Auction Classics: The Rapid Evolution Of American Cars, Part 4 of 4 1931-1939

By the 1930’s, automobiles were really coming into their own. Cars were faster and more reliable. Moving far beyond simple transportation, status-conscious and well-to-do buyers had a wide selection of cars that could be chosen for their style and speed, and not just utility. Even budget customers could get a certain amount of style and grace in the low-priced brands.

Many enthusiasts consider the late 20’s to mid 30’s period to have produced the most beautiful cars ever made. I’m not sure I’d agree, personally, but we can certainly see why one would feel that way when looking at the lovely and amazing cars here.

As I recalled in parts 1, 2, and 3, these are cars I got to see in January at the Arizona classic car auctions, which featured an unusually large number of cars from all across the 40 year pre-WWII time frame. This has allowed me to look, in one convenient place taken chronologically, at how U.S. cars rapidly evolved during this time with some amazing examples from several different marques. Click on the link to the auction website for more info and higher-quality pictures. Enjoy!

1931 Cadillac V-12 Touring ($106k). As we saw in the last article, Cadillac had introduced its V-16 in late 1929 for MY ’30, just in time for the Depression. While economic conditions may have suppressed sales, there was still a market for Caddy’s uber cruisers. At the same time, Cadillac wisely also offered a V-12 based on the same engine design for price-limited or slightly more practical buyers looking for not-quite-the-ultimate experience. It had 370c.i. displacement making 135hp (vs. V-16’s 452c.i./165hp for 1931). A 95hp V-8 was still the standard engine.

1931 Ford Model A Deluxe Cabriolet ($30k) Stepping down from the lofty luxury heights to cars the majority of buyers could obtain, especially in the Depression, the Model A shows how far affordable cars had come. The Model T, as great as it was, had become pretty long-in-the-tooth by the time it was supplanted by the much more advanced A in 1928. This handsome Ford roadster was no penalty box (at least in good weather). Its 40hp 200.5 c.i. four was about double the T’s horsepower, though the next year would bring the famous 65hp Flathead V8.

1932 Lincoln Model KB Dual-Cowl Sport Phaeton ($151k). Edsel Ford influenced much of the Ford Model A’s virtues, but Lincoln was his real baby. The company was started by Henry Leland, formerly of Cadillac, and sold its first cars in 1920. It didn’t take long to fail financially despite a strong product, leading to its purchase by Ford in 1922, advocated for by Edsel. The original Model L was refined until bringing an all-new platform to market in 1931 and an all-new V-12 engine in 1932. The ’32 Model K was the consummation of 10 years of work by Edsel and others to make the best luxury car Ford could. Some would argue it was peak Lincoln, that it later progressed but never really got any better than this.

It may not beat the Cadillac engines in the beauty department, but Lincoln really knew how to make an L-head look good. This is not the same engine as the 267c.i. V-12 used in later Zephyrs and Continentals, which derived from the Flathead V-8. This 448c.i. (7.3L) L-head was a new design used only in the big K Lincolns, where it made 150hp.

1932 Auburn 8-101-A Rumble Seat Convertible ($121k). While the RMS auction was chockablock with pre-war classics, Barrett-Jackson was not. By virtue of its huge size, though, it always has at least a handful of these cars. While the Auburn Automobile Co. is best known for its righteously famous Cords and Duesenbergs, they also had a full line of Auburns in the medium-priced field which had plenty of flair and performance, too.  Auburn was known for its use of two-tone paint and accent striping, as well as technical advancement like being one of the first makers to have hydraulic brakes.  Power was from a Lycoming (the aviation and auto engine company bought by E.L. Cord in 1927)  268c.i. 100hp L-head straight eight. Auburn also offered a 391.6 c.i. V12 starting in 1932.

1933 Pierce-Arrow 836 Club Sedan ($159k). In the first article, we saw a 1911 Model 66 with its gargantuan 825c.i. (14L) engine. Pierce was at the top of the luxury market pre-WWI. They were less dominant after the war but still in the business of making impressive and striking cars until 1938. As such, this 1933 is a fairly late car. Unlike Packard and other makes, Pierce didn’t market a less expensive line, which probably contributed to their not surviving the Depression. The 366c.i. L-head straight eight produced 125hp to move this stylish sedan with authority, though Pierce-Arrow also fought in the Cylinder Wars, offering V12 power starting in 1932 in 398 and 429 c.i. versions, and 462 c.i. for 1933.

1934 Packard 1108 Twelve Sport Sedan ($291k). To me, a ’34 Packard is just about the ultimate expression of the narrow-body-separate-fender design language used for the first few decades of car production. There is just enough rounding of the fenders and slight angling of the windshield to make it look a little sleeker while keeping the unambiguously blocky two box form.

This particular car is special because its custom body by Derham is not a convertible, but has the removable B pillars of a convertible and a vinyl-covered metal roof, making it perhaps the first “hardtop” sedan ever.

The 1108 was the largest Packard that year and powered by a new-for-’32 160hp 445c.i. (7.3L) L-head V-12. Packard had been the first with a V12 (or Twin Six as Packard called it) in 1916 but discontinued it in favor of straight eights in 1924. With the Cylinder Wars of the early 30’s, Packard added the new V-12 to their line up. It was about the same size and power as Cadillac’s V-16.

1935 Auburn Eight Custom Speedster (No Sale, the pre-auction estimate of $700k seems wildly high and may reflect an unrealistic reserve). Auburn’s most famous car is the 1935-36 Speedster. Designed to be a flagship to draw attention to the brand, they lost money on every one due to the expensive, hand-formed bodywork. The Speedster name was appropriate, as it holds only two people, has no side windows, and has a supercharged 280c.i. L-head straight eight making 150hp which would propel the car to 100mph. However, it’s fairly large and built on the sedan chassis so it isn’t really a true sports car.

The car is best looked at from the rear, where the effect of its iconic Art Deco boat tail styling is powerful. Sadly, the flagship was not enough to save the company. Auburn brand production ended in 1936.

This car was billed as being the only non-supercharged Speedster to leave the factory and has been recently restored.

1936 Packard 1407 Twelve Five-Passenger Coupe ($95k). In the mid-30s, the streamlined look was slowly being applied to all makes. Another pretty Packard shows their take on the theme. Compared to the ’34 above, it had more full fenders, bullet-shaped headlights, no fender-mount spares, and a more rounded roofline.

1936 Ford Deluxe Roadster ($55k). The low-priced makes were just as influenced by styling trends. In the five years since the 1931 seen earlier, Fords have changed considerably. The classic rumble seat is fun in a hobby car though one would not want to be back there long at high speeds or in cold or rainy weather. Calling “shotgun” would carry outsized importance! This one is powered by the 221c.i. Flathead V8 good for 90hp, the only low-priced brand with more than six cylinders. In fact, Ford dropped their four after 1934 and offered only V-8s until 1941.

Note: Still in 1936, the Roadster is a proper roadster with no roll up side windows. 

1937 Cord 812 Supercharged Sportsman Cabriolet ($489k). The star of the Cussler collection, at least judging by price, was an absolutely beautiful 812. This was E. L. Cord’s last attempt to make his automotive mark and it was a doozy (but not a Duesy). Front-wheel-drive, unit body, a new-design 288c.i. L-head V8 (125hp or 170hp supercharged), and sublime Gordon Buehrig styling make this one of the most unique and special cars of the era and a huge leap in automotive evolution.

The car turned out to be too ambitious for a company that was struggling financially to the extent Auburn/Cord was. The new, complex car was fundamentally good but beset by compressed development time and production problems. Less than 3,000 were made over its two model years. The end of the 810/812 was also the end of A-C-D as an automaker. E.L. Cord sold the company in 1937, which would manufacture other things but never again cars.

1937 Chrysler Airflow Eight Sedan ($33k). Chrysler read the streamlined styling room and decided to leap over several evolutionary steps in one bound with the Airflow for 1934. Unlike much streamlined styling, it was legitimately aerodynamic owing to its windtunnel-assisted design. The packaging and body structure were well-advanced, too. Unfortunately, it turned out Chrysler hadn’t, indeed, read the room well. Interest died down quickly when the majority of buyers demonstrated they weren’t ready for such a departure from conventional shapes.

The auction car is from the Airflow’s final season, which has the more upright grille Chrysler hastily added for 1935 to make the car look just a little more mainstream. All Chrysler Airflows were Eights, DeSotos Sixes. The 323.5 L-head straight eight made 130hp and had aluminum heads.

1939 Cadillac Series 75 Sedan ($41k). Taking our decade jumps with Cadillac, we can see how much styling change has happened since the 1930 and ’31 models earlier. Bodies are getting wider, fenders larger, and front ends rounded. Those fenders are just about ready to get absorbed into the main body in a few years!  Headlights are fantastically stretched out in their last year as separate units. This is a really cool car, though to me it is lacking the poise and visual impact the 5-10-year-older models had. Those looked like they had arrived as the ultimate form of their species. These cars from just a few years later look more like a species in transition to something else.

1939 Lincoln-Zephyr Three-Window Coupe ($77k). Lincoln is even more streamlined in 1939. It is just starting to evolve the bodies and fenders into one, with no exterior running boards and the passenger area is almost the full width of the car. Headlights are set wide and fully integrated in the fenders, unlike the old Pierce-Arrows which was alone in putting lights in the fenders as a trademark since 1914.

The Zephyr’s relatively short hood pointed to the future, though the odd proportions of the coupe’s extra long tail end didn’t. The 2-3 passenger business coupes with massive storage space would become much less popular after WWII and die off in the 50s.

Zephyr was Lincoln’s less-expensive line introduced for 1936. Like the Airflow, it was a big advance in streamlined design and unit construction. It got its own V12 engine, albeit based on the Ford Flathead V8, displacing 267c.i. and making 110hp. Unlike The Airflow, it was a success. The full-zoot Model K was discontinued after 1939, partially replaced by the 1940 Continental, a lower-slung convertible (and later coupe) version of the Zephyr.

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The U.S. auto industry’s first forty years were an intense time of technological and stylistic development as well as brutal competition that culled the large herd of companies vying for survival. Darwin would have appreciated the rapid evolution of these unnatural beasts. The evolution would be almost as fast over the next twenty years, but the market would be much different and not as freewheeling and independent as the early days.