Duesenberg: История американского автомобильного и двигателестроения

American engine and automobile manufacturer

Duesenberg Automobile & Motors Company, Inc. was an American racing and luxury automobile manufacturer founded in Indianapolis, Indiana, by brothers Fred and August Duesenberg in 1920. The company is known for popularizing the straight eight engine and four wheel hydraulic brakes. A Duesenberg car was the first American car to win a Grand Prix race, winning the 1921 French Grand Prix. Duesenbergs won the Indianapolis 500 in 1922, 1924, 1925 and 1927. Transportation executive Errett Lobban Cord acquired the Duesenberg corporation in 1926. The company was sold and dissolved in 1937.

Fred and August Duesenberg began designing engines in the early 1900s, after Fred became involved with bicycle racing. The brothers designed a vehicle in 1905, and they formed the Mason Motor Car Company in 1906 with funds from lawyer Edward R. Mason in Des Moines, Iowa. The Duesenberg brothers then moved to Saint Paul, Minnesota, where they established the Duesenberg Motors Company in 1913. Eddie Rickenbacker drove the first Duesenberg designed vehicle to race at the Indianapolis 500 in 1914, placing tenth. During World War I, the Duesenbergs designed and built aircraft engines in Elizabeth, New Jersey. A Duesenberg driven by Tommy Milton won the 1919 Elgin Trophy. In 1919, the brothers sold their Saint Paul factories. In 1920, the Duesenberg brothers relocated to Indianapolis, Indiana, where they founded the Duesenberg Automobile & Motors Company, manufacturing the Duesenberg Model A. The brothers assumed engineering roles after signing over the naming rights and patents for Duesenberg engines to promoters Newton E. Van Zandt and Luther M. Rankin. The first ModelA was commissioned by Hawaiian businessman and politician Samuel Northrup Castle. The car had a straight eight engine that output , the largest engine in a commercially available vehicle at the time, and was the first to have hydraulic brakes on all its wheels. Van Zandt left the company in 1921, after which it struggled financially and entered receivership in 1924. Duesenberg was purchased by Errett Lobban Cord in 1926. August's role in the passenger car side of the business declined after Cord's takeover, and August worked primarily in Duesenberg's racing division after 1926, designing all Duesenberg race cars built from that year until the company's dissolution. Two years later, Cord had the Duesenbergs make a new model to "outclass" all other American cars. In 1929, the company began selling the Duesenberg Model J, which was powered by a straight eight engine. The body and cabin were custom built by coachbuilders. Prices for the cars ranged from $14,000 to $20,000 at the time. The vehicles were popular with movie stars, royalty and other wealthy individuals. The company was sold by Cord and dissolved in 1937. In 1998, The Franklin Mint started producing collectible scale models of Duesenberg Coupé Simone, a fictitious custom made luxury car allegedly manufactured in the late 1930s.

Several unsuccessful attempts were made to revive the Duesenberg name. In 1970, Bernard Miller bought the Duesenberg Corporation and produced the SSJ model from templates taken from the original 1935 SSJ La Grande body. The body was aluminum over ash. There were grand plans for over 300 SSJ's to be produced but over the company's life span of 1970 1974 only 8 were completed.

In 1978, Elite Heritage Motors acquired the trademark for Duesenberg and started producing the handmade "Duesenberg II" in Elroy, Wisconsin, under the name Duesenberg Motors Company. The "Duesenberg II" retained the styling of the cars from the 1920s and 1930s, but included some modern updates, such as stereo systems, air conditioning, and an automatic transmission. Each "Duesenberg II" was precisely measured using an original example as a template. Over 5,000 manhours of craftsmanship was put into each car. In 1981, a new Duesenberg II Royalton had a base price of $125,000. The company produced several models, including the Torpedo sedan and phaeton, and the Murphy roadster.

Duesenberg's first car was the Model A. It is powered by the Duesenberg Straight 8 engine and was the first car to be mass produced with a straight eight. The Duesenberg ModelA introduced several innovative features, such as an overhead camshaft, four valve cylinder heads, and the first four wheel hydraulic brakes offered on a passenger car. It had the largest engine of any consumer vehicle at the time of its production.

The first Model J prototype was created in 1927 and the first cars were delivered in 1929, shortly before the onset of the Great Depression. About three hundred ModelJs were completed by 1930, short of the original 500 vehicle goal. The car's engine was based on the company's racing engines of the 1920s and was manufactured by another Cord company, Lycoming. It output , aided by dual overhead camshafts and four valves per cylinder, making it the most powerful car of its time. The J was available in two versions of chassis with a different wheelbase; a longer one and a shorter one (about ). There were also other special sizes, like the SSJs with a wheelbase shortened to and a few cars with the wheelbase extended to and over. The supercharged Model J, referred to as the SJ, was reported to have reached in second gear and have a top speed of in third gear. Zero to times of around eight seconds and in 17 seconds were reported for the SJ despite having an unsynchonized transmission, at a time when even the best cars of the era were not likely to reach The SJ had a wheelbase of The SJ was introduced in 1932. Only 36 units were built. A special version of the SJ, the Mormon Meteor, broke several land speed records. Investors in New York City originally supported the ModelJ, but following the Stock market crash of 1929, the market for ModelJs switched to Hollywood stars. Two modified ModelJs, known as the SSJ, were produced in 1935 for actors Gary Cooper and Clark Gable. The SSJ reportedly produced and could go in less than 8 seconds. Cooper's SSJ sold for $22 million in 2018, making it the most expensive American car ever sold at auction at the time. About 378 of 481 ModelJs of all types still existed as of 2002.