Duesenberg A Classic American Motorcar

By Shaw U. Allard

If there is one automobile that involves fantasy of vintage luxury and fame it’s the Duesenberg from which the phrase “It’s a Doozie” was born and derived. What are the origins and background of this most regal form of transportation?

The Duesenberg’s were designed by race car builders and hard running pioneers August and Fred Duesenberg. Indeed the great Duesenberg J series cars reflected the pair of brother’s racing backgrounds. Duesenberg J models incorporated such advanced features of their time as straight eight engines, double overhead camshafts and even four valves for each cylinder – which was indeed a power seeking as well as expensive innovation for its day.

The Duesenberg J was the creation of Mr. Errett Lobban Cord , who gained management and ownership control of the Duesenberg Motor Company of Indianapolis in’26 and made it an integral component of its his Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg empire. This great automotive industry pioneer said himself many times that his vision was to father a home gown domestic American car that was as best as the world could produce. To this day many would still believe that the Duesenberg was of course of European – German, American or perhaps Italian vintage and origins. Even the name of the automotive creation Duesenberg belies this point and viewpoint.

When E.I. Cord had purchased the Duesenberg factory works and company name the company had previously had a product – the lackluster Model A. Perhaps this name was a derivative of the standard of the time – the Ford “Model A’. Perhaps not. Still for any of a number of reasons the Duisenberg Model A had lackluster sales, and never really made much of an impact on the US auto market or export markets at all.

While it can be considered that the legacy of the Doozies were the wonderful “boats” , extreme luxury vehicles popularized by the likes of European Royalty as well as American “Royalty” in the form of Hollywood movie stars it was after all the more simple and basic initial products of the Duesenberg Motor Company that overall had the greatest and lasting effects on the American and indeed worldwide European and Japanese Asian automotive industry and products. The straight eight motor power plant went on to become the auto industry base standard against which all other motors were compared and related to . It was first Packard and Buick that followed this trend , and then later with the introduction of the short stroke overhead valve V-8 engine by the General Motors G.M. divisions of Oldsmobile and the luxury vehicle of its time – the namesake Cadillac.

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