Willys, the makers of the Whippet, also used the economy run as a powerful marketing tool for their economy cars during the 1920s. This is a 1926 ad taken from the Oakland Tribune.
Grandma (Mildred Deason Golden) is 84 now, raised on a farm in Clanton, Alabama. In years passed she told me that her father once had a Whippet, and I didn't think anything of it until today when I saw a an advertisement in the Oakland Tribune for a Whippet, touting a recent economy run. What was a Whippet? In 1926, Willys replaced the Overland with the Whippet, and this low-priced model would remain in production until 1931.
Grandma (she was about 10 when they had the car, so about 1935) told me today that the Whippet they had was a "home-made job" with a cab and some sort of a rear cargo area. It was green and beige, and whenever the kids saw it they laughed because they thought the car was so funny-looking. At times her dad could get the car to run, or chug, for a while, but then it invariably died and all the kids would have to push it back home again. What Grandma remembers the most about this car were its the big headlights. She thought they were scary, especially when you stood right in front of the car.
Here are some Whippet images:
a 1926 or 1927 Whippet sedan
1928 Whippet advertisement
1929 Whippet Touring
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