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| This is Gary's 1930 Model J Duesenberg. It was the finest American luxury car money could buy. |
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| Cord 810 |
Olympian
Automobiles of the 1930s
The
Great Depression was replete with many ironies, none more obvious to those
living at the time than the magnificent, extravagant automobiles that were
being produced for a privileged few during a time of enormous dislocation. At
the very top end of the American automobile market in terms of production
numbers stood Packard, which outsold Cadillac. Other prestige cars included
Cord, Duesenberg, Franklin, Lincoln, Marmon, and Pierce-Arrow. These marques
reflected an Olympian Age in automobile history. The best of these makes
included the Cadillac V-16, the Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrows, the Auburn boat
tail speedster, the coffin-nose Cord, and perhaps the most publicized vehicle
of that type and era, the Duesenberg SJ and SSJ.4 They were opulent,
shiny, large, and stunningly beautiful. And they performed. Unlike today, where
performance is measured in 0-60 acceleration times and top speed, cars like the
Cadillac V-16 were judged by their ability to accelerate in high gear from 5 to
25 mph. It was performance criteria that weighed the most with luxury buyers,
who were unconcerned with the V-16’s top end of 87 mph or its 9-10 mpg.5
The
Duesenberg Models J, SJ, and SSJ were the most glamorous cars that one could
own during the early 1930s; the cheapest J sold for 20 times the price of the
least expensive Ford Model A, with prices typically between $13,000 and $20,000
when custom bodywork was added to the powertrain and chassis. The phrases “he
drives a Duesenberg” and “the world’s finest motorcar” said it all during the
Great Depression. Duesenbergs were long, low, powerful, beautiful, and often
open. One wonders what a displaced sharecropper thought when standing beside
the road and seeing one of these cars passing by. It was the car that many
Americans, no matter how down and out at the time, aspired to own. The
Duesenberg was the ultimate idol in a culture that increasingly worshipped
things, especially the automobile. Right or wrong, they were one important
scene in the American dream of that era, much like a Lamborghini, Ferrari, or
Bentley today.
And
appropriate to the American dream, the Duesenberg came out of Midwest farm
soil. The Dusenberg brothers, Fred and August (Augie) were born in Lippe,
Germany during the 1870s and grew up in Iowa. They first made a reputation in
bicycle racing between 1897 and 1899, briefly made bicycles, and added a motor
to one of them. They moved to Des Moines, where they founded the Iowa
Automobile and Supply Company and modified cars for country fair races. Their
success with a two-cylinder engine named the Marvel gained the attention of
local attorney and financial backer Edward R. Mason. In 1904, the brothers then
began making the Mason car, “The fastest and strongest two-cylinder car in
America.” Later, the Maytag family purchased the company, moved it to Waterloo,
Iowa, and changed the name of the car to Maytag-Mason. Regarded as poor
businessmen but mechanical geniuses, Fred and Augie were gradually marginalized
at Maytag-Mason. In 1913 they moved to St. Paul, Minnesota, where they made
small, high-speed engines, eventually producing marine engines for the Navy
during WWI. In 1920, the operation moved to Indianapolis, where shortly
thereafter, the first Dusenberg car, the Model A, was manufactured. In a 1922
ad, the Dusenbergs proclaimed that the Model A was “Built to outclass, outrun
and outlast any car on the road.” The Dusenberg quickly developed a reputation
for racing prowess. It was the only car ever to win the French Grand Prix,
doing so in 1921, and it won the Indianapolis 500 in 1924, 1925, and 1927.
The
Dusenberg models that followed were not only the reflection of Fred and Augie’s
genius, but the result of a heated rivalry between the brothers and perhaps
Americas’ the most talented automobile engineer ever, Harry Armenius Miller.6
Miller, one year younger than Fred Duesenberg, was also a product of the
Midwest, in this case Wisconsin. Like the Duesenbergs, Miller would also prove
to be a poor businessman who entered the automobile industry via the
fabrication of racing bicycles. During the 1920s, Miller, based in Los Angeles,
made major innovations in racing engine design, including the use of the
supercharger and front wheel drive. Racing pushed both groups towards
bankruptcy, but before the decade ended, Miller cars won four Indianapolis 500s
and set a land speed record of 171 mph.
In
1926 Errett Lobban Cord acquired Dusenberg, and plans were soon underway for
what became the Model J, a car that was to be better than anything the
Europeans could make. The Model J finally appeared in 1929, and its debut
resulted in many superlatives. Above all, it was rolling sculpture. The J was
nearly 20 feet long, with a prominent radiator and a sensuous rear. Its
exterior hid what was the heart of this vehicle, a huge 7-liter double overhead
cam straight 8, with four valves per cylinder and numerous aluminum components.
The J was the car of the moneyed and mighty, and the ultimate status symbol. It
has been claimed that the phrase “It’s a Duzy” was coined, a connotation that
was a tribute to anything superb. Careful scholarship, however, suggests that the
term, with a slightly different spelling, was in use prior to the Duesenberg’s
appearance on the automotive scene.7 Whatever the issue about word,
perceptions and desires related to the Duesenberg are far more important. Two
of Hollywood’s greatest stars of the era, Clark Gable and Gary Cooper, bought
short wheelbase Duesenberg roadsters (SSJ’s) in 1935, and their photographs
standing next to their cars belied the immense suffering of many Americans
during those desperate times.
The
J was produced between 1929 and 1936, and it was complemented by the Model SJ,
introduced in 1932, a supercharged version that contributed to the some 36
Dusenberg speed records, including the 24 hour world’s record run of 1935 in
which a 400 horsepower car averaged 135.47 mph, with one lap timed at over 160
mph on a 10 mile oval at the Bonneville, Utah salt flats. Dusenbergs were a
prime example of the technological sublime, and remain one of the most
desirable of all collectible cars in America.8
The
Duesenberg was only one of Errett Lobban Cord’s ventures during the 1920s and
1930s.9 A one-time used car salesman, Cord rose meteorically during
the early 1920s to become one of America’s leading business figures (he was
twice on the cover of Time), and
directed companies that manufactured in addition to the Duesenberg, the Auburn
Boat-Tailed Speedster and the Cord 810 and 812.10 Despite Cord’s
contributions to the introduction of some of the most innovative automobiles of
the twentieth century, he cared and knew next to nothing about automotive
engineering. Perhaps this is key to developing an understanding of why his
influence was short-lived, but he did correctly perceive that style and
innovation were most significant to car sales once the Model T had had its run.
As a stock manipulator, he had little interest in his cars once they were
introduced. Indeed, in his drive to release startling new designs so as to whip
up consumer interest, insufficient time was spent in ensuing product quality.
Consequently – and it should be no surprise – his automobile empire crumbled in
1937.
While
Cord’s business success increased Auburn sales during the 1920s, like many
others of that day he wanted to put his name on something of value. He did so
in 1929 with the introduction of the Cord L-29, America’s first front wheel
drive car made in substantial numbers. In a brochure authored by Cord to entice
customers, Cord wrote “The Cord car is a specialty car, different from
others . . . Being the very latest automotive development
however, it creates an entirely new place never before occupied by any other
car.”11 The Cord L-29 drew on the innovative technology developed by
Harry Miller and allowed the body of the car to be significantly lower than
comparable models that employed rear-wheel drive. It was introduced in the
summer of 1929, however, absolutely the wrong time for an unproven design to
hit the marketplace given what would happen to the American economy later that
year. Despite weak sales of the L-29 after 1930 and the fact that the Auburn
Automobile Company never profited from the sales of this model (approximately
5,600 were manufactured between 1929 and 1932), Cord was undeterred in building
an empire that included not only automobile manufacturing but also Lycoming
engines, Century Air Lines, Century Pacific Airlines and Spencer Heater
Company.
In
1934 Cadillac and Pierce-Arrow introduced aerodynamic coupes, and in response,
Cord charged a small group of underfunded designers to respond. What
crystallized was the Cord 810 (a supercharged version would be later
manufactured, the Cord 812). Compared to the common cars of the era, the Cord
810 had the appearance of a vehicle from Mars.12
Designed
by Gordon M. Buehrig, perhaps the most talented American automotive designer of
the twentieth century, the “Coffin Nose” Cord 810 was a brute with personality.13
Among the innovations of the 810 were front wheel drive, the first practical
independent front suspension, an “alligator” hood free of chrome trim,
fingertip shift, concealed headlights, step down frame and body arrangement,
v-shaped windshield, smooth, aerodynamic back, and pontoon fenders. The 810’s
aircraft-like instrument panel was stunning, made even more attractive by its
soft lighting. Buehrig had taken the many cutting-edge contemporary styling
ideas and combined them in what can only be regarded as a remarkably beautiful
car. Further, to develop this design, Buerhrig, working with Dale Cosper,
designed and built clay modeling equipment at Auburn that was used for the
first time in making a one-quarter scale model that was extremely accurate. It
made the scale-up to working prototype possible in a shorter period. This
table-top device would become the industry standard to at least to the 1950s.
More
than two thousand Cord 810s were made during the mid-1930s, and the car could
perform. Its 175 horsepower engine would propel the 810 at more than 112 mph, a
stock car record until 1954. It was described as “decidedly unconventional and
“born and raised on a highway,” but by 1937 its production run ended with the
closing of the doors at the Auburn Automobile Company. Years later Gordon
Buehrig would reminisce and attempt to answer the question of why the Cord 810
ultimately failed. He claimed that it was such a radical design that more time
was needed to develop and refine it before it was introduced to the market.
However, E. L. Cord impatiently rushed the car into the market, displaying
the car at the New York Auto Show only five months after the prototype was
built. Just as people can fall in love with a car, so too can they fall out of
love, especially when that car lets its owner down on the side of the road. As
Buehrig recalled, the Cord’s steering shimmied, its front white walls were
covered with grease (due to the improper application of grease to the universal
joints), its engine overheated, the transmission would jump out of gear, and
few mechanics were bold enough to work on the car. The Cord 810 was
cutting-edge technology not taken to completion.14
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