| Automobiles of Arizona Friday, January 16, 2009 |
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| “The Dr. Barbara Mae Atwood Collection” | |||||||||
| 1929 Duesenberg Model J Convertible Coupe | |||||||||
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265bhp, 420 cu. in. inline eight-cylinder engine, three-speed manual transmission, solid front axle and live rear axle with semi-elliptic leaf springs, four-wheel hydraulic drum brakes. Wheelbase: 142.5" Many superlative automobiles have been built during the century-plus history of self-propelled travel, but few have spawned new words for our lexicon. It is testament to the Duesenberg Model J that anything great or grand is called a “doozie” (by whatever spelling). While its designers, Frederick and August Duesenberg, are best remembered for the immortal J, they earned their reputations building race cars. As a result, competition technology found its way into all of the high-performance automobiles they built for the road. Like many in the automobile business, the Duesenberg brothers started with bicycles. Fred, a bicycle racer, worked for Thomas Jeffery, maker of Rambler bikes in Wisconsin. Returning home to Iowa, he opened a garage with Augie, and designed a two-cylinder automobile. A local attorney named Mason was impressed, and put up money so they could manufacture it. The Mason Motor Car Company of Des Moines and later Waterloo built cars until 1914, but the Duesenbergs sold control of the firm to washing machine manufacturer F.L. Maytag in 1909, the better to concentrate on racing cars. The Duesenbergs’ skill and creativity trickled down to other early American automakers. Their four-cylinder walk¬ing-beam engine, produced by Rochester, powered half a dozen marques. Eddie Rickenbacker, Rex Mays, Peter DePaolo, Tommy Milton, Albert Guyot, Ralph DePalma, Fred Frame, Deacon Litz, Joe Russo, Stubby Stubblefield, Jimmy Murphy, Ralph Mulford and Ab Jenkins all drove their racing cars. Duesenbergs, seventy in all, com¬peted in fifteen consecutive Indy 500s, starting in 1913. Thirty-two of them finished in the top ten. The brothers became masters of super¬charging and reliability. Because engines were Fred's specialty, their engines were beautiful and performed with the best of Miller, Peugeot and Ballot. In 1921 Jimmy Murphy’s Duesenberg won the French Grand Prix at Le Mans, the first car with hydraulic brakes to start in a Grand Prix race. Duesenberg reprised this performance at Indianapolis in 1922, where eight of the top 10 cars were Duesenberg-powered. Late in World War I, Duesenberg Motors tooled up to build the Bugatti U-16 aero engine. Then the company turned its attention to the Duesenberg Model A, a 183 cubic inch single overhead cam inline eight. It would be built by a new corporation, Duesenberg Automobiles and Motors, which soon moved from Elizabeth, New Jersey, to Indianapolis. After the Model A’s design was complete, Fred and Augie began development of a 122 cubic inch supercharged straight eight for the cham¬pionship series and Indianapolis. Fred Duesenberg was an intuitive and creative designer, to whom new ideas came easily. In a quarter-century he and Augie conceived and built more different, distinctive automobiles and engines – even a racing two-stroke for Indianapolis – than any other designers of the era. Duesenberg Automobiles and Motors was plucked from the post-World War I recession by Errett Lobban Cord. Cord, the savior of Auburn, had lifted the foundering Indiana automaker out of the doldrums by sprucing up unsold cars with bright paint jobs and selling them with creative marketing. In 1926, looking for the means to build a more prestigious car he bought the struggling but very inventive Duesenberg company. Added to Cord’s growing industrial empire, which also included Lycoming engines and the Limousine Body Company, Duesenberg provided a luxury nameplate with advanced engineering. The Model A became, in a sense, the wealthy sportsman’s Pierce-Arrow. For the price of a Pierce Model 36 with T-head six and mechanical brakes, one could get a sophisticated overhead cam eight and four-wheel hydraulics in a Duesenberg – and appear trendier besides. Cord, however, wanted more than a bought-in luxury car. He had also been attracted by the brothers’ engineering prowess. To realize Cord’s dream, Fred was given an assignment – build the best car in the world. More than a competitor for Cadillac or Packard, it was intended from the outset be better than Rolls-Royce, Hispano-Suiza, Isotta Fraschini and Bugatti. The Duesenberg Model J lived up to Cord’s expectations. It was superlative in all respects. Its short-wheelbase chassis was 142.5 inches, the long one nearly 13 feet. The 420 cubic inch dual overhead camshaft straight eight had four valves per cylinder and made 265 horsepower. The finest materials were used throughout, and fit and finish were to precision standards. Each chassis was driven 100 miles at high speed at Indianapolis without a body. The chassis were then clothed by the finest coachbuilders in the world. The Model J was introduced at the New York Auto Salon on December 1, 1928. It made headlines. The com¬bination of the Duesenberg reputation with the Model J’s grandeur and elegance made it the star of the show. Duesenberg ordered sufficient components to build 500 Model Js, while continuing development to ensure its perfection. The first delivery came in May 1929, barely five months before Black Tuesday. The effect of the Duesenberg J on America cannot be overstated. Even in the depths of the Depression, this paragon of power was a portent of prosperity. Duesenberg’s advertising became a benchmark, featuring the wealthy and privileged in opulent sur¬roundings with only a single line of copy: “He drives a Duesenberg” or “She drives a Duesenberg.” The fascinating example offered here - chassis no. 2157 - was sold new on November 28th, 1929 at the New York Auto Salon by none other than Fred Duesenberg. A bare chassis at the time, the car was purchased by Philadelphia judge Alfred B. North, who commissioned Fleetwood to build its coachwork. The only Fleetwood-bodied Duesenberg ever built, we can only speculate that Judge North’s choice of coachbuilder was influenced by his proximity to the Fleetwood works located just outside of Philadelphia. Fleetwood was a well established coachbuilder, although not an old one by the standards of the day. Most coachbuilding firms originated building horse drawn buggies, cutters, and for the wealthy, enclosed coaches. Instead, The Fleetwood Metal Body Company was formed by several of the principals of the Reading Body Company, after that firm was purchased and moved to Ohio. Fleetwood’s quality and style soon lead to commissions from most of the major fine car makers, although the vast majority were from Packard. By 1920, the company was quoted as saying that it now had an order book to carry it through the end of 1921, and consequently, plans for a major new factory were begun immediately. Throughout the twenties, the company continued to expand, becoming the coachbuilder of choice for Lincoln, largely at the behest of Edsel Ford, a man of great taste and sincere interest in the style and design of motor cars. However, with acquisition of Fleetwood by the Fisher Body company in 1925, coachwork for Cadillac began to assume a greater role in the company’s output. By 1929, most of Fleetwood’s work was for Cadillac, and very few outside commissions were accepted. Chassis no. 2157 was originally delivered with engine J133. However, the Judge was not satisfied to leave his new Duesenberg alone, and over the next ten years he updated it several times, with the result that by the late 1930s, the car looked a lot like a ’36 Cadillac – complete with pontoon fenders, bullet headlamps, and other Cadillac trim. According to his widow, Judge North enjoyed his Duesenberg so much that by 1940, it had accumulated nearly 200,000 miles, and engine J417 had been fitted – its third engine in ten years. Historians believe that Judge North kept his Duesenberg until the 1950s, when he passed away and the car was inherited by his wife. In March 1959, she sold the car to Victor K. Hendricks of Tenafly, New Jersey. He rebuilt the engine in 1961 before selling it to Max Kessel of Bergenfield, New Jersey. J. Kessel kept the big Duesenberg for ten years before selling it to well known enthusiast Lew Lazarus via Leo Gephardt in 1971. In January of 1974, Lazarus sold the car to California collector L. J. Ruppert, who began the process of returning the car to its original configuration by reinstalling Duesenberg lights, bumpers, radiator, and other pieces. In October 1976 Ruppert sold J417 to James Southard of Marshfield, Wisconsin who only kept the car for a year before selling it to Delbrook Lichtenberg of Bozeman, Montana. For many years afterwards, the car was well known as the only Montana Duesenberg. On January 30th, 1985 Dr. Barbara Atwood purchased the car, bringing it home to Rockford, Illinois. Shortly after her purchase, she gave the car to noted restorer Steve Babinsky’s Automotive Restorations Inc. with instructions to restore the car completely, removing the updates made by Judge North and returning it to the appearance of a 1930/31 Fleetwood convertible Coupe body – in fact, a donor car was located to supply many of the needed parts that had been modified or replaced over the years. Babinsky conducted a comprehensive restoration, including a full mechanical rebuild as well as concours quality paint, chrome, and upholstery. Completed in 1990, the car earned its AACA National First Place award that same year – and a class award at Pebble Beach. The car remains in excellent condition Today, the car is fitted with the correct and original drum-style gauges used on the early cars, and the chassis and firewall numbers are both clearly visible and correct for the car. Under the hood, the more desirable downdraft carburetor and “sewer pipe” exhaust manifold are also fitted, as might be expected for a J417’s later engine number. It is also well-equipped, with dual Pilot Ray driving lights, six wide whitewall tires mounted on chrome wire wheels, accessory trunk rack, and twin rear taillights. With more than ten years since the car’s last appearance at Pebble Beach, it is once again eligible for consideration as a participant. Certainly, the quality of the car permits concours competition across the nation, while its mechanical condition – after a suitable recommissioning – would make this handsome and one-of-a-kind Duesenberg an ideal candidate for touring. There is no doubt that Judge North’s Duesenberg is instantly recognizable. Its Cadillac-derived Fleetwood coachwork is highly attractive, combining the sporting nature of a convertible coupe with the elegant and slightly more formal appearance of Fleetwood’s designs of the period. Rarity, beauty, condition, and provenance – this stunning Duesenberg has it all. |
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