1937 Willys 37.
This photo is believed to have been taken in 1940 or thereabouts - the presence of an immaculate '37 Willys tends to back up this theory. The styling is fairly typical of late-1930s American car design, with thoughts of streamlining coming to the fore (by comparison, images of slightly earlier Willys sedans may be found on this page). At its launch, the four-door five-passenger sedan was listed at $545 USD (as of July 1937), while the Deluxe cost a little more at $590 USD. The latter benefited from the standard fitment of such luxuries as twin windscreen wipers, twin rear tail lights, bumper guards, and armrests for the rear seat passengers.
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At first this was thought to be a Willys 38 (of 1938), however the lack of guttering extending from above the rear door, and down to the rear of the car, suggest that this is a Willys 37 from the previous year (although I'm happy to be proved wrong). The visual differences are few, but the gutter was introduced in 1938. Power came courtesy of a four-cylinder 134 cubic inch engine, which produced 48 bhp, driving through a three-speed floor-shift manual gearbox to the rear axle.
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Many of the Model 37 coupes went on to be hot-rodded. The rebuild of a four-door car, not unlike the example shown above, featured in Old Cars Weekly a while back (the article can be read on their website).
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