In digging out my old photo album for a picture of my ’68 Mustang, I came across my very first Curbside Classics. On Saturday morning of Labor Day weekend, 1972, my Mom was reading the paper and saw that there would be a classic car parade in Auburn, IN (about 30 miles north of our home in Fort Wayne) later that morning. We hopped into the car and drove up. How about this Model J Duesenberg town car. A Curbside Classic, literally.
Every year, the Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg club has its national meet in Auburn Indiana, home of the former corporate headquarters. There is a parade, then cars park around the town square for viewing.
The Duesenberg Model J featured a 420 cubic inch Lycoming-built double overhead cam straight 8 rated at 265 b.h.p. A contemporary Ford Model A was rated at 40. The chassis cost close to $10,000 F.O.B Indianapolis, then the custom body would add an additional $5,000 to the cost of the car, at a minimum. This is why nobody’s Aunt Lucy or Uncle Fred ever owned one of these. But Clark Gable and Gary Cooper did. This dual cowl phaeton would have looked better with the top down.
Have you ever heard the bellow of one of these huge Duesenberg straight 8s? It is quite a sound. This car is the SJ (Supercharged Model J) that bumped horsepower up to about 320. These cars were reputed to be good for over 100 m.p.h in second gear, and boasted 0-60 times in the 8 second range. Pretty respectable for a car from the early 1930s that weighed between five and six thousand pounds.
This red SJ roadster is vivid in my memory. Before the parade, the driver stopped to chat with some friends. When it was time to go, he hit the throttle, popped the clutch and did a burnout halfway down the block. I will never forget the sight of his wife chewing him out the whole way and beyond. Who knows: I may have personally witnessed the last time anyone ever had the guts to do a burnout in a Duesenberg SJ. Hard to imagine, but these cars were only about forty years old then. Like something from around 1970 today. Or about the age of these photos. Yikes.
If this were a genuine Auburn 851 boattail speedster, it would be supercharged as well, identifiable by the exposed side pipes. Not everyone popped for the wide whites in 1972. This may actually be a replica from the late 1960s or early 1970s. These were manufactured in low volumes with Ford power for several years. As a thirteen year old kid at the time, I could not spot the differences.
Although this looks like a 1936-37 coffin nosed Cord 810, I believe it is actually a 1960s vintage Cord 8/10. The 8/10 was a front drive car with Corvair power and a composite body. The name came from the fact that the car was approximately 8/10 the size of the original.
These photos mark the beginning of about a twenty year run of my annual trek to Auburn, IN over labor day weekend. I believe that the A-C-D club still has its meet there, but I have not been there in quite some time. There is also a very nice museum housed in the old factory showroom and headquarters building that features many cars of all kinds, not just A-C-D brands.
You all know that I have a thing for cars built in Indiana. While the Studebakers are the most widely known, the Auburn, the Cord and especially the Duesenberg were not only great Indiana cars, but would stand up against anything built anywhere. And let me tell you, a Duesey can lay an impressive patch of rubber on the pavement.
I remember reading a book about Duesenberg when I was a kid and being really impressed–makes you wonder what might have been had A-C-D and E.L. Cord not run into trouble during the late ’30s. Probably would have been someone else’s brand by now, but a super-premium one like Bentley or Bugatti.
(The Wikipedia entry for Duesenberg mentions that during WWII some Model J’s sold for $100-200…think of the return (assuming the cars were cared for) on that investment!)
I would imagine that these things gulped fuel at a rate that would have made them fairly unpopular during the fuel rationing of the war years.
A fair number of 1930s classics were lost to the World War II scrap metal drives. Even in the 1950s, they could be bought for a song.
Too true–I’m sure there was many a Cord, Packard, Pierce-Arrow, etc that was scrapped during the war (and to be honest, that was probably the best for all, but still painful to think about).
Wow 20 year run? So you would have been there in 1985 when I was! (Although I was 8 years old at the time…)
The thing that still sticks in my head till this day is the smoooooooooooothness of those old inline engines. There was one car there and with the hood open you could faintly hear the snap of those spark plugs as the recipocating mass rotated. The driver had placed a glass of water on the engine just so we could see how vibrationless it was. God they don’t make ’em like that anymore.
“The thing that still sticks in my head till this day is the smoooooooooooothness of those old inline engines.”
Correct. Those straight-8’s were really something to see, hear and feel! Just like a fine timepiece. The engine alone probably weighed almost half as much as my MX5, too.
A burnout by an SJ: hold on to that memory!
Too bad you didn’t get a shot of the Duesy doing the burnout! That would have been priceless!
They still hold the ACD meet every Labor Day in Auburn. My plant manager goes every year. Every year he invites me, but every year my wife wants to do something else. Guess who wins…
What’s terrible is that Auburn is about a 1.5 hour drive from here, but I never think of it when I’m in Indiana… What a bonehead!
A Midwester downtown with real stores instead of coffee shops and antique retailers!
I enjoyed your post and photos. Thanks
There’s a reason why the phrase ‘That’s a Duesey’ survives to this day……. these are not cars but works of art. On the HDNet they frequently show are clip of the Mormon Meteor– what a beautiful car!
Perhaps the most beautiful car this side of the 1957 Mercedes SL Roadster!
back view:
I have a photo of this very car taken in maybe 1974 when the longtime owners brought it to Auburn. That was one fast car.
My alltime favorite althou this model is missing the luggage rack that mine would sport.
Shame on me – I used to travel right past that festival location (but never attended) when I was switching from my work semester at Delco Electronics in Kokomo, IN to school at GMI (now Kettering U) in Flint.
I knew about the festival, but the significance of it and the rich automotive history of the entire area hadn’t yet permeated my 21-year-old mind. Kokomo has quite the automotive history of its own, being the home of the Haynes and Apperson automotive companies, two of the oldest in the country. One of their original buildings still stands today, but you’d never know its history by the looks of it.
I remember growing up in the 1970s that there was one guy in my hometown who owned two 1930s Cords, back when they were still semi-affordable. I would see one driving around once in a while, and didn’t really know what it was at the time (but thought those exhaust runners escaping from the engine compartment were really cool). We had a couple of Excaliburs driving around during the same era, complete with the VW Beetle rear taillights (which led me to erroneously conclude that it was a kit car of some type).
My Grandfather once told me that the first car he ever owned was an Apperson Jackrabbit, which he won in a poker game. He said he drove it to Dayton, on the railroad tracks.
Have you ever heard the bellow of one of these huge Duesenberg straight 8s? It is quite a sound.
For those that haven’t, Jay Leno has a whole fleet of Dueseys. When he opens up the exhaust cut-out towards the end of this video, it’s an aural delight.
http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/at-the-garage/duesenberg/1932-duesenberg-sj—part-2/
Thank you, thank you, thank you. I LOVE that sound and have not heard it in years.
Check out his other Dueseys; he fires up the rest of them too.
These are really the pinnacle of American automobilia.
Whatever your position on the recent Jay vs. Conan situation, you have to appreciate Jay’s efforts as an automotive collector/curator/historian. He’s made it possible for a lot of rare and sometimes unappreciated hardware to be preserved.
The best part is that he fires them all up and takes them for a spin around town from his old aircraft hangar he calls a garage.
If I keep watching his video of his 1967 Imperial, it’s going to drive me to purchasing that 79 Continental I took for a spin the other week.
Jay’s right, you really don’t appreciate them until you see them in motion.
My wife and I both like Jay. Conan was juvenile – both in his attitude and humor.
Would be nice if I could ask him about his “Deuseys” when we attend the “Tonight Show” on the 27th!
When we visited Briggs Cunningham’s (awesome) Museum in about 1978 or so, the fired up the SJ Speedster her had there, and took it outside to warm up and run a bit. Nothing like the sound of a big straight eight; a throb, instead of the V8 burble.
All the cars he kept there were run regularly too.
Great post Ive heard the low growl of a duesy accelerating unfortunately no tyre smoke.
Napier where I am has an Art Deco Festival every year and as many old Duesys Auburns Rolls Bentlys etc as can be found turn up for parade and display, vast amounts of the city were reconstructed in spanish mission art deco style after the 31 earthquake and the cars suit the outdoor decor.
Beautiful old cars Duesenbergs a good look at one shows where the money is only the wealthy could afford them new like the English Rolls and anything going wrong now huge money to fix like a local Rolls the vintage club has its immaculate but needs an engine block no problem a firm in Christchurch can make one $68,000 and your away.
The Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg Museum is a real treat. The original company headquarters with the factory showroom. The showroom is in the art-deco style and is basically in the same as it was during the operation of the company. You can see the offices of the president of the company and the engineers. And there is the display of many beautiful autos.
What tced said. (tsaid?) I had the dumb luck to get a coffee-table sort of book called “Cars of the 30s” when I was in second grade. I was totally obsessed – to this day I can tell you more about options on 30s cars than anything contemporary. I drew Cords, Auburns and Dueseys over and over. Made the pilgrimage to Auburn with Dad in high school but I’ve never heard one run.
Wonderful photos, JP. I love the meta-time-warp effect of seeing those 70s kids ogling a 30s car.
Never made it to Auburn, but back in 1968, when I was 18 I was taken to my first antique car show by the guy who had been my father’s carburetor man when he had the Chevy dealership. It was the A-C-D regional just outside of Harrisburg, and Earl (the carb guy) had a Cord 810 roadster. Spent the day with a bunch of his friends, and got invited for a ride down the PA Turnpike in a Dusenberg J phaeton. On the return trip, the owner turns to me and asks, “Can you drive a stick?” When I said yes, he pulled over and told me to get behind the wheel.
I will never forget that day! Took it up to 55, the owner says, “It’ll do better than that.” Got my nerve up and was rolling 75, passing traffic, including a PA State Trooper. Forget what the speed limit was back then, but he didn’t come after us. That car was huge! I still remember how the engine sounds, 43 years later.
If it sounds unbelievable, keep in mind that the Dusey was only worth about $20-30,000 back then. And five months later, when I got my first antique automobile (a 1937 Buick Special 2-door luggage back sedan in nice original condition) it cost my dad $400.00. Nobody was talking investment cars back then, just a bunch of crazies keeping some old iron on the road for the love of it – and if you owned a modified hot rod, you were absolutely not welcome at any antique car shows.
Nowadays, the owners don’t dare drive them, much less allow some 18 year old kid.
Now that’s a story. There may be more living astronauts today than people who can say they’ve driven a Duesenberg on an open public road, especially at 18. (OK, I may be exaggerating. But not by much.)
And I thought I was blessed just getting to listen to them run and watch them drive! You, sir, are one lucky dude. I have driven some interesting cars, but nothing that even comes close to a J.