1936 Cord Experimental Limousine
Of the five or six Baby Duesenberg prototypes assembled in 1936, this close-coupled limousine is the one E.L. Cord used personally, kept in regular service at the family’s Beverly Hills home until approximately 1940.
Each prototype was built to occupy the market space between the supercharged Cord 812 and the Duesenberg J, on a hybrid chassis (Auburn rear section mated to a Cord 812 front-wheel-drive subframe).
Bodies were fabricated by LeBaron and Briggs, with Alex Tremulis put in charge of redesigning the front end from the cowl forward. Ralph Roberts of LeBaron Studios shaped the overall coachwork.
Power comes from the supercharged Lycoming V-8 (288.6 CI, 170 hp, Schwitzer-Cummins centrifugal supercharger), an engine closely related to the unit used in the production Cord 810/812. Drive goes through a four-speed preselector gearbox.
The coachwork reads as more restrained than Gordon Buehrig’s 810/812 (the coffin-nose treatment softened rather than reprised), finished in maroon with beige cloth interior, appropriate to the limousine’s role as transport for a corporate principal rather than a performance statement.
E.L. Cord retired the car around 1940. His son Charlie later intervened to keep it from being broken for parts. Harrah’s acquired it in 1964 for $650, and the Harrah’s restoration shop completed a comprehensive rebuild by 1970.
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