By Kevin Shaw

It’s hard to take a look at vintage drag racing footage without seeing a couple Willys in the mix. Although Willys have been out of products for over half a century, we still have a sweet spot in our heart for the smooth lines and shapely curves of the Willys coupes. Thankfully we’re not alone. Detroit Speed is hard at work building a really impressive ’41 Willys for Mike and Janie Braswell.

We spotted this build over on BangShift, which also has a huge photo gallery documenting the chassis build and fab work. The Braswells are the right kind of people for this kind of build too, owning a huge collection of cool cars that see plenty of highway time, including regular attendance on the Hot Rod Power Tour every year, as well as both Mike and Janie driving multiple NHRA Stock and Super Stock drag cars.

Knowing this, its obvious that the Braswells would have a ’41 Willys drag car, especially one with a unique history that includes Kenny Bernstein. When the Braswells approached Kyle and Stacy Tucker at Detroit Speed and Engineering about rebuilding the drag car, they were more than happy to take a departure from all the Camaro and Firebired projects.

The Willys though, has been smooth sailing. After sandblasting the body, Detroit Speed unearthed quite the challenge. Since then, the Willys has been equipped with DSE’s new front and rear suspension systems including the DSE X-Gen 535 Series components.

Thanks to www.rodauthority.com