Old Cars Weekly – 22 August 2019

28 ❘ August 22, 2019 http://www.oldcarsweekly.com

B

etween the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Mu-

seum and ACD Club members, there will be dozens

of surviving Model J Duesenbergs in Auburn, Ind.,

over Labor Day weekend. Each year, Auburn hosts the

club’s annual reunion and it holds its own ACD Festi-

val to honor the great Classics built in that town and

elsewhere in Indiana. Thousands of fans descend on the Mid-

western town to see the rare cars gathered against the factory

showroom that is now the museum. Since the ACD Club is

honoring the Model J for 2019, the Duesenberg spotting in

Auburn will be especially good this year.

Of the 481 Model J Duesenbergs built, many of the 378

survivors have been seen in Auburn over the past 63 years that

the meet has been held. But some Model Js have never been

to Auburn, nor will they ever. Although the survival rate of

Model J Duesenbergs is astronomically high compared to oth-

er cars at 78.5 percent, still 111 cars didn’t survive to become

cherished Classics. Here are a few of those unfortunate cars

lost to time and human carelessness. Be prepared: you will

need a strong constitution to read about how some of these

majestic cars met their demise.

BrunnTorpedoPhaeton,J-496

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The most famous “lost” Duesenberg is J-496, the fi rst Tor-

pedo Phaeton which was constructed to the special order

of a young customer. The Torpedo Phaeton was an original

design by Gordon Buehrig, who worked hand in hand with

the young customer to build a car that precisely met his

ideas for a Duesenberg. The Torpedo Phaeton’s unique body

feature of a rounded rear deck behind the rear seat made it

most unusual for a phaeton at that time. A supercharged was

added after its initial construction and had the long, narrow

eight-port “Monel” exhaust pipe coming out of the passenger

hood side. The owner is said to have enjoyed its nighttime

glow once the engine became hot.

The story of this car was published in J.L. Elbert’s 1951

book “Duesenberg: The Mightiest American Motor Car,” and

Elbert’s prose and the very thought that such a beautiful car

could be lost made it legendary.

Elbert wrote, “Several years later, with its headers glow-

ing, like the silver mane of a wild palomino in the moonlight,

the famous Torpedo Phaeton leaped a cliff in the region of the

painted desert, burning itself into the realm of legend. If there

Model Js that

didn’t survive to

Classic status

BY ANGELO VAN BOGART

10 L OS T

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