The Duesenberg’s

The Duesenberg’s

By David Glenn Cox

There was no finer automobile ever manufactured in North America than the Duesenburg. When a new Cadillac could set you back a couple of grand, a new Duesenberg could set you back ten. The brothers Fredrick and August Duesenberg were tinkerer’s, self-taught engineers working in the new field of automobiles.

The brothers had built experimental cars and engines for aviation before founding the Duesenberg Automobile & Works Company in 1913. They operated outside of the Detroit circle of manufacturers, locating first in Des Moines, Iowa before relocating to Indianapolis. In 1914, a Duesenberg finish 10th in the Indy 500 with future WW1 air ace Eddie Rickenbacker behind the wheel. The Duesenberg’s owned the Indy race in the 1920’s winning in 1924, 25 and 1927. The pace car for the 1923 Indy race was a Duesenberg and a Duesenberg had won the French Grad Prix at Le Mans, two years before.

The brother’s plan for 1920 was to begin production building passenger cars in the new factory and headquarters. But of mice and men, their plan didn’t go as expected. The brothers were brilliant engineers; they could make cars fly around a racetrack at breakneck speed. In their heads were the ideas which would revolutionize automobiles for decades to come, but the ability to build a simple passenger car, like Henry Ford or Billy Durant eluded them.

It was an entirely different set of skills, by today’s standard’s the brothers were building high performance super cars.  The Duesenberg Model A was the first mass-produced straight eight cylinder engine.

The base price for a 1922 Model A Duesenberg was $6,500 so maybe, “mass-produced” was an overstatement. The company struggled to sell its first 100 cars, even with their genius for innovation. The Model A had a 260 CID engine with a one-barrel carb, featuring a single overhead cam, four valves per cylinder putting out close to 100 Hp when Ford’s Model T was putting out 30 Hp.

A three speed manual transmission on a 134 inch wheelbase meant a Duesenberg had sweet ride characteristics, but might not fit in your garage. The cars were built on a steel frame more than half an inch thick, so even with all that power under the hood, the car would be a tank by modern standards. But the car was filled with so many cutting edge ideas, including vacuum assisted drum brakes and thermostatically controlled front louvers on the cowl.

The brothers were famous and universally hailed as innovators and automotive engineers; but their car company was a flop commercially.

The brothers first sold the company to a pair of venture capitalists, who soon lost their venture and their capital. The company was renamed the Duesenberg Motors Company, but by 1924 was in receivership and the brothers had no choice but to sell out. E. L. Cord took possession of the company mating it with his own Cord and Auburn automobile companies, trying as Billy Durant had done with GM to build a cohesive line of cars in various price ranges.

Cord’s idea was to make Duesenberg successful by marketing it as an American Rolls Royce or Mercedes Benz. During that glamour era of the 1930’s arriving in a Duesenberg made a statement, the cars epitomized the era. The Mayor of New York drove a Duesenberg, so did Tom Mix, Rudolph Valentino and Gary Cooper. The fame of these cars far exceeded their numbers built, with the company rarely managing to produce more than a 100 cars a month. Even with a $25,000 price tag the Duesenberg Company struggled financially.

Clark Gable owned a model JN of which only dozen were built and only four were convertibles. Gable’s 1935 JN had a 420 CID straight eight engine, dual overhead cam, four valves per cylinder, dual exhaust manifolds promising 115 Mph from the factory, only the car was over 12 foot long. A 115 Mph in a straight line perhaps, but I wouldn’t throw in any curves with that. With a curb weight from two and half to three tons these cars were cruisers that could go really fast, even if that wasn’t always a good idea.

Looking back over the history, it is clear the Duesenberg was doomed from the start. They were too big and too expensive, too experimental and too outrageous. But its very name had a style and panache, the name Duesenberg meant the very best, bar none. “That’s a Duesy,” the best, the most over the top motor car there was to be had. These cars were owned only by Hollywood Movie elites, politicians or just your run of the mill, millionaires. In a way though, we all share in the legacy of the Duesenberg’s. Dual overhead cams, super-chargers, four valves per cylinder, power brakes they were the last word in elegance and the first word in innovation.