Willys chief engineer · 1888–1960
Delmar “Barney” Roos
Roos transformed an unimpressive Willys four-cylinder into the 60-hp Go Devil, the mechanical advantage that helped Willys win the standardized contract.
“The engineer whose one part — an engine nobody else wanted — is the actual, mechanical reason "Jeep" is a Willys word and not a Bantam or Ford one.”
A New York kid who idolized a race driver
Born October 11, 1888, in the Bronx. Manual Training High School, Brooklyn; Cornell engineering, graduated 1911. Picked up the nickname "Barney" at Cornell from his devotion to racer Barney Oldfield.
Two decades of chief-engineer jobs before Willys ever called
General Electric under Sanford Moss (turbines and compressors), then Locomobile, Pierce-Arrow (chief engineer, 1921), Locomobile again, Marmon, and Studebaker chief engineer (1926–1936), where he co-developed a "thin wall" bearing and invented "planar" independent front suspension. He arrived at Willys with real, previously-proven suspension engineering — not just an engine specialist.
Recruited to fix a "less than impressive" engine
Willys-Overland president Ward M. Canaday hired Roos as Executive VP and Chief Engineer. Roos rebuilt Willys' existing ~48 hp automobile engine into the L134 "Go Devil": counterbalanced crankshaft, aluminum pistons, insert bearings, new lubrication and valvetrain — 60 hp at 4,400 rpm, 105 lb-ft of torque. This single engineering fact swung the whole Army contract to Willys.
A peacetime encore
After the war, Roos adapted his own 1935 Studebaker "planar" front suspension into "Planadyne" independent front suspension for the 1946 Jeep Station Wagon — Willys' first post-war passenger vehicle and its first product with independent suspension.
A long goodbye
Retired after Kaiser Motors acquired Willys, but kept a consulting relationship until officially retiring in 1958; died February 13, 1960.