Wills Sainte Claire 1921 Roadster LSide Lake Mirror Cassic 16Oct2010 (14854159726)

Wills Sainte Claire was an American

automobile A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarde ...

brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create ...

manufactured by C. H. Wills and Company, in

Marysville, Michigan Marysville is a city in St. Clair County of the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 9,959 at the 2010 census. The municipality was founded in 1919, first as a village, then became a city in 1924. Marysville is located on the western sho ...

, from 1921 to 1927. Childe Harold Wills, the company founder, was a perfectionist and his automobile company focused on very high quality cars. Wills' mother was a fan of

Lord Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and has been regarded as among the ...

's poetry and Wills never used his first name. As a metallurgical engineer, Wills was an aide of

Henry Ford Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist, business magnate, founder of the Ford Motor Company, and chief developer of the assembly line technique of mass production. By creating the first automobile that ...

. Wills introduced

vanadium steel Vanadium is a chemical element with the symbol V and atomic number 23. It is a hard, silvery-grey, malleable transition metal. The elemental metal is rarely found in nature, but once isolated artificially, the formation of an oxide layer ( passi ...

for the production of the Ford Model T; it was the first the large scale application of the

alloy An alloy is a mixture of chemical elements of which at least one is a metal. Unlike chemical compounds with metallic bases, an alloy will retain all the properties of a metal in the resulting material, such as electrical conductivity, ductilit ...

. Wills was also a designer and is credited with designing the script "Ford Blue Oval" emblem that the company uses to this day. Wills Sainte Claire autoshow ad

Wills left Ford on his own terms and with a severance package of more than 1.5 million dollars, which he used to establish his own car company he originally named "Wills Saint Clair" – Wills for himself and "Saint Clair" for the Saint Clair River near his new factory. Wills later added the extra ''es, thinking that the French spelling elevated the

cachet In philately, a cachet is a printed or stamped design or inscription, other than a cancellation or pre-printed postage, on an envelope, postcard, or postal card to commemorate a postal or philatelic event. There are both official and private ( ...

of the product. The first Wills Sainte Claire rolled off the assembly line in 1921. Production was delayed due to metallurgy issues surrounding the use of molybdenum in castings, which Wills insisted be used in the production of the car in order to ensure its durability. Despite the durability of the cars, once production got underway most of Wills' executive staff abandoned him by 1922 because Wills was known to shut the whole assembly line down if a new and innovative method occurred to him. After going into receivership that year, the company was refinanced by a group of bankers from Boston and reincorporated as Wills Sainte Claire Incorporated in 1923. Automotive designer

Amos Northup Amos Northup (October 23, 1889 – February 8, 1937) was an American automotive designer. Regarded as a leader in the field in the United States by the late 1920s, Northup worked for the Wills Sainte Claire, Murray Corporation of America, H ...

worked at Wills Sainte Claire until 1924. Wills cars rode on either or {{convert, 127, in, mm, 0, abbr=on wheelbases and featured either V8 or inline-6-cylinder overhead cam engines. There was also a wide range of body styles - four-passenger roadster; five-passenger Gray Goose special touring car; seven-passenger touring car; 4-door brougham; four-passenger coupe; five-passenger sedan; five-passenger Imperial sedan and town car. Unable to sustain volume sufficient to make a profit, Wills closed the factory in 1927. Wills was later involved in the development of the

front-wheel drive Front-wheel drive (FWD) is a form of engine and transmission layout used in motor vehicles, where the engine drives the front wheels only. Most modern front-wheel drive vehicles feature a transverse engine, rather than the conventional longitu ...

Ruxton automobile. The factory was later acquired by Chrysler. All Wills Sainte Claire automobiles are classified as "Classic Cars" by the

Classic Car Club of America The Classic Car Club of America (CCCA) is an organization founded in 1952 to celebrate the grand automobiles of the prewar period. At the time, the vehicles covered by the club were considered too modern to be of any interest by such organization ...

. Outside of automotive circles, Wills Sainte Claire is best known for its Canada goose logo. Wills chose it because he felt the Canada goose was the ultimate traveler of the world.

Wills Ste. Claire Auto Museum

In 2002, volunteers opened the Wills Ste. Claire Auto Museum at 2408 Wills Street in

. It is open the second Sunday of every month. Of the approximately 80 Wills Sainte Claire cars believed to exist (of approximately 12,000 manufactured), eleven are on display, plus several unrestored Wills Sainte Claire cars stored awaiting restoration.

References

External links

Wills Ste. Claire Auto Museum
pictures included * Richard A. Wright
"Joyrides: Marysville museum celebrates history of the Wills Ste. Claire"
''Detroit News'' January 5, 2004, retrieved 7/23/09

picture.

article. Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of the United States Luxury motor vehicle manufacturers Motor vehicle manufacturers based in Michigan Defunct manufacturing companies based in Michigan