Wills Sainte Claire Motor Company

CH Wills & Company Wills Sainte Claire Motor Company
legal form	Company
founding	1919
resolution	1927
Reason for dissolution	liquidation
Seat	Marysville , Michigan , USA
management	C. Harold Wills
Branch	Automobiles

Wills Sainte Claire from 1921 as a roadster ...

... with a jump seat

Wills Sainte Claire Model A-68 from 1921 in the Steim car collection in Schramberg

Wills Sainte Claire from 1922 as a touring car

Wills Sainte Claire Motor Company , previously CH Wills & Company , was an American manufacturer of automobiles . From 1923 the company name Wills Sainte Claire, Inc.

Company history

C. Harold Wills left mid 1919 Ford with a severance payment of 1.5 million dollars . Together with John R. Lee, who also previously worked for Ford, he founded CH Wills & Company . The seat was in Marysville , Michigan . In 1921 the production of automobiles began. The brand name was Wills Sainte Claire . The emblem showed a gray goose . The vehicles were expensive to manufacture. Wills was considered a perfectionist. As soon as he thought he could improve a little something on the vehicles, the assembly line was stopped. As a result, not as many vehicles were created as planned. The production was not cost-covering. In December 1922 there were financial problems. Lee and other senior executives left the company.

In 1923 Wills was able to acquire the rights to the company again with the help of a bank. A reorganization resulted in the Wills Sainte Claire Motor Company . He continued production.

Production ended in 1927. The company was liquidated.

In Marysville there is the Wills Sainte Claire Automobile Museum . It exhibits around ten vehicles from this company.

vehicles

Eight-cylinder models

The vehicles had a V8 engine . A bore of 82.55 mm and a stroke of 101.6 mm resulted in a displacement of 4350 cm³ . Some parts were made of molybdenum . The OHC valve control for each of the two cylinder banks was striking . The cylinder head was not removable. The performance was initially specified as 67 hp , from 1926 only 65 hp. Until 1923 the chassis had a 307 cm wheelbase . In the following two years there was a choice between 307 cm and 323 cm wheelbase. After that, the longer wheelbase was standard.

In 1922 there was only the A-68 model . Listed were touring cars with five seats, roadsters with four seats, coupés with four seats, two different sedans with seven seats and town cars with seven seats.

In 1923 the roadster only had two seats. A two-seat coupe and a five-seat Brougham were added.

In 1924 the model B-68 added to the range. The differences to the Model A-68 are not known. There was a choice of touring cars with five and seven seats, roadsters with four seats, a Gray Goose Special , coupé with four seats, Brougham with five seats, sedans with five and seven seats, imperial sedans with five seats and town cars.

In 1925 only the bodies for the Model B-68 are known. These were Roadsters with four seats, Gray Goose Traveler , Phaeton with seven seats, Coupé with four seats, Brougham with four seats and sedans with five and seven seats. Model A-68 and Model C-68 were also available. According to the museum, neither the Model C-68 nor a planned Model D-68 was produced.

In 1926 only the model C-68 was in the range. The brougham again had five seats. The Gray Goose Traveler became the Traveler with five seats. An enclosed drive sedan with seven seats was new .

In 1927 the model was only available to order.

Six cylinder models

The only offer was the Model W-6 . It had a six-cylinder engine with OHC valve control. It had 82.55 mm bore, 139.7 mm stroke, 4486 cm³ displacement and 66 hp. The wheelbase was a uniform 323 cm. Sales prices were about $ 300 to $ 400 below the prices of the eight-cylinder models.

In 1925 there were Phaeton with seven seats, Gray Goose Traveler with five seats, Roadster with four seats, Four Door Brougham with five seats, Cabriolet Roadster with four seats, sedans with five and seven seats and Enclosed sedans with seven seats. The curb weight of a limousine was given as around 1647 kg. The bodies for Cabriolet Roadsters were made by the Philips Custom Body Company .

In 1926 nothing changed.

In 1927, the body range was limited to Roadsters, Gray Goose Traveler , Cabriolet Roadsters, sedans with five and seven seats and Enclosed Drive sedans .

Model overview

year	model	cylinder	Power ( hp )	Wheelbase (cm)	construction
1922	Model A-68	8th	67	307	5-seater touring car, 4-seater roadster, 4-seater coupé, 7-seater sedan, 7-seater town car
1923	Model A-68	8th	67	307	5-seater touring car, 2-seater roadster, 2-seater and 4-seater coupé, 5-seater Brougham, 7-seater sedan, 7-seater town car
1924	Model A-68 and Model B-68	8th	67	307 and 323	Touring car 5-seat and 7-seat, Roadster 4-seat, Gray Goose Special, Coupé 4-seat, Brougham 5-seat, Limousine 5-seat and 7-seat, Imperial Limousine 5-seat, Town Car
1925	Model A-68	8th	67
1925	Model B-68	8th	67	307 and 323	Roadster 4-seat, Gray Goose Traveler, Phaeton 7-seat, Coupé 4-seat, Brougham 4-seat, Sedan 5-seat and 7-seat
1925	Model C-68	8th	67
1925	Model W-6	6th	66	323	Phaeton 7-seat, Gray Goose Traveler 5-seat, Roadster 4-seat, Four Dore Brougham 5-seat, Cabriolet Roadster 4-seat, Sedan 5-seat and 7-seat, Enclosed sedan 7-seat
1926	Model C-68	8th	65	323	Roadster 4-seat, Traveler 5-seat, Phaeton 7-seat, Coupé 4-seat, Brougham 5-seat, Limousine 5-seat and 4-seat
1926	Model W-6	6th	66	323	Phaeton 7-seat, Gray Goose Traveler 5-seat, Roadster 4-seat, Four Dore Brougham 5-seat, Cabriolet Roadster 4-seat, Sedan 5-seat and 7-seat, Enclosed sedan 7-seat
1927	Model W-6	6th	66	323	Roadster, Gray Goose Traveler, Cabriolet Roadster, Sedan 5-seater and 7-seater, Enclosed Drive Sedan

Production numbers

1537 vehicles were built in 1921 and 2736 in the following year. The reorganized company had 1554 vehicles in 1923 and 2020, 1796 and 1929 vehicles in the following years. In 1927 only 330 vehicles were built. In total, that's 11,902 vehicles. Another source mentions 1532 for 1921 and 2840 for 1922, which adds up to 4372. The Wills family stated the number of pieces per body version, according to which a total of 4,341 vehicles should have been built in the two years mentioned. The museum, however, gives a total of 12,107 vehicles. About 80 of them still exist.

year	Production number
1921	1,537
1922	2,736
1923	1,554
1924	2,020
1925	1,796
1926	1.929
1927	330
total	11,902

Source:

literature

• Beverly Rae Kimes, Henry Austin Clark Jr .: Standard catalog of American Cars. 1805-1942. Digital edition . 3. Edition. Krause Publications, Iola 2013, ISBN 978-1-4402-3778-2 , pp. 1545-1547 (English).
• George Nicholas Georgano (Ed.): The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile . Volume 3: P-Z . Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, Chicago 2001, ISBN 1-57958-293-1 , pp. 1743-1744 (English).

Web links

Commons : Wills Sainte Claire Motor Company  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Beverly Rae Kimes, Henry Austin Clark Jr .: Standard catalog of American Cars. 1805-1942. Digital edition . 3. Edition. Krause Publications, Iola 2013, ISBN 978-1-4402-3778-2 , pp. 1545-1547 (English).
2. ↑ George Nicholas Georgano (Ed.): The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile . Volume 3: P-Z . Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, Chicago 2001, ISBN 1-57958-293-1 , pp. 1743-1744 (English).
3. ↑ ^{a b c d} Automobile Quarterly Volume 51, Issue 2, pp. 32–41 (English).
4. ↑ Wills Sainte Claire Automobile Museum (accessed June 1, 2019)
5. ↑ Data on the Model A-68 (English, accessed June 1, 2019)
6. ↑ Data on the Model B-68 (English, accessed June 1, 2019)
7. ↑ Data on the Model W-6 (English, accessed June 1, 2019)
8. ↑ Coachbuilt for the Philips Custom Body Company (accessed June 1, 2019)
9. ↑ Information from the museum (accessed June 1, 2019)