inspirational person, in life, sports and hot rod/drag racing. He was, definitely, a funnel of knowledge/skills and we were the recipients.

Having played basketball on an outside of school teams, hanging around his nice garage, talking about everything, including hot rods and drag racing gave me a ton of insight into our possible future.

Jnaki

After our early journey together, his contribution to our own Willys Coupe build was greatly accepted. He was our Pit boss and just knew what to do to get it right. He was with us from the early Stromberg carburetor 283 SBC days to the 671 rebuilt 292 c.i. SBC version. The accident of our own Willys Coupe was the separation that happened and we all went our separate ways. He continued with his immaculate build (I helped if and when I/we could) and we went into recovery, then almost 2 years later, went surfing to start another chapter.

Atts Ono’s brother told me of more information about the time after our Willys accident and leaving drag racing. This included selling his brother’s Willys in 1971 after Atts Ono passed away. That was a sad moment, indeed.

Here are some threads that will give you some information about the great times and bad during the 57-61 era:
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...s-gasser-thread.1206007/page-32#post-14600521

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...t-were-worthless.1199823/page-4#post-14622415

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/iowa-dragstrips-new-old.452949/page-11#post-14560456
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/american-livery.1266578/page-4#post-14528994

The last known photo in the latest version of the immaculate build.
Photo by Don Hale

 

Great photo from Speed Gems. This is the version of the car I brought home in 1973. I still have the glass front end and the chrome wheels in storage.

 

Great pic, thanks for posting. Love this car and thought I had seen all the pics, this is a new one for me.

 

That's a new one for me to. It's cool to see a picture of the SWC Willys with a month and year on it. With the chrome wheels on it, it's probably the Swindler B car driven by Ray "the prince" Cook. (Doug's brother)

 

Been going through some of my old stuff and came across the certified weight of my steel 40 Willys coupe. It had stock chromed axle w/ disk brakes, SBCw/ turbo 400 and Olds/Pont rear. Joe I remember talking to you at Timmonium MD when you had car there, I told you I rode in it at NY National speedway when Doug Cooks brother was warming it up and asked if I wanted to go for a ride. I had met them at Jack Merkel shop that week, they were in town for a "Gasser Meet" at NY National.

All just great memories now.

Pat

 

1934coupe, I remember the conversation. Those were the good times.

 

Our new project. 37 coupe

 

Photographed in Waymouth Street, Adelaide, April 14, 1942. State Library of South Australia

 

Congratulations, a steel Willys Coupe is very hard to find. What are your plans for it?

 

1961 Bee Line Speed Shop Willys Stamford CT

 

@'34 Terraplane

That is the earliest picture that I have seen of the Bee line Willys. Here is a later one

 

It's funny, all 283's were 288's in those days.

Pat