The car is parked on California Street, on the south side of Huntington Park, on Nob Hlll. Taylor Street, the nearest cross-street, is a short distance to the left. The building to the right is the Flood Mansion, which houses the Pacific-Union Club (a private men's club with ninety-nine members), as it did in 1927. This is the area that gave Nob Hill its reputation for ostentatious wealth.

The compound marque name indicates that the car was produced by Willys using a Knight-type engine, i.e., with "sleeve" valves rather than conventional poppets. In the Knight system, a moving sleeve around each cylinder was cam driven to alternately expose and cover intake and exhaust ports.

Other than novelty and bragging rights, the sleeve-valve engine provided considerably quieter operation -- a plus in upper-bracket cars -- though at greater manufacturing cost and, alas, a significant increase in oil consumption and attendant "blue" exhaust.

All that extra metal going merrily up and down limited attainable RPM as well, but most people springing the premium for a Willys-Knight over a plain vanilla Willys weren't doing it for higher engine speed but, rather, quieter, smoother motoring.

A number of luxury makes tried sleeve-valve engines over the years, including Minerva (Belgium), Voisin (France), and several other American brands.