Duesenberg SJ Rollston “Twenty Grand”
Gordon Buehrig designed some of the most brilliant and groundbreaking cars of the 1920s, 1930s, and beyond. Think Cord 810, Duesenberg J/SJs, Auburn Boat tail Speedster. After the war, he joined Ford and worked in key positions on the Continental Mark II, station wagon design, and even the 1960 Falcon.
This is an excellent primer to his prodigious output.
Duesenberg Model J Derham Tourister
Duesenberg SJ Brunn Torpedo Phaeton
Cord 810 Westchester sedan
Auburn 852 Speedster
A great way to start my day—I’d known his name, but not many specifics. What a fascinating professional life, and yet being only 61 at retirement from Ford. Thank you!
The Ranch Wagon was his most influential design.
Having gotten early exposure to the world of ACD cars, I was aware that Buehrig was THE GUY with that company during its glory days. I did not become aware of his subsequent work until much later.
Wonderful. Many thanks for this piece.
I received the January 1966 issue of R&T as a Christmas present in 1965, and kept it for decades. Actually buying issues was out of my budget at age 9 so I missed this February issue, or if I devoured it at the magazine rack in the grocery store, I’ve certainly forgotten that he worked at Ford after ACD. As an adult, I did meet a nephew of his who was an architect.
Having been turned on to Cords back in my grade school days (my father’s carburetor man had an 810 cabriolet and was my introduction to the antique car hobby), I will always regard Cord as the most beautiful automobile ever made, and Gordon Buehrig as the greatest designer. Leagues above Harley Earl in ability.
And, having entered the antique car hobby hanging around the national Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg Club, and even having gotten a chance to drive a Duesenberg, I will always be in awe of the man’s accomplishments.
My only regret is that the cars themselves rapidly priced themselves out of any market that I could possibly afford. Dad and I had a chance to buy Mr. Willey’s 810 as he aged and his health declined, as he gave us first chance at the car before he put it on the market. Even then, you were talking low six figures, which was a hell of a price for an old car in the early 1980’s. Dad passed, of course.
I have been to the ACD museum in Auburn a few times, and once I picked up a small book on Gordon. I believe he considered himself first a body engineer and not a designer. That was his position at Ford, he was not a stylist there.
Gordon Buehrig was one of the design giants of the pre-war Classic Era, he and his designs are deservedly revered. He was fortunate to work in a time and place where his aesthetic and artistic talents plus visions weren’t second guessed by endless focus groups and other meddling management types.
Like Syke, I was an early convert to the later Cord (convert from what ?. . . ignorance, I guess). And after getting Dan Post’s volume on all things Cord, I became a lover of the L-29 Cords, too. Thus, I know that the beautiful black sedan in the color photo above must be an 812, not an 810—because of the exterior evidence of the supercharger, offered only in the second year of production ?
Considering the svelte lines of the earlier L-29 Cord, I have assumed (I guess) that it too was the work of Buehrig. Only now do I consult once again “The Classic Cord,” Post’s 1952 bible, to find that it was likely Al Leamy who drew the front of the L-29, while a John Oswald “reputedly” penned the body lines. Of course a number of these early Cords carried custom bodies, in particular by Walter M Murphy of Pasadena, who we are told may have influenced the design of the car (retroactively ?).