2010 Auburn, Cord, Duesenberg fest.

[Ultra]

This is all penned and shot by our member Boxer 2500.  Everyone drop him an email saying thanks.

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And now for the main event.

My friend Claude's 1936 (1980) Auburn (Corvette) Boattail Speedster "second generation" (replicar owners hate the 'r' word for some reason). Owners of "second generation" cars of decent quality are begrudgingly allowed to participate in the festivities. Andrew and Cindy, friends of mine who came along for the weekend, are in the car posing at "Base Camp Ohio." We camped at a friend-of-a-friend's farm just across the state line in Ohio. Just meeting the farm's owner was an experience in and of itself. He abandoned the upscale suburbs of Columbus for a 150 year-old farmhouse in the boonies, and has served four tours of duty in Iraq. Interesting fellow. This photo was taken at approximately 0650 Friday morning. We had left the Columbus area at 11:30 the previous night, timing the almost three hour drive between bands of thunderstorms. The Auburn has no roof or functioning heat.   The drive up turned out to be sublime, with clear, starry skies and a cruising speed of 55-60 mph on back roads. I spent half the ride up in the passenger seat of the boattail staring up at the night sky. The burbling of the breathed-on Chevy V8 in the "Auburn" along with the wind in the hair make for a hypnotic experience. We arrived 10 minutes ahead of the rain, set up our tents, and got almost four hours of sleep before Claude (a former Army man) woke us with his best impression of the drill instructor from Full Metal Jacket. Thus began one of the most memorable weekends of my life as a car guy.



A gratuitous shot of my Subie, serving as the support vehicle for the convoy. The Jerry Garcia lookalike in the background is Claude, owner of the Auburn (I can dispense with the " "s now).



I have previously seen maybe 1 or 2 Duesenberg Model Js in my life. This weekend featured over 70 of them, out of 481 originally built and 300-something currently surviving. This made it the largest number of J's gathered in one place. Ever. My jaw dropped as I walked up to the staging area where ~50 of them were lined up for a convoy to the Kendalville Airport, where the exhibition of speed was set to take place. I was expecting to stand behind ropes and ogle the cars from a safe distance, but spectators were welcome to mingle about the parked cars. I even was able to lean through the windows of some of these priceless machines and take interior photos. Every possible type of car was represented: over-restored trailer queens, "10 footer" drivers, and "barn find" unrestored originals. Though even the cheapest J is worth seven figures, these cars seem to get driven as they should. One owner drove his from Florida (3000 miles round trip), several came from the east coast, one came from Detroit. There were also several hundred Auburns and Cords in attendance, and many of those were driven to the fest as well. I'm very impressed with the owners of these cars, who treat them as machines instead of museum pieces.











This one was clearly a driver. It showed its age, but ran like a swiss watch.



These Cord 810/812s are art deco masterpieces.



Here's the flight deck of an unrestored 810.



Duesenberg J dual cowl phaeton. No two Duesys at the show looked alike. As many of you know, the Model J came as a chassis and engine from the factory. Owners commissioned their own coachwork, and the shear variety was astounding. The J was produced from 1928 until the Cord Motor Company went bust in 1937. Completed cars ranged from $13,000-20,000 in price, offering 265-400 hp in an era when most cars came with 50 or less and cost $1000.







This chassis was built from spare parts. The owner seemed to be having the most fun out of any of the participants. This car was f-a-s-t and loud! It was my second favorite car of the weekend.



Just the engine itself on the Duesy is a work of industrial art. A Lycoming inline 8, dual overhead cams, 32 valves, 440 cubic inches, and 265 hp in naturally aspirated form. Utterly modern in every respect. On cars with quieter exhaust systems, these massive, naturally balanced behemoths were as smooth and quiet as anything Lexus has built. None of the tractor-like chugging and puffing (hmm, chugging and puffing, sounds like a typical weekend in college) you associate with most engines from the era. It will propel these locomotive-like cars from 0-60 in 8 seconds and onward to a top speed of 120 mph. 150 is possible with a supercharger.





A reproduction of a Ford Model A with coachwork designed by Gordon Buehrig in 1931. Buehrig was one of the all-time great automotive designers, becoming chief of design at Cord at age 25. I was lucky enough to meet Buehrig's daughter, who was in attendance this weekend. Such an unbelievably friendly, elegant woman. She actually knew our friend Claude from A-C-D club gatherings.



This one was a survivor...







Cord 810...



1910 Indy car built by the Duesenberg brothers. 4 cylinder "Walking Beam" engine.






Duesenberg Model A with boat-tail roadster body.






Model J cockpit.



Survivor 1931 Auburn. Driven regularly. I don't know why, I'm always drawn to the cars that show wear and tear over the shiny ones...









Yawn... another priceless Model J.






And now for something completely different. I present... The Electric Cord. Needless to say, that's not an original body.





God, I love the dashboards on these old cars. Note the 4 speed pre-selector gearbox on this Cord, an Art Deco era precursor to the modern automatic.





I'll post more soon. All the photos (including the Duesenberg drag races and the B-25 fly-in) are at the link.


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Go straight to the photos...

http://picasaweb.google.com/114210879898183713333/Auburn2010?feat=directlink

[Otto Puzzell]

Magnificent!

[Paul Jaray]

I wish I was there...that must have been an awesome event!

[grobmotorix]

That´s really an impressive bunch of high-class cars with a wide range from electric over original to custom - thank you very much for sharing those pics!