Well, it’s the end of ‘30s month, so what could we close with other than the glorious Cord 810/812? Pick up your jaw from the floor and let’s take a quick tour of the most beautiful and most advanced American car in the whole Toyota collection (given that their Tucker was not on display). It’s a quick tour because this Cord was unfortunately not parked in a very photo-friendly way. But it’s so chock-full of superb details, so we’ll look at those…
I’m sure most of us are aware of the Cord Corporation, founded by Errett Lobban Cord (1894-1974) to control a variety of companies, including Auburn Automobiles, Duesenberg Inc., Checker Motors, Lycoming Engines, Stinson Aircraft Co. and American Airlines. And occasionally, i.e. between 1929-1932 and 1936-37, Cord was also an automobile brand for the corporation’s more experimental FWD models.
First key detail: the Cord coat of arms. Very strange. A white and black shield with three red hearts and three downwards arrows, topped by a knight’s helm. Apparently, this was designed by E.L. Cord himself, using the Scottish McCord family’s crest as inspiration.
The rest of the car was in gestation for a while, as we can see from these patent application drawings. The general idea is here, especially the famous “coffin nose,” fastback shape and pop-up headlights, but many details differ from the production model, such as the doors, the presence of a C-pillar window or that strange bridge connecting the fenders and the hood. Need to workshop that a little more, Mr Buehrig.
But the “Baby Duesenberg” went ahead and, by late 1935, something approaching a finalized car was deemed ready for public viewing at the New York Auto Show. It is said that these early show cars, which do not have Cord badges, had to be pushed into place due to a lack of transmission. Ah well. At least it looked fast. And those pop-up headlights would also migrate further forward by the time actual Cord 810 production commenced in early ’36.
Though it took a little while for said production cars to be photographed for advertisements, as we can see from this British ad. They managed to paint a RHD wheel into this one, but the rest of the car is still the November ‘35 prototype. Incidentally, we can see the £850 retail price, which is pretty hefty: a 2.5 litre SS-Jaguar saloon would have cost £375 at the time. The Bendix vacuum-operated pre-selector 4-speed gearbox now more or less sorted, deliveries finally started in April 1936 on both sides of the Atlantic.
Said gearbox proved troublesome, of course. But eventually, Cord (and their clientele) worked out the kinks and the Lycoming 4730cc side-valve V8, good for 120hp, could spin the front wheels to pretty impressive speeds, doubtless with quite a bit of torque steer. It was, by quite a margin, the most powerful FWD car in existence. And that’s before they added a supercharger.
The Schwitzer-Cummins centrifugal supercharger apparently called for a pair of chromed forced air intakes exhausts on both sides of the engine compartment. Sure, it looks iconic and hairy-chested and all, but it breaks up the top three wrapround louvres. A darned shame, in my opinion. But then, you did get an extra 50hp to play with, and supercharged Cords could reach speeds in excess of 110mph. Baby Duesenberg indeed!
The Cord sedan was the main dish, but Cord did introduce a convertible to add a little glamour to the range. They dubbed it “Convertible Phaeton Sedan”. Please guys, pick a name, not three (two of which are plain wrong).
Ah, the famous coffin nose… what a masterpiece of car design. And it could only have taken place in the mid-‘30s, really: a few years earlier, cars just could not be imagined without a big old radiator grille in the front (with a few exceptions, such as Renaults) and enclosed fenders were not yet in vogue. And by 1940, said fenders were well and truly attached and blending in to the sides of the engine compartment, rendering the whole wrapround grille effect impossible. And that mascot has no business being up there, either.
But that oh-so-magnificent front end must not detract us from the Cord’s beautiful behind, which is simply one of the most elegant of the period. And way ahead of its time in many respects too: twin flush rear lights at a time when some cars had nothing back there at all, and the foresight to conceal the ugly and un-aerodynamic fuel filler under a trap door. How long did it take for the rest of the automotive world to catch up with those two very sensible notions?
Truth be told, I really prefer the 810/812 Westchester sedan’s back end. Same features and innovations as the (*annoyed grunt*) Convertible Phaeton Sedan, but with that lovely bisected half-moon backlight to crown it all. Just sublime.
For 1937, Cord introduced a longer and somewhat taller high-luxury four-door called the Berline – a fact that I was unaware of prior to undertaking a little research to write this post. Said 812 Berline (“812” means MY 1937) had an enlarged trunk, which ruined the car’s look (from behind, anyway).
The Berline became the most expensive car in the range, but the supercharged drop-top we have here was next in line. Apparently, one of these 812 “Sportsman” convertibles (not an official name, but that’s what they’re called in informal Cord-speak… and we’ll drop that “Phaeton Sedan” nonsense right here and now, if that’s ok with everybody) would set you back at $3060 in 1937. That’s serious money, twice the price of the top-of-the-line Lincoln Zephyr. Not quite in the Packard Twelve / Pierce-Arrow / Cadillac V16 realm, but still way up in the stratosphere.
Was it worth it? By 1937, with most of its kinks sorted out, and that amazing body hiding a thoroughly modern drivetrain (except for those side-valves, but hey, you can’t have everything…), it probably was. Add a superb dash to that list, too. With more dials than some contemporary aircraft, that trademark column-mounted gear selector and the little wind-up handles on either side to get the headlights out. Who could resist that?
Nobody, that’s who. The Cord 810/812 was the epitome of cool, if you could afford one. Amelia Earhart drove a convertible, in between Lockheeds. Maybe that explains why two zombie carmakers, Hupmobile and Graham, teamed up in 1939 to purchase the Cord body dies and adapt them to their somewhat obsolete (and RWD) chassis.
Thus the world was blessed with a few hundred additional examples of the Bruehig beauty, though both the Hupp Skylark and Graham Hollywood (the latter is pictured above) were badly retouched to distinguish them from the Cord and make the bodies a little cheaper to produce. Both firms went belly up shortly after these cars were launched in 1940, earning the Cord 810 body the dubious honour of having caused three carmakers to go under.
Well, it might have been a better idea to launch such an expensive and exclusive automobile during a time that was not called the Great Depression. Easy to say with hindsight? Maybe in 1930, but by 1935, everybody knew the hard times were there to stay for a good while longer. Cord knew the 810 would be an uphill struggle, and they did themselves no favours by launching the car too soon.
The last Cords left the Auburn factory in Connersville, Indiana, in August 1937 – a little under 3000 cars were made in two (well, one and a half) years. The Cord Corp. quit car manufacturing at that point, focusing on other sides of the business. If there is a better and prettier embodiment of the Deadly Sin than the Cord 810/812, do let us know below. Meantime, this tops my list.
Related Reading
Curbside Classic: 1936-37 Cord 810/812 – Rolling Sculpture, by JPC
Museum Classics: The Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum, Part 1, by Tom Klockau
Vintage Ad: The Cord 812 Shows Off Its Front Wheel Drive, by PN
You don’t have to sell me! I have been looking at the lovely lines of these cars since the early 1970’s, when I began attending Labor Day weekend festivities in Auburn, Indiana, where the A-C-D faithful would gather for their annual meet-up. Sometimes I forget just how lovely these were, especially in their time.
I would argue that for those around in 1935 there was cause (if misplaced) for optimism. Things had been slowly improving, and lots of people were buying the FDR party line that predicted a return of prosperity any day now. The upper crust who could afford cars of this class were not as affected as the kinds of people Steinbeck wrote about, so I can forgive Cord for trying. And I’m glad he did.
I remember learning about the Cord in the early 1960’s, I thought it the epitome of motoring for some years .
-Nate
The Schwitzer-Cummins centrifugal supercharger apparently called for a pair of chromed forced air intakes on both sides of the engine compartment.
Those are the iconic external exhaust pipes that make it clear to everyone in that this is a supercharged 810/812. It’s the same with Cord’s legendary Duesenberg Model J/SJ; the supercharged SJ had external exhaust pipes. Not necessary, but they certainly looked good.And the supercharged Auburn Speedster too. These external exhaust pipes had become a key external trademark of the supercharged versions of Cord’s three brands.
If it was supercharged, it was an 812. There were 810’s built in 1937, but we tend to forget that. There was an 814 planned for 1938 (I believe the prototype is in the A-C-D museum), and later clays show that the coffin nose (look up an old Special Interest Autos issue) would have been watered down in design.
Not really. All 1936 cars were 810s, and the supercharged 1936 model was called an 810S. In 1937, they were all called 812, supercharged or not. The supercharged version was called the 812S.
Jessica Rabbit.
She drove a Packard, as I recall. Almost same colour though.
Southwards museum had two dismantled Cords in their workshop on an open day one was the convertible as shown here with the whole front in pieces the other a sedan was being used for parts and patterns, far more interesting than the complete assembled car which is nice but the greasy bits under the paint are the really unique part, very very rare car in this part of the world.
It is a beautiful design, the front end is a masterpiece, the placement of the rear lights too inboard is a bit off though and the side exhaust does spoil the purity of the design
I do wonder why so many US car makers utilise fake heraldry, they ridicule the idea of nobility, yet felt the need to fabricate prestige the old European way, I find that really odd
I have a `37 Cord 812 Sportsman 2 seater with the supercharged engine. The same color as the Cord in the picture. It is fully restored but it needs a rear bumper that hopefully I can get fabricated somehow. People always compliment on the car and they seem shocked when they realize it is an 85 year old design.. Unfortunately, it is a 1-12 th scale AMT model that I did restore from an old assembled kit that I bought from a model club member right before the Covid pandemic lockdowns started in February 2000. It kept me busy for a long time!
Lucky Tom! That is I. The Bronx, late 1940’s through mid 1950’s. Tiebout Avenue, just north of 182nd Street about 400 feet and on the east side of Tiebout Avenue sat a garage that had a Cord/Auburn Club. There were 29 of these magnificent cars parked in there. The garage master (he needs to be elevated in title) with his mechanics stored and repaired these vehicles. They also took of other makes of vehicles, but these beauties were parked there waiting for their owners to take them out for drives. And my Job? And that of my fellow friends? We were allowed to go into the garage and gawk at these machines. GAWK we did but we did not touch.
I got into the antique car hobby in my high school days, mid 60’s, finally got my first car to show in 1968. One of the things I was constantly reminded of back then was the post-WWII beginnings of the American antique car hobby started with the Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg and Packard crowd’s (because they were the only ones treating the pre-WWII models as something else than “just another old car”) with the Model T and A aficionados joining in shortly afterwards.
In my eyes, without question, the most beautiful car ever built. I adopted that opinion back in my junior high days (early 1960’s), had it permanently reinforced the first time I saw Earl Willey’s (my father’s carburetor mechanic) 810 Sportsman, really got it driven home the time Earl took me to my first antique car show (a 1968 Harrisburg A-C-D meet, the time I got to drive that Model J), and was set for life the day Earl let me drive his car. It definitely left my ’37 Buick Special for dead.
In the late 80’s Earl had finally reached the point where the 810 was going to be sold, his health had gone to the point that he really couldn’t care for and drive it anymore. Bless the man, he gave dad first shot at it. But $75,000.00 in 1988(?) was way beyond what my father could see paying for an antique car, even though he’d spent twenty years learning to appreciate the value of antique cars. Yes, Earl got the price.
No, nobody will ever design a car as beautiful as the Cord 810. While I’ll always be somewhat sorry I never got to own one, the way they went up in the market after WWII, it would have taken eight year old me to talk dad in to buying one, because that’s about the last time you could buy them as just another “old car”.
Gordon Buehrig had a thing for clean engine compartments. One of his early concepts had the radiators, one on each side, between the fenders and the hood. The idea was that cooling air would flow through the radiators but not into the engine compartment where it would dirty the engine. I suspect that the “strange bridges” are the radiators.
They really are unmatched, aren’t they? I’m almost tempted to make one of those inane comments to the effect that if you don’t like them, you’re not a true car enthusiast, but that would be inane. Absurdly beautiful, advanced, and by all accounts, quite nice to drive even now.
I too prefer the sedan, and agree too that the chrome pipes detract from the aesthetic whole. (And please, someone remove those silly spotlights from this one, I mean, you’re hardly going to be out shooting rabbits in it, are you?)
Pure design inspiration rarely makes it into production, the confluence of Gordon Buehrig, A-C-D management in an automotive ‘Camelot’ produced the Cord 810/812 masterpieces, it could only have happened in that brief window of opportunity. The Cord 810/812 has ignited generations of Classic car enthusiast’s imagination and desire.
Approximately 55 years ago at 17 years old, a driver-condition ’36 810 Winchester was advertised for sale about 20 miles away…for $2,500. Went, checked it out, decided to defer owning a Cord until after college. You know the rest…