Fords are the most popular early hot rods for the simple reason they made gazillions of them, which made parts plentiful and cars cheap. That’s the hot rod way of doing things. Which makes the popularity of 1933-36 Willys in the Gasser ranks of drag racing such an oddity. They were cheap when new, with the added bonus of being lightweight—because they were compact and cheaply made, but they were anything but plentiful. Here’s why.
By mid-1932 when the compact 1933 Willys 77—what became drag racing’s go-to Gasser, was ready to make its debut, the Willys-Overland Company filed for bankruptcy for a second time. Labor problems and the Depression meant “reorganization”, with the added twist that a Federal court order stipulated deposits in 5000 car allotments be received before a production run could start. This is not how to fill the pipeline with product. Willys was hamstrung. But they followed the order, and sold only 12,820 of the diminutive coupes, sedans, and pickups in 1933, 13,234 in 1934, 10,644 with the addition of a panel delivery in 1935, and 30,825 in their final year. That’s not a lot of volume for a mass produced car in the mid-1930s, but somehow the company was out of receivership by February 1936. The next year started the beginning of production of the other iconic Gasser, the 1937-42 Willys coupe, pickups, and sedans. Obviously enough of the 2000-pound “77” coupes wallowed in junkyards awaiting their rebirth as the terrors of the quarter mile.
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