This past Saturday afternoon was a rather fruitful car-spotting day. Around here–and completely opposite blizzard-handicapped New England–the roads and curbs are full of charming classics, basking in the late-winter sun…including a car I’d never previously seen mobile.
As I was passing the Powell Street exit on the Eastshore Freeway, I saw something early ’50s-looking keeping up with the surprisingly brisk traffic. From its upright simplicity (and from a distance), I first thought it was an ordinary 1952-54 Ford: Seen those, so I can get off at Ashby. But as I merged to exit, I saw that it was a Willys Aero! I’ve never seen one outside of a museum!
The fascinating history of possibly the best-performing of the early-1950s compacts is covered here. But due to a refreshing lack of the typical planned obsolescence associated with most 1950s American cars, it’s a bit hard to pin down which model I was pacing on the freeway. It was definitely a 1952 or 1953, and most likely an Ace, but I’m not too sure.
This is as close as I could get before I got in caught in a wad of traffic trying to decide which exit was which, and I didn’t get any more shots. So I’ll turn it over to our more expert car spotters. Can we firm up the model year of this little innovator?
Pretty sure what you saw was a Fielding. :^D
That’s right, a Fielding was a doctored 1953 Willys Aero made up for the 1954 movie “Johnny Dark,” starring Tony Curtis and Piper Laurie.
Looking at enlarged photos on the computer, it appears as though this car has a one-piece winshield, so it’s a 1953 model. In 1952, all Willys-Aeros had two-piece windshields. For 1953, the two upper-trim levels – the Ace and the Eagle – received a one-piece winshield, while the less expensive Larks and Falcons retained the two-piece unit.
According to James Flammang in “Cars of the Fabulous Fifties,” the 4-door Aero Ace didn’t officially debut until 1953. I think you can just make out the “Aero Ace” script on the trunk lid if you enlarge the photo. Willys was taken over by Kaiser in 1954, and only a few 1955 models were produced before Kaiser shipped off to South America. I can remember seeing a few of these funny little cars around L.A. when I was a child.
I too saw them as a kid growing up in the midwest. They weren’t common but they were around. My memory is that they were mostly two-toned and that a dark red (one in the brochure cover above) and white combination was pretty common. There must have been a fair number of Kaiser-Willys dealers throughout the midwest back in the day. The Henry Js were quite plentiful on the roads.
Really cool car. I have never seen one on the road either.
Strangely enough, while slogging through barely plowed Massachusetts streets this morning, I passed a pristine ’65 or ’66 AMC Ambassador coming the other way. I was amazed and horrified at the same time. I hope he hosed off the undercarriage good when he got home.
Great find, I don’t think I’ve ever seen one of these either… the only Willy’s I can recall encountering were hacked up pre-war hot rods.
This might sound stupid, but I think that bridge is a real beauty too!! If not for the other cars on the road I would think I was looking at a photo from the late 50’s.
Well, here’s the same freeway one exit up (Between University and Gilman) in early 1962. Not much has changed.
I’d never heard of them until last year when a gorgeous ’55 Aero Custom popped up for sale here in New Zealand. I then found and read the CC which filled in the blanks. Interesting looking cars. http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=553565739
There were 2 in a wrecking yard in Kaikohe years back but Ive only seen 1 live Willys Aero ever.
My Sunday drive 2 hours away produced this below vvv
Out for a nice drive in the Eldorado and oh look a DeLorean passes by. Suddenly it was 1981 again all over the road…
This is one smog choked drag race I’d love to see……
Well it was fun until we hit 88mph then it got interesting…
88 mph in a delorean takes most of the day.
I have never, EVER seen one of these in the metal, unless you count the one Joe Flaherty drove at the end of Back To the Future Part II.
An excellent find, Laurence!
I have seen one or two of these at Hershey. They’ve always struck me as a tidy little package that would be fun to putt around town in on the weekends. My stock list for the MM Garage has had an Aero sedan on it for years.
The car you see once belonged to Bill Raub of San Jose. Here is a picture of him and his 1953 Willys Aero Ace that he bought new. This picture was taken around 1983 a few years before he died.
I remember the Willys sedans back in the 50″s outside Chicago. Im in my 60’s now and have had 2. One I prostreeted and ran in the 10’s at Gainsville.One I own now 1952 Aero Wing which is a strong 91hp fhead 6cyl. I love these cars because they are so unique and 50’s looking.