Old Cars Weekly – 22 August 2019

http://www.oldcarsweekly.com AUgust 22, 2019 ❘ 29

is such a thing as a Duesenberg Valhalla, one can wager that

the original Torpedo Phaeton by Brunn is the swaggering king

of the royal hall.”

Unfortunately, much of that story is fi lled with creative li-

cense and the truth is much less fanciful according to Duesen-

berg historian and restorer Randy Ema. The young owner sim-

ply drove the car into a ditch, damaging the frame and the left

side of the body. The wreck was bought by Duesenberg’s Los

Angeles branch and parted out. That glowing exhaust port and

the supercharger blower went on the “Mudd coupe” (J-212),

and other parts such as the engine and frame may have been

reused, but the beautiful Torpedo Phaeton body was scrapped.

While the original Torpedo Phaeton suffered a ghastly

fate, its beauty was immediately realized and four more nearly

identical bodies of this style were built for Duesenbergchas-

sis (two each by coachbuilders Weymann and A.H. Walker).

The body has also been recreated for other Duesenbergchas-

sis and there are now more Torpedo Phaetons than originally

built for Duesenberg chassis.

Judkins coupe, unknown engine number

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Texas oil man Frank Yount bought three new Duesenbergs,

one of which he worked with Gordon Buehrig to design.

The result of their work was a long, low three-window coupe

that became the fi rst Duesenberg body designed by Bueh-

rig. Coahcbuilder Judkins turned Buehrig’s two-dimensional

drawing into a three-dimensional masterpiece, resultingina

duplicate body being built.

Yount reportedly used his Judkins coupe as a “Sundaycar”

and for special occasions. After his 1933 death, Pansy, his

wife, moved to Kentucky and took along her husband’s stable

of cars, which included three Duesenberg Model Js (among

them the Judkins coupe). While Frank Yount loved cars, Pan-

sy loved horses and according to researcher Greg Riley, her

horse trainer Cape Grant regularly used the Judkins coupe.

Grant eventually crashed the Judkins coupe in a drunk driving

incident. It was presumably scrapped following the accident,

but at least it didn’t suffer the intentional fate of Frank Yount’s

Judkins berline.

Judkins berline, unknown engine number

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Frank Yount’s last of three Duesenbergs sported another

Judkins body, this one a sedan with a divider window

(berline). Yount purchased this Judkins berline at the 1933

Chicago’s World Fair and had it refi nished in black with gold

accents to refl ect his oil wealth. The very day Yount watched

his new Judkins berline get unloaded from the train so he

could drive it home, he died of heart failure. The car followed

Yount’s widow, Pansy, to Kentucky where she established ex-

travagant horse stables built from her husband’s oil wealth.

Coincidentally, Pansy Yount’s neighbor was Elizabeth Arden,

theownerofthesingleotherJudkinsberlineofthisstyle.Per-

hapsnotfondoftheideathatherfamousneighborownedthe

samecar,Yountsent herhusband’s still-beautiful, low-mile

DuesenbergJudkinsberlinetotheWorldWarII scrapdrives;

it wasphotographedonthescaleat herSpindletopFarmsans

tires.Legendhasit thatsomeonesavedtheDuesenbergfrom

thescrapheapandwhenPansyYountlearnedofthis,shere-

tookpossessionofthecarandthenensuredthatit wascutup

andlostforever.Arden’smatchingDuesenberghasalsobeen

lost,buttounknowncircumstances.

Franayconvertiblecoupe,J-506

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At the 1934 Paris salon, a stunning and unique two-tone

Duesenberg Model J convertible coupe was displayed by

Parisienne coachbuilder Franay. The one-off car was unusual

for its separate trunk incorporated into the body’s rakish de-

sign. Also unique were the fenders, which were different than

the standard Duesenberg fare. Not only was the car notable for

its design, it also received one of the 38 superchargers built

for the Duesenberg 420-cubic-inch straight-eight.

Emile Beghain, co-driver to Prince Nicholas who com-

pete with a Duesenberg at the 1935 Le Mans race, bought

the Franay convertible coupe around 1935. It remained in his

possession until he had to abandon his estate during 1962

amid war for Algeria’s independence. In the Summer 1996

issue of Automotive History Review, publication of the So-

ciety of Automotive Historians, French automotive historian

Alain Dollfus described the car as a wreck at the time of its

abandonment. How it came to be wrecked by 1962 is unclear,

but Beghain apparently planned to restore the car and had ac-

quired for parts the Duesenberg town car with coachwork by

Kellner (J-365). The Kellner town car was abandoned along-

side the Franay convertible coupe when war broke out, and

both are lost cars today.

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