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Auburn
Automobile Company, the Cord's parent, filed for bankruptcy in
December 1937, leaving behind 2320 cars to be coveted by future
collectors and enthusiasts.
In the brief history of the
810/812 Cords two names stand out--Errett Lobban Cord and Gordon
Buehrig. E.L. Cord was first and foremost a salesman, both of
products and of himself. In 1924, after achieving great success as
an automobile distributor, Cord sold the board of the Auburn
Automobile Company on the idea that he was just the man to revive
their slumbering enterprise. He delivered on his promises. By 1929
Auburn sales had increased fifteen-fold and E.L. was the head of
an empire. His Cord Corporation owned Lycoming Mfg. Co. (engines),
Limousine Body Co. and Central Mfg. Co. (auto bodies), Century
Airlines, and Duesenberg, among others. Cord's philosophy of
automobile design (and salesmanship) might be summed up in two
words: Novelty Sells. His Auburns were mechanically ordinary, but
outstanding styling and clever paint combinations made them hot
sellers. In 1929 he oversaw the introduction of the fabulous Model
J Duesenberg, a car whose combination of size, cost, performance,
and style was and is unmatched in American automotive history. The
same year also saw E.L.'s most novel car yet, the Cord L-29. It
was the first American production car to feature front-wheel
drive. This allowed the car to be much lower than other cars of
the era. That, coupled with a very long hood, made the L-29 one of
the most rakish, visually striking cars on the market. But 1929
saw the stockmarket crash and the beginning of the Great
Depression. The market for cars like the L-29 came to an end.
Production was phased out in 1932.
Gordon Buehrig crossed paths
with E.L. Cord in the summer of 1929 when Buehrig was hired as
chief stylist at Duesenberg. Only 25 years old at the time, he had
accumulated design and coachbuilding experience at a variety of
body and auto companies, including Harley Earl's newly-created Art
& Colour Section at General Motors. Between 1929 and 1933 Buehrig
created many of the striking body designs for which Duesenberg
became famous. In 1933, with the Depression taking its toll on
super luxury cars like Duesenberg, Buehrig returned to General
Motors. Here he participated in one of the design competitions
Harley Earl periodically held to stimulate the creativity of his
stylists. Far different from the standard look of the time,
Buehrig's design had a coffin-shaped nose and horizontal hood
louvers that contrasted sharply with the upright grilles that were
then typical. The hood, coupled with flowing pontoon fenders and
hidden headlights, put the car on the cutting edge of the
streamlined look. Buehrig's fellow stylists thought his design the
winner, but Earl and the other GM executives placed Buehrig's
radical car last. Later in 1933 Duesenberg president Harold Ames
invited Buehrig back to style a "baby Duesenberg" intended to fill
the price gap between the awesomely expensive Model J Duesenberg
and the middle-priced Auburn. Buehrig's GM design contest entry
became the basis of the "baby Duesenberg" design.
The running prototype of the
new Duesenberg was finished by April of 1934. But in July, the
parameters changed. The new car would not be a Duesenberg but a
Cord. In keeping with the legacy of the L-29 it would be front
wheel drive and powered by a newly designed V8 engine from
Lycoming. Working furiously, Buehrig's small team completed the
design by December. The next six months would demonstrate just how
close to disaster the Cord Corporation actually was. Lack of money
caused the new car to be shelved again, but by July of 1935 the
sale of kitchen cabinets made by one of Cord Corporation's
divisions provided just enough cash flow to revive the project.
The bad news was that E.L. Cord wanted the car introduced at the
New York Auto Show on November 2, 1935. Buehrig himself later
summed up the consequences of this decision:
"This left three months and
26 days to pick up the Cord program where it had been stopped the
first of January and to build and test a prototype, complete
tooling and have production cars ready for the show. It was an
impossible task, and although it was accomplished (after a
fashion) it was not done well and the results were so financially
crippling that it eventually put the company out of business."
(Special Interest Autos April 1989)
The cars that went to the
auto show were hand-built but not drivable because the tooling for
the new four-speed transmissions was not ready. Nevertheless, the
stunning styling was the hit of the show, and Cord salesmen took
numerous orders. Alas, the factory was not ready to fill them. New
Cords did not come off the line until February 15, 1936, and even
these had numerous bugs. Transmissions unexpectedly popped out of
gear; engines overheated; front universal joints were excessively
noisy. Eventually these problems were worked out, but the damage
had been done. The fabulous Cord never made a profit, and
production ended in August 1937. Auburn itself filed for
bankruptcy in December, and it was all over.
In the end the everything
conspired against the success of the Cord. The long delay between
introduction and production, the early mechanical problems, the
precarious financial state of Auburn itself all made potential
buyers leery. The Cord's price further reduced the pool of
potential customers. A good $500 more than Cadillac's most popular
series, and it was in the vicinity of Packard's Super 8. But even
that market was shrinking. Buehrig's Cord could not save E.L.'s
empire, but automotive enthusiasts would come to regard it as one
of the great classics of all time.
About our Car: This car was
donated to Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village in April, 1957
by Lawrence Lowell Reeve of Manchester, Massachusetts. The car is
a Phaeton, one of two convertible models available in 1937. The
other was the Cabriolet, a two-passenger version also called the
Sportsman.
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