1937 Cord 812 Cabriolet What if you learned that there was a car that debuted in the 1960s with front-wheel drive, a supercharged V-8, chrome-plated side-exhaust pipes, hidden headlights, and a disappearing convertible leading?
And what if you then learned that this auto in fact was introduced not in the 1960s, but a full 3 decades earlier, in the 1930s? We’re referring right here to the revolutionary Cord. No, not a Ford—or an Accord—but a Cord: fairly possibly the coolest car you have by no means heard of. And it all began 85 years ago, in the town of Auburn, Indiana, about 140 miles northeast of Indianapolis…
As 1929 approached, things were seeking excellent for Errett Lobban Cord and the empire he had designed. The portfolio of his Cord Corporation integrated flashy Auburn automobiles, Lycoming engines, Stinson aircraft, Checker taxicabs, and even the mighty Duesenberg amongst its offerings, but Cord was an auto manufacturer with no a namesake marque.
He rectified the scenario in June 1929 with the introduction of the Cord L-29—the first front-wheel-drive automobile sold in the American market—and 1 that presented drastically various styling. A Lycoming straight-8 engine, modified to drive a front-mounted transaxle assembly, provided energy. This radically diverse layout provided unprecedented lowness and a long hood, each of which enabled designer Alan H. Leamy to develop 1 of the loveliest cars of the day.
1930 Cord L-29 Cabriolet
The cost for the L-29 was $ 3000 (about $ 42,000 in today’s dollars)—more expensive than pricing for the Auburn lineup but far significantly less than the lofty Duesenberg J the operating chassis of the J alone (bodywork was sold separately) retailed for $ 8500 (about $ 118,250 nowadays). The L-29 was available in 4 body styles: sedan, brougham (a formal sedan with a padded top, frequently driven by a chauffeur), convertible sedan, and convertible coupe.
Despite the fact that praised for its handling qualities, the L-29’s engine was situated so far behind the driven front wheels that it suffered from poor traction. In addition, it wasn’t all that fast: The Lycoming straight-8 produced 125 horsepower, but the prime speed was in the vicinity of just 80 mph.
Initial sales had been brisk as the summer of 1929 turned to fall, but in the end, timing played a cruel hand: The stock-market place crash in late October poured cold water on sales of the sporty L-29 in all, Cord sold roughly 5000 examples just before production ended on December 31, 1931. The numbers weren’t disastrous—especially for a pricey automobile launched on the eve of the Wonderful Depression—but eventually, sales volume was insufficient to justify maintaining the L-29 in production.
1937 Cord 812 Cabriolet
About the same time that the L-29 saga was taking location, the subsequent chapter of Cord’s history was germinating at Basic Motors. Gordon Buehrig had been the chief physique designer for Duesenberg considering that 1929, but by 1933, declining sales caused him to move on to Common Motors. There, for an internal style competition, he produced a streamlined sedan featuring a blunt nose, externally mounted radiators, and concealed headlamps. The design placed last with styling boss Harley Earl and other GM executives but finished first amongst Buehrig’s fellow competing designers.
Soon following that, Duesenberg president Harold Ames lured Buehrig back to the business to have him develop a reduced-priced companion to the Duesenberg J. In short order, however, the Duesenberg notion was out and Buehrig’s futuristic model became the Cord 810 of 1936, one particular of the truly outstanding classics of the era.
Lengthy and low, the front-wheel-drive Cord 810 had a traditional radiator but retained Buehrig’s concealed headlamps and blunt “coffin nose” front finish with wraparound vertical bars. Under the hood was a 125-horsepower Lycoming V-8 mated to a 4-speed gearbox actuated by a Bendix Electric Hand shifter.
The interior of the 810 was equally as daring as its exterior, with an aircraft-inspired instrument panel that featured an engine-turned aluminum fascia and introduced edge-lit instrumentation, which employed a luminous dye applied to the edges of the glass of the dials to illuminate them. There were cranks for the headlamps at every finish of the instrument panel, with the Bendix electric gear selector located on the steering column.
1936 Cord 810 Westchester Sedan
Cord supplied the 810 as a sedan as effectively as 2- and 4-location convertibles. As lovely and revolutionary as the automobiles have been, the business lacked the necessary capital to appropriately develop them and bring them to market the objective of producing 1000 automobiles per month by no means materialized. The 1937 model, renamed the 812 but virtually identical to the 810, added 2 lengthy-wheelbase sedans and an optional supercharger with chrome-plated side exhausts snaking out of the hood.
Even though the design would prove timeless, time had run out for Cord. Some 3000 of the 810/812 series have been made before production came to a halt in August 1937. By then, Cord himself had cashed out his ownership of the firm and retired to California.
Just before the finish of December, the business was in bankruptcy and the revolutionary Cord automobile became a fascinating footnote in automotive history. The style and engineering would resonate and inspire for decades, however, and to this day Cord automobiles get pleasure from an enthusiastic following of both owners and admirers.
A Short History of the Cord Automobile: The Coolest Auto You In no way Knew Existed
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