Amid the depths of the Great Depression, Graham was on top with the most modern-looking American car in 1932. When the little-changed 1933 models returned to the streets in 1933, Graham could boast it had “the most imitated car.” Nearly every other automaker for 1933 had copied the Graham’s sloped grille, its raked-back A pillars and low windshield, its skirted fenders and its other modern features. The look wasn’t enough to make Graham become one of the best-selling cars in the 1930s, but it was enough to turn a hot rodder into a restorer during the 2000s.

“I had been a hot rodder,” says David Anderson, owner of the featured 1933 Graham Model 64 coupe. “I was raised with Ford flatheads and in the hot rod scene. I bought a 1934 Graham and just got hooked on Grahams, and they’re so rare, you wouldn’t dare hot rod them. That’s how I became an ‘original car’ guy.

“What I have is a ’34 eight-cylinder supercharged sedan,” Anderson continued. “The interesting thing there is it was factory supercharged. They sold both non-supercharged and supercharged eights, and that is what started this whole crazy thing.”

That “crazy thing” Anderson is referring to is his impressive collection of 1932 to 1935 Graham Blue Streak models. It started with the supercharged sedan that he quickly fell in love with, and as a second-generation hot rodder, Anderson then found himself in search of a Blue Streak coupe. With the Graham Blue Streak’s overall low and sleek looks, especially as a three-window coupe, it looks custom from the factory — something rodder and restorer alike can appreciate.

“From my hot rod days, the coupe was the hot car, so I have always loved coupes and I had been chasing Graham coupes for 15 years,” Anderson said. “Grahams are so few and far between and they don’t come for sale that often, so when this thing came for sale, I bounced on it so quickly.”

The 1933 Blue Streak coupe came up for sale in 2017 a few years after its longtime owner and Anderson’s fellow Graham Owners Club International (GOCI) member David Corbin had passed away.

“I bought the car from David Corbin’s son-in-law. He passed away and his son-in-law reached out to the club, and fortunately I was on the club’s distribution list. I was immediately on the phone making the deal. There was no hesitation whatsoever.”

Anderson had known about the 1933 Blue Streak coupe for years as it had been on the GOCI’s roster of cars since the club’s founding in 1971. Early club members Andrew Whittenborn and Bill McCall shared an interest in Blue Streak models and maintained a registry of known 1932-1935 Blue Streaks since the club’s first years. Their records showed that the original owner of Anderson’s coupe drove it to the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair, then died shortly thereafter. His widow parked the car until it was spotted by gas station owner James Rohen of Evart, Mich., who drove a school bus in addition to operating his gas station. He spotted the coupe on his bus route and in 1959 inquired about the car. The widow sought $25 for the Graham coupe, but Rohen gave her $50. 

During Rohen’s ownership, the car had 11,000 miles and required minor engine work. Rohen also added some non-Graham parts before selling it to an unknown owner in 1974. That unknown owner sold it to GOCI member Harry Sjaarda in the early 1980s. During next owner Joe Harvath’s time with the car, McCall noted the coupe had mileage in the 13,000 range. It registered the same mileage when David Corbin acquired it from Harvath at an unknown time. Although the mileage remained extremely low, Corbin found it needed to be painted and re-upholstered, and some wood in the body structure needed replacement. Aside from a few minor improvements undertaken by Anderson, the car currently appears much as it did when Corbin owned it: a fine example of an innovative but rarely seen marque in an extremely uncommon body type.

“There are three of the Model 64 eight-cylinder coupes on the registry that had a serial number and a name,” Anderson says of his car’s rarity. “There were two on the registry that just have the state and a question mark. There are probably parts cars and others out there, but there are three documented, known ones, so if I had to guess, there’s probably five out there.”

Graham leads the pack

The totally restyled and re-engineered 1932 Grahams blazed onto the scene to combat tanking sales caused by the Great Depression. According to Graham historian Michael Keller, Graham Brothers Joseph B., Robert C. and Ray A. knew by 1930 that to keep their Detroit-based car business afloat, they would have to fight hard for any slice they could get of the quickly shrunken new-car market. That meant designing and engineering an innovative, all-new car that represented an excellent value.  

For the new 1932 model, Graham Chief Engineer Louis Thoms developed a new “Deep Banjo Frame” that gave Grahams a lower center of gravity by running the rear axle through a flat-topped frame with just a minor kick-up over the openings for the rear axle. Being flatter, the frame was also stronger, and combined with the rear axle being located within the frame rails, it allowed the Graham body to be mounted lower. Additionally, the chassis springs were placed outboard of the chassis for a wider wheel tread, further giving the slinky Blue Streak a lower center of gravity. Graham ran with it, advertising “this car is wider than it is high.” Since its low-slung stance and wider-spaced springs made the Graham an unusually good-handling car for the time, Graham also advertised the safety of the Blue Streak, which now incorporated safety glass as an additional security measure.

Graham also addressed the power of its cars. Since re-entering the car-building business by buying the failing Paige-Detroit Motor Car Co. in 1927, Graham-Paige Motors Corp. (just “Graham” by 1930) offered six- and eight-cylinder engines. For 1931, Graham had developed a new eight-cylinder engine of 245.4 cubic inches, but saw a need to make it more reliable and powerful for 1932. With resources limited, it tweaked this existing powerplant by improving its construction and internal components. Most notably and visibly, this eight-cylinder was now topped with an aluminum cylinder head instead of a cast-iron head. That allowed higher compression and a bump up to 90 hp. Graham christened its revised eight-cylinder the Blue Streak, and adapted the name to the six-cylinder models that followed in mid 1932. The Graham six-cylinder was likewise given an aluminum cylinder head for increased streak.

Backing all Graham engines was a new Synchro-Silent three-speed transmission, with synchronized second and third gears, and dash-controlled free wheeling, plus Super-Hydraulic Brakes at all four wheels.

Topping all of these performance and safety improvements were racy new Murray Corp. bodies designed for Graham by a team led by famed automobile stylist Amos E. Northup. The team included equally talented stylist Raymond Dietrich, who worked on details of the new 1932 Graham bodies. Northup’s team designed streamlined bodies that leapt into the immediate future with smoother edges; a raked-back windshield; a sloped back grille; skirted fenders; painted headlamp housings nestled between the fenders and grille; a hidden radiator and radiator cap; and a thin grille. To put an exclamation mark on its stylishly modern streamlined body, Graham introduced “pearl essence” paint finishes using fish scales suspended in lacquer for an iridescent effect. Graham was the first mass producer of automobiles to offer this paint type on its automobile bodies.

With a swift-looking exterior and a stable chassis packing 90 hp, the Graham Eight looked every letter of its Blue Streak name. It was a good value, too, costing $785 for a six-cylinder coupe to as much as $1,225 for the top Deluxe Eight coupe — about the price of an entry-priced Buick coupe (Graham dropped these introductory prices by $200 by late 1932). The range of Graham introductory prices was about twice as much as that of a 1932 Ford or Chevy coupe, but one could argue the bigger Graham was about twice the car with its greater size and more substantial innovations.

While the 1932 Graham’s styling was thoroughly copied throughout the industry for 1933 and beyond, sales dropped from 1931’s total of 20,428 to 12,967 for 1932 — one of the worst years for the Great Depression. By 1934, the year supercharging became available on the Blue Streak Eight, sales had picked up to 15,745 Grahams of all types. Unlike some automotive streamlining efforts that followed in the mid 1930s (notably the Chrysler Airflow), the sleek Northup styling of the 1932 Graham was praised, so the country’s economic condition rather than the car’s styling is likely to blame for its sales dip. Also, many independent makes were slipping into oblivion, so car buyers were often hesitant to take a chance on an independent, because if the car maker were to go out of business, vehicle service and repairs could become a nightmare. Even though Anderson’s 1933 Graham Blue Streak eight is one of the most low-mileage examples known to the Graham Owners Club International, Anderson is keenly aware of how repairs can turn into a nightmare on an orphan.

Improving on perfection

“Grahams are hard to find parts for, so people get creative,” Anderson says. When he bought his 1933 Blue Streak coupe in 2017, it looked the part of the low-mileage car that it was. However, it was still an 85-year-old car that had received some changes in its eight decades, mostly by James Rohen. Anderson immediately set to work reversing the changes to make it more authentic. Since the Graham had been parked for several years, he also had work ahead of him to make it drivable.

“When I got the car, the headlights were earlier. They were square body style — 1928 to ’31 — so I put a set of original headlights on it. It had a wrong door handle, so I fixed little stuff like that. The big thing I did to it was I completely rebuilt the engine.”

Rebuilding the Graham’s engine is arguably a bigger task than on other 1933 cars, because some engine parts haven’t been available since the 1930s. “The original engine, David Corbin had the thing rebuilt, and that is what his son-in-law told me, and when I tore the engine apart, I could see that it had been freshly rebuilt,” Anderson said. “It had very low mileage, but there were several things not right and I had to rebuild the engine. 

“The tolerances were tighter than heck, but whoever did the babbit bearings didn’t know what they were doing,” he noted. “There were chunks of babbit missing. 

“What got me taking the engine apart was a valve head snapped off and I had zero compression in one cylinder. I noticed two of the cam bearings had slid out of place and were rattling around the camshaft. It was just obvious this engine needed to come apart. 

“The interesting thing is I was really concerned about the cam bearings. They haven’t made the cam bearings for this car since the car was new. People machine new cam bearings, but I don’t know if anyone knows what the original press fit was for those. I spent hours with bearing catalogs trying to find something I could make work. Lo and behind, I found a cam bearing out of a Mack truck semi that had a larger outside diameter and smaller inside diameter so we could machine out the block to fit this bearing, and grind the cam bearings to allow the machine shop to machine the cam journals smaller. We found a way to get modern cam bearings out of a 11-liter Mack semi engine. The old camshafts had giant-size journal bearings, so modern car bearings are too small.”

With the engine freshly rebuilt, the Graham is ready to run again, although Anderson admits it doesn’t get out as much as he’d like. 

“I drive it once a year, maybe 15-20 miles,” he says. “I have too many cars and they don’t get enough attention.”

In addition to the featured 1933 coupe and the supercharged 1934 sedan that started his Graham fandom, Anderson has a 1934 Blue Streak Eight convertible coupe and a supercharged 1935 Blue Streak sedan. He’s content that none of them are concours-ready, even if he doesn’t get to drive them enough — including the coupe he waited so long to land.

“I live on a gravel road, I have four miles of gravel before I get to pavement, so I have no intention of going after any awards with the car. I just want to make sure I maintain it and love it.”

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Mark and Diane Besser have a type: low, sleek and sporty, with room for two just people. The Bolivar, Mo., residents have some pretty spry rides that fit that description, from a Muntz Jet to a Woodhill Wildfire and a Kaiser-Darrin, among other sporty rides. It should be no surprise that when Mark went looking to add a prewar sports machine, he went looking for an Auburn, Cord or Duesenberg and eventually landed a very well-preserved 1930 Cord Front Drive (L-29) Cabriolet.

“I just always loved that car,” Besser says of the Cord Cabriolet. “To me, that long hood and that body was just perfect for a 1930s car.

“I searched for one for a few years until I found one I could afford. I went out to Arizona to get one at auction, but I couldn’t get that one.”

A few years later, Besser saw another Cord Front Drive Cabriolet coming to auction from a collection that also included an Auburn Speedster and a Duesenberg.

“I had been going to RM Auctions and I saw their literature and it was one of the feature cars for that 2018 auction in Auburn,” Besser recalled. “I actually wanted the Auburn Speedster, and I did bid some, but not far enough. This was my second choice.”

Calling the Cord Cabriolet a “second choice” is like comparing brands of caviar — all are premium delicacies with different experiences. Both the Auburn 851 Speedster and the Cord Cabriolet were products of the Cord Corp., and both were the sportiest cataloged body types offered by their makers. And while the Auburn Speedster has a more unique body design than its contemporaries, the Cord L-29 has a far more unique mechanical configuration than all but one of its contemporaries.

Developing the Cord Front Drive

The idea of front-wheel drive had been toyed with since shortly after the dawn of the automobile. Even before 1900, Australian Henry Sutton had offered his front-drive Autocar in 1899, and it was soon followed by several other front-drives built in limited quantities around the world.

By the mid 1920s, race car builder Harry A. Miller had developed a successful front-wheel-drive car that made a strong debut at the Indianapolis 500 as the Locomobile Junior 8 since the family of the race car’s owner, Cliff Durant, owned the Locomobile firm. Drivers Dave Lewis and Bennett Hill raced the Junior 8 race car to a close second-place finish at the 1925 Indy 500. Had they not encountered a delay in the pits during a wheel change, the front-drive car might have placed first. In fact, the car was so successful that Miller followed up with a series of front-drive race cars. Development of other front-drive race cars from additional builders followed, notably a car built for the 1927 Indianapolis 500 by race car driver Tommy Milton and engineer Cornelius Van Ranst.

By 1926, E.L. Cord was in control of the Auburn Automobile Co. of Auburn, Ind. His strong interest in cars, and the automobile industry in general — coupled with his keen business mind and incredible work ethic — had taken him from Moon car salesman to head of the Auburn Automobile Co. from which he built an automotive empire. While in charge of Auburn, Cord took notice of the novel front-wheel-drive race cars, and having purchased Duesenberg Motors Corp. in 1926, was certainly connected with the Indianapolis legends who compete there against Duesenberg race cars. The prospect of a front-wheel-drive passenger car greatly interested Cord, and in 1927 he contracted Harry A. Miller to help the Auburn Automobile Co. develop one such car for the open road. The Miller front-drive race cars were difficult to shift, a problem that remained during the development of the front-drive passenger car, so Van Ranst was brought on to help overcome the hurdle using his knowledge gained from his 1927 race car. Along with Tommy Milton, Van Ranst had designed their own Miller-powered front-wheel-drive race car. With the additional work of men from the crucible racing, including Leon Duray and Leo Goossen, a drivable prototype dubbed the L-27 was completed for Cord in 1927 within Miller’s shop in Long Beach, Calif., utilizing a body from a 1927 Auburn sourced from a local dealer. During the development of the Auburn Automobile Co.’s forthcoming front-drive car, Cord had been regularly monitoring progress, even traveling to the Golden State for updates.

In making the front-wheel-drive layout work in a passenger car, the straight-eight engine and three-speed manual transmission assembly were reversed, putting the transmission in front of the engine, and the differential became the front axle with a Cardan-type universal joint to transfer power to the front wheels. As on a Miller race car, the brakes were mounted inboard. 

When the prototype was completed, it was successfully driven from California to Indiana where further development continued into 1928, including giving the new front-drive passenger car its own unique look. 

Given the novel feature of front-drive, the front-mounted differential was incorporated into the new car’s styling by Alan Leamy, the Auburn Automobile Co. designer also responsible for the look of the Model J Duesenberg. Leamy penned an elegant fender, grille, hood and headlamp ensemble just as beautiful as on the Duesenberg, yet unique in its own right — even when discounting the front-drive car’s large, round differential cover below the grille.

Mounting the differential at the front of the car allowed the Cord to have a lower profile, as the passenger compartment did not have to be mounted above a rear axle. By the time production of the Cord began in mid 1929 at Auburn, four low-to-the-ground production bodies were offered: a four-door Brougham without quarter panel windows; a four-door sedan with quarter windows; a four-door convertible Phaeton; and a two-door convertible Cabriolet. The new car was advertised as the Cord Front Drive, the L-29 designation only being used internally by Auburn Automobile Co. employees.  

Although the Auburn Automobile Co. was a small operation compared to General Motors, the Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Corp., E.L. Cord had gained much respect and fame for his efforts to turn around the Auburn brand, for saving Duesenberg and overseeing the development of the Model J, and for building an automotive empire by purchasing many of the suppliers of parts to his company’s vehicles. With having taken so much interest and leadership in the front-wheel-drive automobile’s development, and for his recognizable name, Cord was certainly justified in naming the car after himself.

The Cord comes to market

The Cord Front Drive hit showrooms right about the time Wall Street saw the stock market crash in October 1929. With prices ranging from $3,095 for the sedan and Brougham to $3,295 for the Cabriolet and Phaeton, the Cord was considered a high-priced car competing in the same range as the Chrysler Imperial. That, along with its new technology, made it a tough sell. In 1929, just 1,819 were sold, followed by 1,873 in 1930, another 1,243 in 1931 and just 58 in 1932. Although not impressive figures, Cord production totaled thousands more than the only other front-wheel-drive passenger car on the market, the similarly priced Ruxton automobile, which had a lifespan matching that of the Cord Front Drive. E.L. Cord had hoped to have the first front-wheel-drive automobile on the market, and he beat the Ruxton by just months. 

In addition to building the first mass-produced front-wheel-drive car in the Cord, the Auburn Automobile Co. had also developed the first X frame to be used in an automobile. The X frame was found to be necessary to reduce body and chassis twist while keeping the Cord’s weight low.

Although production likely didn’t meet the Auburn Automobile Co.’s expectations, management knew it was a good idea and used the gained knowledge to build a second front-drive car a few years later, the 1935 Cord 810 and 1936 Cord 812.

A fine survivor

Less than 10 percent of the 5,000 or so Cord Front Drives built are estimated to still remain. Besser’s Cabriolet remains an excellent survivor, having never fallen into disrepair. The car retains much of its chassis paint, and has only seen one repaint and reupholstering.

“You can still see the original paint on the frame of the car,” Besser says. “That car has never deteriorated; the wood is still original, all of the body tags are still there. When they were certifying [in Auburn], Ken Clark, who restores these, told me he had never seen all the body tags that mine has, because the wood on the others rotted away. It shows 67,000 miles, and I believe it to be true.”

Clearly, the Cord had been carefully enjoyed throughout its past, and Besser continues that tradition. Thanks to its mellowed patina, he isn’t afraid to enjoy it in on the open road. He regularly takes it to local shows and drives it in parades, so he’s well accustomed to its road manners.

“I have had it in some parades,” Besser says. “They say they overheat, but we had it in the Route 66 parade and it doesn’t overheat. It’s the only car I have put in that parade that didn’t overheat.”

Besser also says that the Cord drives great when it’s underway, but the front-wheel drive makes it difficult to steer from a start until its speed reaches about 5 mph. He also said a first drive in the car would take some getting used to due to the engine and transmission being reversed from a standard car.

“The hardest part is the gearshift,” he notes. “Your H pattern is the same but reversed, so you have to think before you shift and that takes getting used to. At first, I was taking off in third gear. I didn’t realize it, because it has enough torque that it would still take off.”

The Cord had been sitting in Richard L. Burdick’s collection before Besser bought it at auction, and he said it has only needed a master cylinder since he bought it. Since then, it’s always been ready for a drive. 

“It’s a great car,” he said. “They are just built so good. You don’t ever worry about them. It can sit, but it will always start — it never fails.”

Love Cords? Here are a few more articles for your reading enjoyment.

https://www.oldcarsweekly.com/acd-museum-welcomes-rare-cord-814-cabriolet-prototype

https://www.oldcarsweekly.com/old-cars/cord-put-the-power-forward

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The post Car of the Week: 1930 Cord Cabriolet appeared first on Old Cars Weekly.

Concept cars, aka “dream cars”, were built by vehicle manufacturers to explore and test design and engineering ideas for future production cars. The more successful ideas incorporated on concept cars would usually be tried on production cars in the immediate future, but occasionally, it would take a few years or even a decade for them to appear. 

After too many years had passed, what was once a new idea would grow stale and become forgotten. However, one dream car’s styling remained so handsome, it was still relevant enough to influence a production car 50 years after it was built.

“The front end became the front end on the 2005 Chrysler 300,” says famed concept car collector Joe Bortz, longtime owner of the 1955 Chrysler Falcon concept car pictured here. “They used a very similar front end to what was on this car. And the way he put the taillights vertically into the bumpers, it’s absolutely gorgeous.”

Indeed, if you compare the shape of the quarter panels and the front-end design of the 2005 Chrysler 300 — admittedly a retro design — to the 1955 Chrysler Falcon, you can see the influence of the 20th century Falcon show car in the 21st century 300 production car, right down to its long-hood and short-rear-deck proportions. However, the two-passenger Chrysler Falcon wasn’t intended to test ideas for a future Chrysler 300 model, which debuted the same year as a production car, but as a possible Thunderbird killer. Ironically, Chrysler’s new C-300 killed the idea of building a Thunderbird fighter, as Chrysler considered the C-300 to already be a T-Bird competitor.

“Typical of companies, even Chrysler at that time, that cost a lot of money (to build a new car), and they had to save and put it into the production cars,” said retired automotive designer Virgil Exner, Jr., whose father designed the two-passenger 1955 Chrysler Falcon.

He confirmed that his father’s Falcon concept car was “definitely” designed to combat the new 1955 Thunderbird and Corvette, even if it wasn’t in the cards.

Exner ushers in the future

By the time the 1955 Chrysler Falcon show car debuted, Virgil Exner had been with Chrysler Corp. for about five years. He had cut his teeth on the Studebaker advertising account before finding employment during the Great Depression within the design studio of General Motors under Harley Earl. From GM, Exner went to work designing Studebakers, and in 1949 swung to Chrysler Corp. where he would become the head of the company’s planned Advanced Styling Studio. Chrysler Corp. management — including boss K.T. Keller, who famously insisted Chrysler Corp.’s cars accommodate drivers wearing hats, regardless of how dated that made the cars look — knew its cars were considered dull-looking by design standards. They hoped Exner would turn around the company’s image. In less than a decade, Exner did just that, peaking with the finned Forward Look Chrysler products of 1957.

After joining Chrysler, Exner quickly began drawing new and exciting car designs, many of which became full-size, three-dimensional concept cars. Among them was the 1951 Chrysler K-310, the 1952 Chrysler C-200, the 1953 Chrysler D’Elegance, the 1953 De Soto Adventurer and a handful more in 1954 alone. Most, if not all, were sporty two-doors in coupe or convertible configurations, often for just two passengers. By 1955, the design of Chrysler Corp. production cars had hit their stride with looks that were as fashionably modern as anything from Ford Motor Co. and General Motors, its top competitors.

The Falcon takes off

Virgil Exner, Jr., was truly his father’s son, and under his father he developed his own artistic talents that would lead him into a parallel career in automobile design. At the time the 1955 Chrysler Falcon was designed, Exner, Jr. was a college student and was keenly aware of his father’s design philosophies and his projects that employed them.

“At that time, he was trying to put forth more classic front ends instead of the wide mouths that were going on at the time,” Exner, Jr., said. “That was his pride, and anything really with fins. He was always aware of aerodynamic design, and always preferred that and the simplicity of design. One of this favorite phrases was, ‘Simplicity is the keynote of good design.’”

Indeed, the Falcon is a sleek two-passenger car with minimal but effective ornamentation and shapes. Deep-set headlamps brace an essentially oval grille that graces only the center of the front end. The front fenders have a prow edge that leads a clean, front-to-back flank with chrome decoration only seen in the edge of the front fender louvers and the novel side exhaust along the rockers, along with the balance of lower-body trim aft the rear wheel openings. The vertical taillamps are mounted in the rear fender tips and are divided by likewise upright-mounted bumper bars, with a horizontal bumper bar set low at the rear. A deep wrap-around windshield caps off the clean design.

“In the 1950s, all cars had chrome all over them and on the side, wherever you could put it, and that car was done as an artistic masterpiece and didn’t need to be decorated like a Christmas tree,” Bortz said. 

As with many Chrysler Corp. dream cars of the period, Chrysler contracted coachbuilding firm Ghia in Turin, Italy, to build the Falcon. Chrysler supplied Ghia with drawings, specifications, a clay model and the chassis. Ghia would often make minor adjustments in building a body on the chassis and then ship the completed car back to the United States, and did so on this car. Chrysler Corp. was able to avoid paying duties on the Ghia-built show cars if it shipped them out of the United States or scrapped the cars within two years. While the show cars were in the U.S., Chrysler would show them and some employees, such as Exner, were allowed to use them. The Falcon was reportedly exposed to the public at the Chrysler Building in New York and was also among those that Exner occasionally drove. Three were built by Ghia at a cost of $20,000. One Falcon was red, one was a light blue and the third was gold, which Exner had repainted to black. Exner’s son recalls the black Falcon that his father drove being a head-turner while out on the road.

“It really stunned them,” Exner, Jr. said. “When he (Exner, Sr.) would bring it home, I was in college and home for the summer, and it was fun to drive. I enjoyed it very much, but I didn’t drive it a lot like I did some of the others — it was just fairly short drives that I made near our house in Birmingham, Michigan.”

Exner, Jr. recalled his father taking the Falcon and the De Soto Adventurer show cars on a long drive from Michigan to the races in Watkins Glen. 

“One of the pictures of him in it is in the cockpit at Watkins Glen,” Exner, Jr. recalled. “We took a trip there with one of his (Chrysler) engineering friends and his wife, who drove the Falcon there. My mother, father and I drove the De Soto Adventurer (show car) there. I drove almost all the way there and back with the De Soto Adventurer, which I loved, and when we got to Watkins Glen, my father made a couple of laps with the Falcon.”

With a 170-hp/276-cid De Soto FireDome Hemi V-8 and PowerFlite automatic transmission in its 105-in.-wheelbase chassis, the Falcon provided a spirited driving experience. Had it been given a 300-hp/331-cid V-8 from a Chrysler C-300, the experience would certainly have been even more exhilarating.

The last surviving Falcon

Of the three Falcons originally built, only Bortz’s example is known to remain. He believes it was one of the Chrysler Corp. concept cars sent out of the United States before duties had to be paid on it, and as a result, it was saved rather than destroyed. In the mid-to-late 1980s, Bortz was searching out and collecting Ghia-built Chrysler concepts to display alongside his General Motors concepts. He found the Falcon offered for sale by a used car dealer in New Jersey who made him feel nervous about the transaction, so he wanted to seal the deal and get out as quickly as possible. 

“I felt very uneasy about sending him the payment and then waiting for a transport company to pick it up, so I arranged for a cashier’s check and flew out to buy the car,” Bortz recalled. “I called some local guy who said he was a transporter, and he was supposed to meet me there at a certain time so I could pay for it and load it up and drive back with him in the cab. When the flatbed arrived, it was being driven with two kids. One was 16, one was 18, because the owner was too busy to come pick it up. The transporter was a broken down flatbed truck, and I was going to ride with them, but they hadn’t slept that night and the driver started driving off the road with the car on it. I said, ‘Move over, I am going to drive!’ It was a horrible trip, but I got the car home.

“At one time, I owned 10 Ghia cars that were designed by Virgil Exner, but there was no comparison — this was totally the stand out,” Bortz added. “The dealer also had a Mercedes 540K roadster, and at the time, I said, ‘I really like this car better than the 540K roadster,’ and that’s a pretty good-looking car.” 

Since buying the Falcon about 40 years ago, Bortz has had to only maintain it. He doesn’t know much of its history before he purchased it, but believes it was repainted, perhaps in South America, as it now wears a light-green metallic color on its body. The car has occasionally been shown on the concours circuit and is slated to return to the 2025 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance as part of a Ghia class. Bortz says the Falcon’s appearance there will be a homecoming of sorts.

“At Pebble Beach, they really didn’t get into showing anything in the way of concept cars and they didn’t do a lot of American postwar cars. In fact, they didn’t do any up until the 1989… They were worried if they brought in postwar American cars that there would be a lot of flack. Then, in 1989, they decided to experiment and use my concept cars to put their toe in the water to see if there would be a lot of complaints of newer cars. So they put the concepts on the front of the lodge, not on the back, and if they got complaints, they could say it was not a main part of the show. But if the concepts went over well, they could do it more in the future. 

“The concept cars were a gigantic hit,” Bortz added. “Two years before that, it was a big hit to have the six Bugatti Royales at Pebble Beach, and the local news said the concepts were an even bigger hit. 

“In 1991, I believe, they started concept cars being on the back lawn. The Falcon was one of my cars that was on the lawn the second year, because it’s an important car.”

Bortz has since sold his other Ghia cars, but kept the Falcon since it’s one of his favorites.

“It’s absolutely gorgeous,” he says. 

Love concept cars? Here are a few more articles for your reading enjoyment.

https://www.oldcarsweekly.com/features/car-of-the-week-1959-olds-f-88-mk-iii-concept

https://www.oldcarsweekly.com/features/car-of-the-week-1958-buick-xp-75-concept

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The 1935 Auburn 851 and 1936 852 Speedsters were the third generation of a model that was intended to bring eyes and wallets to Auburn showrooms, where buyers would more likely purchase a sedan or coupe or perhaps even a Cabriolet. However, it was the Great Depression, and Speedster sales were all too rare of an occasion. Auburn dealers were often forced by the factory to take one of the impractical Speedsters beginning in 1928, when the body style bowed in the Auburn line. The Speedster was dropped for 1930, then returned in the freshly restyled 1931 Auburn line and remained available into 1934. Auburn gave the Speedster one last hurrah in 1935 and 1936, but in every generation, the relatively expensive and impractical open car was a tough sell, and dealers were rightfully skeptical of adding one of the racy two-seaters to their inventory.

The very definition of a halo car, the Speedster made the Indiana-based Auburn marque memorable even after it forever ceased building cars at the end of 1936. So memorable is the Auburn Speedster that it’s been replicated like a nesting doll in every scale, from a finger-size toy to full-size “replicar.” Many moons aligned in order to create the Auburn Speedster, and before those celestial bodies went into position, no one in the early 20th Century could possibly have predicted that in 40 years, a small Midwestern carriage maker would build the sportiest horseless conveyance yet to travel a road.

From carriages to sports cars

What became the Auburn Automobile Co. began as the Eckhart Carriage Co. of Auburn, Ind. The company built quality horse-drawn carriages beginning in 1875 and founder Charles Eckhart incorporated 10 years later. Eckhart taught his sons the family carriage trade, and in 1900 — a period before it was clear the automobile would usurp the horse and buggy — Eckhart’s son, Frank, who was running the carriage company with his brother, Morris, bought himself a curved-dash Oldsmobile. Frank Eckhart soon went shopping for a more refined automobile and turned to Winton, a company known for creating high-quality horseless carriages. Like James Ward Packard, who encountered so many problems with his Winton that he took Alexander Winton’s advice and built his own car, Eckhart built a car of his own after failing to make a deal on a Winton. 

Legend has it that upon arriving in Chicago for the express purpose of purchasing a Winton, Eckhart found the advertised price had inched upward and the equipment on it had inched downward. Eckhart returned to his hotel to contemplate the purchase, and there he met one of his suppliers to the Eckhart Carriage Co. to whom he explained his dilemma. It didn’t take long for the men to realize that Eckhart didn’t need Winton to build a car for him — his family business had enough connections to build a car of its own. Within a couple years, Frank and Morris Eckhart went from building cars for themselves to building cars for the public. Their first public offering was displayed at the 1903 Chicago Auto Show.

By the early 1920s, Auburn sales were bouncing around in the 2,500- to 6,000-car range per year. The Eckharts were now out of the picture, having sold out in 1919 to a group of Chicago bankers. As the Roaring Twenties danced on, Auburn as a car company began to flounder. The bankers found a savior in phenomenally successful car salesman and distributor Errett Lobban Cord. In 1924, Cord presented an idea for a flashier Auburn that would save the Auburn Automobile Co. The company had approximately 700 unsold cars in its inventory and parts to make many more, but not enough dealers and buyers interested in taking them. As part of his employment agreement, Cord would receive a salary as well as stocks that he would use to buy the company from the bankers. 

Once behind the desk, Cord found a way to move the dated-looking Auburns in order to make room for the flashy car he had pitched to the bankers as being the savior to Auburn.

Already by 1925, the Auburns built under Cord’s influence began to appear and sales were strong enough to give Cord a controlling interest in the Auburn Automobile Co. And Cord wasn’t done adding flash to the Auburn line, further boosting it with horsepower to back the look.

In early 1928, Auburn launched the 115 series, which derived horsepower from an eight-cylinder engine. This engine was built by Lycoming, which Cord purchased in September 1927. Very few cars matched the 115-hp rating of the new 1928 Auburn 115 series, and to help promote its new performance prowess, Auburn launched a new Speedster body type in the 115 series and its existing 8-88 line. The Speedster was a halo model for Auburn, meant to draw attention to the sedans and coupes and other convertible models it sold. To maximize the promotional power of this new marketing tool, Auburn entered the Speedster in speed competitions and advertised its prowess and beauty in newspapers and magazines.

The Speedster continued into 1929, but was pulled from the Auburn line when the 1930 model year commenced. The Speedster had always been a low-volume seller, with most dealers having been forced by the company to accept them. Amid the uncertainty of the Wall Street stock market crash of October 1929, Auburn dealers were likely relieved they didn’t have to try to move the whimsical Speedster. However, when Auburns were restyled by Alan Leamy for 1931, the Speedster returned fashionably late at midyear, wearing the fresh styling bedazzling Auburns across the board, Great Depression be damned. 

Despite the financial woes affecting industry throughout the United States and abroad, Auburn had been profitable, making $3.5 million in 1931. The company revived the flashy Auburn Speedster for 1932, which saw a financial turn of the tide at Auburn. Along with the rest of the Auburn lineup, Speedster sales slowed throughout the year and through 1933. Although Auburns were completely restyled by Auburn designer Alan Leamy for 1934 with bigger bodies and heavier fenders, there were still Speedsters left over to sell into 1934; there were also dozens of leftover Speedster bodies that never made their way onto a chassis.

Harold Ames, executive vice president of Auburn, was not a fan of any body style wearing the new 1934 Auburn design. He insisted on a complete styling overhaul of the entire Auburn line for 1935 that essentially amounted to sleeker fenders, a less Art Deco hood and a different radiator grille shell. Along with the restyled 1935 Auburn 851 line came the return of the Auburn Speedster to help promote the new look. Gordon Buehrig was charged with changing the faces of all Auburns for 1935, including penning a new Speedster body type. Perhaps Buehrig’s most challenging task in designing the new Speedster was that it had to be based upon the 1931-1934 Speedster body so that Auburn could use up its stock. He essentially reused the Speedster cockpit and designed a new rear tail. Modifications to the cowl allowed the new 1935 Auburn hood and grille to match up to the existing cockpit, including the earlier doors. With his clever changes, most had no clue that the 1935 Auburn Speedster bodies were based upon the previous generation of Speedster body. When Auburn used up the original stock of its second generation (1931-1934) of Speedster bodies, entirely new Speedster bodies were built for the remainder of 1935 and for the 1936 Auburn 852 Speedster, and only an expert could tell the difference between the modified and the all-new bodies.

Overall, Buehrig’s design for the 1935 and ’36 Speedster was more unique from other Auburn body types than it had been in the previous two generations. In addition to the tapered design of the tail, the Speedster featured its own individual fenders, which were not connected by a running board. Each fender tapered at the rear in a teardrop shape that echoed the Speedster’s tail profile. This also resulted in unique rocker panels. The Speedster windshield was again of a roadster design and steeply raked backward with a V shape. To top off this winning package, Auburn made its optional supercharger on the straight-eight a standard Speedster feature, which also meant each Speedster sported chromed pipes on the driver’s side of the hood.

The 1935 and ’36 Auburn Speedster was the complete package and the type of car that stopped the hearts of men and women at just a glance, whether that glance was caught as the car roared by or through a dealer’s showroom. However, the Speedster couldn’t save Auburn and the company ceased building new Auburns at the end of 1936. Although Auburn may have gone out of business, it went out with style. 

A Speedster’s path

The Auburn Speedster has become the quintessential prewar sports car, especially the last generation (1935 to 1936). Its image has been printed on T-shirts, drinking glasses and nearly everything else, and it’s been modeled in every common scale and many in between. The Speedster is one of those cars that’s long been appreciated, often transcending “used car” status. In 1952, the featured 1936 Speedster was advertised for sale in a display ad within the November 1952 issue of Motor Trend. The Vallejo, Calif., seller advertised the 16-year-old Speedster already as a “classic” that was “in showroom condition.”

According to the records of Auburn Cord Duesenberg historian Randy Ema, current owner of Duesenberg, this Speedster was in Manhattan Beach, Calif., in 1956 where it was found and purchased for $900 by Gordon Craft of Riverside, Calif. A newspaper article clipped many years ago featured Craft with the Speedster and reported it as being an “ancient, worn damsel in distress,” although in the accompanying photograph, it appears to remain a rather sharp classic. The occasion of the newspaper article was the reunion of the car with its designer, Gordon Buehrig, as well as with Don Butler, the distribution manager of the Auburn Automobile Co. in Auburn. 

Ema’s records show the next owner of  the Speedster was Jim Busby of Laguna Beach, Calif., in 1974-’75, followed by Mrs. Nick Williams, also of Laguna Beach. By the late 1990s, the Speedster was in excellent condition and wearing its current period-correct green paint while in the esteemed Blackhawk Collection. From there, it was sold by Don Williams to an owner in Switzerland, who offered it at the August 2007 Christie’s sale at Monterey, Calif., where current owners Ted and Mary Stahl of the Stahls Motors & Music Experience purchased it.  

As with many people, the Speedster carved the Auburn name into the Stahls’ psyche, and when they finally bought an Auburn, it wasn’t the racy Speedster body type but a Phaeton convertible sedan. Although they had a bad experience with that 1935 Phaeton while participating in the Great Race, their affection for the brand didn’t waiver.

“Unfortunately, it had poured rings and we were doing about 70 — it was running beautifully — and all of a sudden a rod let loose,” Ted Stahl said. “That was the end of that. 

“We had that redone… and it’s one of our favorite cars.”

With such an affection toward the Auburn Phaeton, it only made sense to eventually add the sportiest and most recognizable version of an Auburn to their collection.

“They’re beautiful cars, just true sports cars with the lines, the curves, the fenders, the slope in the back,” Stahl says. “Even the grille in the front, everything in the front just says beauty and speed.”

Today, the Stahls’ Speedster can often be seen under the lights of their Stahls Motors & Music Experience collection in Chesterfield, Mich. It will also be displayed under the sun at this year’s Auburn Cord Duesenberg Club Reunion over Labor Day weekend in Auburn, Ind.

Stahls Motors & Music Experience
Chesterfield, MI 
www.stahlsauto.com
586-749-1078

The Stahls’ Automotive Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that exists to preserve, restore and exhibit classic automobiles of the 20th Century for education purposes. The Experience, based in Chesterfield, Mich., features continually changing exhibits for historically significant vehicles from the Depression and Art Deco eras, along with mechanical music machines and automobile memorabilia. It also hosts many community events throughout the year while being open to the public, including an annual fundraising event honoring and benefiting U.S. military veterans.

Do the classics out of Auburn pique your curiosity? Her are a few more articles for your reading enjoyment.

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On June 18, our hobby lost David Schultz, a modern legend in Lincoln circles. He was 80 years of age.

In addition to his professional accomplishments, David had an extensive resumé in the collector car world. He served the executive director of the Glenmoor Gathering of Significant Automobiles and the Concours d’Elegance at Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens, both in Ohio. David loved all types of cars, especially Classic Car Club of America Full Classics, and especially the Lincolns that the CCCA recognized as Full Classics. With his passion for Lincolns, he dove into his roles as president of the Lincoln Owners Club and as editor of its publication, The Fork & Blade. He was also a trustee of the Lincoln Motor Car Foundation, helping oversee the construction and operation of the Lincoln Motor Car Heritage Museum in Hickory Corners, Mich. (He was also a trustee of the Massillon Museum in his home of Massillon, Ohio.) Additionally, David served as a president and director of the CCCA, and with a newspaper career in his past, he wrote an always-interesting column in Hemmings Classic Car magazine before its demise. He served as a judge at events, including the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.

David’s obituary states, “What he enjoyed most was simply talking cars or giving a ‘first ride’ to someone in one of his cars,” which is something I can relate to. Most notably, I was one of those beneficiaries of David’s sharing a first ride.

Back in 2005, I was covering a CCCA Grand Experience at the Gilmore Car Museum and Classic Car Club of America Museum in Hickory Corners. I was admiring David’s 1930 Lincoln Model L Judkins coupe and we struck up a conversation. David soon asked if I’d like to drive it. I was stunned that a new acquaintance would trust a kid like me with driving his rare and valuable coachbuilt Classic Lincoln. Not one to miss such an opportunity, I hopped in the driver’s seat and fell in love. The car fit me like a glove and drove like a dream, and I instantly understood why David loved his Classic Lincolns.

Over the years, we talked hobby business on the phone and chatted about cars in person, but one of my favorite conversations was our last phone call. Late last year, we had a long talk about the hobby in general and cars in particular. Our conversation seemed to dart everywhere, eventually ending with David talking about the incredible quality that Pierce-Arrow built into all of its cars’ parts, right down to the ashtrays. It was a testament to his automotive knowledge, and his appreciation for all things automotive, not just Lincolns. He will be deeply missed by many, including me, but he can rest easy knowing that he left a lasting impression and enrichment upon so many.

There will be a memorial for David at the Annual Lincoln Homecoming on August 6-10th at the Lincoln Motor Car Heritage Museum in Hickory Corners, Michigan.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO

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Photos by Al Rogers

Currently tucked among the varied treasures inside the National Auto and Truck Museum in Auburn, Ind., is a 1970 Buick GS 455 that’s a little more grand than others of its ilk. Not that there isn’t anything already grand about the 1970 Buick Gran Sport, a brutish performance car that bucked Buick’s rep for building conservative “doctors cars.” Available with a 315-hp, four-barrel 350-cid V-8 as the GS 350 or either the 350-hp or Stage 1 360-hp 455-cid V-8 as the GS 455, the midsize 1970 Gran Sports showed Buick’s wild side amidst a showroom of earth-tone Electra 225 and LeSabre behemoths. By installing the 350- and 455-cid V-8s from these full-size Buicks into the midsize Skylark, Buick created a tire roaster that could make an Electra 225 or LeSabre blush.

The Buick GS 455 inside NATMUS isn’t just out of character for a Buick, but also for a Gran Sport. It’s hard not to notice its unique Fireglow Red Pearl exterior paint, and then its likewise one-of-a-kind pearl white interior. Indeed, this Buick GS 455 Stage 1 was specially built for go and show.

Buick swings from mild to wild

When Buick brought back the Special name in 1961, it was on a new compact with a small, cast-aluminum-block V-8 good for 155 hp. By 1964 — the year General Motors launched a new midsize A-body line for its Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile and Buick divisions — the Special successfully graduated to the new and bigger body. It was the start of even bigger things to come.

During the middle of the Special’s comeback year, Buick added a plusher Skylark Sport Coupe to the compact car line to complement the base Special and better-trimmed Skylark Deluxe. All three were carried over to GM’s new A-body for 1964.

Despite the midsize A-body being a corporate GM platform, each division’s car cleverly resembled its full-size counterpart more so than its corresponding midsize competitor from the other GM divisions. For the 1964 Skylark and Special, that meant a handsomely square profile with a formal roof and body edges tailored to gentle curves, much like the full-size LeSabre and Wildcat, the latter being Buick’s version of a “Super Sport” LeSabre.

With the new A-body redesign of 1964, GM’s bargain and mid-priced brands brought out performance versions. At Chevrolet, that meant the Malibu SS while over at Pontiac, the GTO made its famous debut. Seeing the value of the GTO hype, and already having a performance reputation of its own, Oldsmobile followed suit mid 1964 with the 4-4-2. With performance heating up across the industry and adding more and more sales potential with each increase in horsepower, even Buick — GM’s brand for those seeking luxury and quality without the ostentatiousness of a Cadillac — joined the melee with performance models.

In mid 1965, the Gran Sport option became available on the Riviera, Skylark and Wildcat. The racing heart of the Skylark GS package was a 325-hp “Wildcat” 401-cid V-8 with a 10.25:1 compression ratio and a single four-barrel Carter AFB carburetor. The athletic engine exhaled through dual exhaust, and to give the package added street cred, GS badges were mounted inside and out.

The GS continued on the updated 1966 A-body with more muscular looks that included blacked-out exterior components and the addition of hood scoops. Obviously seeing more potential with the Gran Sport, Buick split the Gran Sport into two lines for 1967 with the addition of the new GS 340 powered by an engine of that displacement. 1967 also marked the arrival of an all-new, truly 400-cid V-8 in the GS 400 that no longer had to skirt GM’s displacement limit. This new 400-cid V-8 had 340 hp, which compared favorably to the standard 335-hp, 400-cid V-8 in that year’s GTO.

The GS 400 maintained the “fast with class” image of the previous Gran Sports by using much of the bright Skylark trim, but the new GS 340 had an increasingly more typical muscle car image with red body stripes on the sides and atop the hood scoops and a red-accented rear deck molding.

By this time, a few savvy racers had noticed the power of the Buick Gran Sport. Among them was Lennie “Pop” Kennedy, who had been racing Buicks since the mid 1950s. He stayed with Buick on the strip through the 1960s and beyond, driving cars sponsored by Reynolds Buick of West Covina, Calif., and gaining the attention of Buick brass as he and fellow racer Jim Bell worked to improve and develop Buick engine components for better quarter-mile times. The pair eventually formed Kenne-Bell to sell those parts.

When the Gran Sport was born, Pop was there, racing the first 1965 GS 400 delivered to the West Coast, likely obtaining it so early because of his past with Buick and success racing their cars. Once Buick’s new 340-hp 400-cid V-8 came out in 1967, Pop raced that engine, too.

When GM restyled the A-body into more of a fastback for 1968, the Gran Sport returned to the exploding muscle car wars. Again, a new engine became available in a Gran Sport when the 260-hp 340 was replaced with a new Buick four-barrel 350-cid V-8 of 280 hp, but the GS 400 was back with no changes to the one-year-old engine. Again, Pop Kennedy raced the new Buick GS 400, running times as fast as 117 mph in 11.40 seconds. Pop’s GS ran some of his experimental hop-up parts for the Buick 400-cid V-8 (notably, better heads, a more efficient intake manifold and a different carburetor). Using Pop’s input and experience, a factory-installed Stage 1 package was offered for the engine of the GS 400 in 1969, as was a more aggressive Stage 2 package that was available over the counter at Buick dealers.

GM divisions moderately updated their A-bodies for 1970, and again Buick paired the new-looking car with a new engine. After the 455-cid V-8-powered Hurst/Olds cars of 1968 and 1969, GM’s 400-cubic-inch limit for its divisions’ intermediates was in the rearview mirror. Now GM divisions were running their largest engines in their midsize muscle cars. At Buick, that meant using the new 455-cid V-8 in the Gran Sport. The car was logically dubbed the GS 455, while the 315-hp GS 350 continued to be offered alongside it.

Without question, 1970 marked the peak of the muscle car era with bright paint options, wild factory graphic and decal packages, top performance engines and catchy acronyms for names, and Buick ran with the best when it introduced its new GSX. Essentially a slightly dechromed GS 455 with front and rear spoilers, select painted trim and a decal package, the GSX was a decidedly youthful and in-your-face Buick that took the GS 455 to the extreme. Available in Saturn Yellow or Apollo White, it could be had with or without the Stage 1 option of the GS 455 upon which it was based.

The new GS 455 and GSX for 1970 offered 350 hp and another 10 hp with the Stage 1 package (a Stage 2 package was again available over the counter). Those numbers may not appear to be competitive against a 425-hp 426 Hemi or a 450-hp LS6 Chevelle SS 454, but with 510 lb.-ft. of torque, the Buick GS 455 Stage 1 could match — and even beat ­— a Hemi GTX or a SS 454. On lists of the fastest muscle cars of all time, Stage 1-equipped 1970 Buick GS 455 cars always rank at or very near the top.

The GS 455 and GS 350 lasted through the 1970-1972 styling cycle and even slightly beyond when GM’s A-body was completely redesigned for 1973, but as with all muscle cars, the power was never as great as it was in the first year of the disco decade.

Pushing go and show

In early September 1969, shortly after the Buick Division of General Motors began minting its new 1970 models, two identical white 1970 GS Stage 1 two-door hardtops were pulled off the assembly line the same day to be converted into show cars for the auto show circuit. The “top dog” Gran Sports were identically optioned and close together in production sequence (their body numbers were just two digits apart). One of these Stage 1 Gran Sports destined for show duty became a GSX show car sometimes mistakenly referred to as a prototype, and the other was converted into a specially painted and trimmed GS 455 intended to “light your fire,” as advertisements generally claimed for the GS. Both made their debut perched atop circular stands at the 1970 Chicago Auto Show, held at the International Amphitheater from Feb. 21 to March 1.

Not surprisingly for show cars, the Shows, Displays and Exhibits Division of Buick had each Gran Sport well-equipped. They both featured the Stage 1 package, an automatic transmission, a console, bucket seats, 3.64 Positraction rear differential, Rallye Ride Control Package, G60-15 Goodyear Polyglas GT tires, chromed five-spoke wheels, tilt steering, power windows, power locks, full instrumentation, power steering, disc brakes, Soft Ray-tinted windshield and the Rallye steering wheel. The GSX show car received the parts unique to the model, although some of them differed from production components, while the GS 455 Stage 1 show car underwent its own changes. Its body color was changed to a one-of-a-kind, bright orange Fireglow Red Pearl color, and the pearl white-upholstered interior received a unique white shag-type carpet with non-production, orange-colored experimental front seat belts that complemented the body color. The tinted glass ­— even the windshield ­­— was also removed from the car and replaced with untinted glass.

“The windows were not tinted, because it was felt that any tinting would not properly demonstrate the appeal of that white interior,” said Alan Oldfield of the Buick Heritage Alliance, which now holds title to the car. “It’s quite striking when you see it.”

A photo of the car at the 1970 Chicago Auto Show shows the interior glowing, and without the window tint, the white is pure and oddly bright without a blue tint cast upon it.

It seems Buick had a thing for metallic orange show cars, and the Fireglow Red Pearl 1970 GS 455 Stage 1 was not its first. In 1966, a Wildcat convertible painted a non-production metallic-orange color appeared on the auto show circuit with an exclusive orange front-and-rear bucket seat interior. Two years later, Buick displayed atop its stands an orange 1968 Riviera and a white 1968 Gran Sport, the latter having a one-of-a-kind white interior with a shag-type white carpet.

Like the preceding orange Buick show cars, the white 1970 GSX and Fireglow Red Pearl Gran Sports were supposed to disappear, but Columbus, Ohio, Buick dealer Len Immke, a rabid fan and collector of Buicks ­— and himself a sponsor of a 1970 GS 455 race car ­— stepped in.

“They were retired and supposed to be crushed,” said Oldfield. “Len Immke convinced Buick to sell the cars to him with the promise that he would not sell them, but one time, when he was out of town, the cars got sold and they went into private hands.”

The first owner of the Fireglow Red Pearl GS reportedly raced it into the 1970s, racking up about 13,000 miles on the odometer. However, he ran steep gears for racing so the actual mileage is likely lower. That owner reportedly raced the car hard enough to blow the original engine and transmission,. Today the car has a replacement engine block with many of the important original components, such as the carburetor and cylinder heads. It still shows about 13,000 miles.

Racing kept the Fireglow Red Pearl GS’s body rust-free, and by the time it went into a collector’s hands, the original paint had cracked and the car’s rock-solid sheet metal deserved a re-spray. The car then swung from owner to owner with one of them replacing the white shag carpet with a production-type black rug. However, the rest of the interior remains original.

In 2023, the car went to its forever home when it was donated by Ralph Jenkins Harding III of Odessa, Texas, to the Buick Heritage Alliance, a non-profit corporation dedicated to the preservation of all things Buick, from literature to the cars themselves. The BHA’s literature collection is housed at the AACA Library & Research Center in Hershey, Pa., while it loans its cars to museums across the country. Oldfield said the Fireglow Red Pearl 1970 Buick GS Stage 1 show car will continue its show car duties at NATMUS for the foreseeable future, where it can be seen by all.

MORE INFO

Buick Heritage Alliance
www.buickheritagealliance.org

NATMUS
1000 Gordon M. Buehrig Place
Auburn, IN 46706
260-925-9100
natmus.org

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Even into the 1950s, one of the raciest-looking cars built in any reasonable quantity was the 1935 and ’36 Auburn Speedster. And until that time, the most powerful engine in a street car remained the 265-hp Duesenberg Model J straight-eight, unveiled to the public in late 1928. While the Auburn Speedster and the Duesenberg Model J were both products of the Cord Corp., one couldn’t get a Model J engine in an Auburn Speedster. But one man changed that before the horsepower output of passenger cars finally matched the power of the decades-old Model J engine.

At some point before 1956, Joe Gertler, Sr. of Raceway Garage in The Bronx, N.Y., mated Auburn Speedster serial number 33736E with Model J engine J-434 to add performance that matched the Speedster’s looks. With the J engine replacing the Auburn’s original 150-hp supercharged 279.9-cubic-inch straight-eight, Gertler’s Speedster gained an additional 115 hp. It wasn’t a simple drivetrain swap, however, and several modifications had to be made to the original Speedster in order to fit the longer 420-cubic-inch Duesenberg engine and its transmission. And oh, what a combination it was­ — and is.

Another swing at a Speedster

The earliest Auburn Speedsters dated to 1928, when the taper-tailed two-seater inspired by the one-off Duesenberg Model X speedster bowed as the raciest model in the Auburn Automobile Co.’s 88 and 115 lines. The Auburn Speedster continued into 1929, was halted for 1930, then a second generation, designed by Alan Leamy, appeared alongside the newly restyled 1931 Auburns during late 1931. Although all other Auburns were redesigned in 1934, the 1931-style Speedster continued into 1934 in order to use up Auburn’s inventory of unfinished bodies. While the Great Depression had not been kind to the sale of racy cars such as the Auburn Speedster, the leftover bodies provided Auburn with yet another opportunity to produce a sports model.

Although the Auburn body design was very different between 1931 and 1934, and then to 1935, in-house designer Gordon Buehrig was able to create a new Speedster design for ’35 based on the leftover Speedster bodies dating to 1931. Only the earlier passenger compartment part of the 1931 body was used on the last-generation Speedsters of 1935 and ’36, with modifications to the beltline molding in order to match the 1935-’36 hood lines. The 1935 851 and 1936 852 Auburn Speedster front ends were all 1935-’36 Auburn, but the fenders were modified production parts, and a different Speedster tail — inspired by a 1933 Duesenberg Model J speedster (also of Buehrig’s design — was retrofitted to the leftover bodies. The grille shell and headlamps were standard 1935-’36 Auburn production parts,

Speedster chassis were likewise modified versions of the standard 1935-’36 Auburn frame with changes to fit the older bodies was undertaken by factory workmen. There was a 5-inch extension at the back of the frame to accommodate the longer Speedster body, and there were additional holes in the Speedster chassis to fasten down the unique body. Special braces for the narrower Speedster body were crudely welded to the frame, and on the left side, where the exhaust came off the muffler, an area of the frame was hacked away to make room. However, all the mechanical components were the same between Speedsters and other supercharged Auburn models from 1935 and ’36, from the exhaust to the suspension to the springs to the Schwitzer-Cummins-built supercharger on the Lycoming-sourced straight-eight engine.

Auburn built more 1935 Model 851 and 1936 Model 852 Speedsters than it had leftover 1931 bodies, so the last of the 146 or so 851 and 852 Speedsters built by Auburn actually received all-new bodies.

Auburn certainly planned to sell Speedsters, but management knew it would have limited sales appeal. Their intent for the Speedster was to create a halo car that would draw people into showrooms to buy its bread-and-butter Auburn sedans, coupes and convertibles. With their racy looks and promise of speed­ — “certified 100 mph or more” touted ads ­— the Speedsters didn’t draw enough showroom traffic to save Auburn, and the company ceased building cars after 1936.

Mating Cord Corp. products

The Auburn Automobile Co. may not have survived into the 1950s, but its Speedster burned such a lasting memory into the minds and hearts of enthusiasts that, unlike other ’30s cars at the time, Speedsters transcended used car status. Among those Speedster fans was Joe Gertler, Sr., who planted the Model J engine in the featured Speedster. Exactly how and why Gertler’s swap came to be weren’t documented by him, but presumably the combination of Duesenberg power in a sporty Speedster was tantalizing. There certainly were Duesenbergs bodied with Speedster coachwork, but they numbered fewer than a dozen cars. In fact, one of those Duesenberg Speedsters was the Gordon Buehrig-designed Weymann speedster that Buehrig rehashed for the 1935 Auburn Speedster. However, finding that Duesenberg Speedster, or any of the others, without today’s easy internet search capabilities would have made such a search nearly impossible in the 1950s.

According to his son, who in 2010 posted about the car on the Antique Automobile Club of America’s online forum (aaca.org), Gertler was a seasoned pro at building and modifying cars. Apparently his full-time business was building race cars and custom sports cars, some for famous customers, and many of the cars he touched became award-winning show cars at major auto shows of the time. Among Gertler’s clients was the famous Hoffman Motors, the early U.S. distributor for Porsche and Volkswagen, among other makes, and race car driver Luigi Chinetti, for whom Gertler repaired his Ferrari 375MM following the Carrera Panamericana IV.

Period photos show Gertler’s Speedster to have been a light color (perhaps Cigarette Cream or white) and in good shape before the engine transplant. To fit the longer Duesenberg straight-eight in the Auburn, Gertler lengthened the Auburn chassis approximately l1 inches in front of the firewall. The added length required a longer hood and side panels, so Gertler modified the originals or built them new. Into the front fenders, he faired what appear to be 1940 Chevrolet headlamps into the tops, discarding the free-standing Auburn headlamps. At rear, the top of the Speedster body was made to open, giving the Speedster body an official — and useful ­ —trunk space.

The earliest photos of Gertler’s finished Speedster show it maintained the Auburn’s original external exhaust pipes sprouting from the driver side of the hood. However, it currently has larger-diameter Duesenberg Model J external exhaust pipes on the passenger side, as on a so-equipped Model J. Also like a Model J with external exhaust pipes, the driver’s side hood panel has a screen without additional pipes.

Inside the cockpit, the Auburn Speedster received a Duesenberg Model J instrument panel and its gauges, which were mounted to the Auburn firewall using Model J brackets.

In his post to the AACA online forum, Gertler’s son reported that his father found the car to be a “bear to steer,” likely from the lengthened front end and heavier engine, but it must have been a screamer rolling down the road!

According to Randy Ema, present owner of Duesenberg, Inc., and an Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg historian, David F. Miller, of Cleveland, Ohio, bought the J-powered Auburn Speedster from Gertler in 1956. By 1959, Miller had brought the car to the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Club Reunion in Auburn, Ind., and led the famous Parade of Classics with the car. It is also known to have been shown again there in 1971.

Miller was friends with fellow ACD collector Melvin Clemans, who was known for buying, selling and swapping Duesenberg cars and parts. At some point while Miller owned the car, he and Clemans swapped engines and engine J-209 was substituted from a Murphy convertible sedan that had likely been scrapped some time earlier. In August 1961, Harlan Fry of Texas bought the Speedster in this form and kept it for decades. When he passed away, it went to his grandson, who stored it with agricultural equipment in a barn in Grand Rapids, Minn., until the early 2000s. When Ema inspected it there about 20 years ago, he found the car was in good overall shape, but the paint had become weak.

Fry’s grandson offered the Speedster for sale about 20 years ago and found a buyer in Germany. The car was restored there to its current black-and-red paint scheme and retains the Duesenberg-style external exhaust pipe treatment incorporated after Gertler’s initial build.

In 2024, car collectors Ted and Mary Stahl of Chesterfield, Mich., brought the unique Speedster back to American shores. By then, the car’s 20-year restoration had been completed.

“Ed Lucas found it… he had worked in Europe and he heard about it,” Ted recalled.

Although he didn’t see the car in person before buying it, Ted says its purchase was a no-brainer.

“We collect Duesenbergs and boattails, and wow ­— buying that didn’t take any thinking.”

Having been restored in Germany, the Duesenberg-powered Speedster required very little to join the Stahls’ collection.

“All we did was detail it,” Ted said of the Speedster upon acquiring it. “Ed Linn (of EDL Services), who used to be at Brian Joseph’s (Classic and Exotic Service), took the engine out and polished up all the things that were supposed to be polished. Now it’s just a sweet running car.”

Having owned the Duesenberg-powered Auburn Speedster for such a short time, Ted and Mary haven’t yet had a chance to experience the wind in their hair while driving it. Since returning to the United States, it’s been on the show circuit, having re-appeared at the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Club Reunion last fall, and at press time, it was scheduled to appear at the Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals. When it’s not hitting car shows, the Speedster can be seen among the impressive musical machine and vehicle collection at the Stahls Motors and Music Experience (formerly the Stahls Automotive Foundation). However, Ted and Mary love to drive their cars, having been on many Great Race events, and Ted says they have plans to get the Speedster on the open road.

“Mary loves driving cars, especially if they are convertibles,” Ted says. “All of our cars are drivable, and it’s not going to be stowed away in some garage. This won’t be a trailer queen.”

Stahls Motors and Music Experience

The Stahls’ Automotive Foundation is a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization that exists in order to preserve, restore and exhibit specific vintage vehicles of the 20th century for educational purposes. The museum, based in Chesterfield, Mich., features continually changing exhibitions of historically significant cars from the Depression and Art Deco eras, along with mechanical music machines and automobile memorabilia. It also hosts many community events open to the public, including an annual fundraising event honoring and benefiting veterans.

Stahls Motors and Music Experience
www.stahlsauto.com
586-749-1078

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The infamous crash of the 1971 Dodge Challenger pace car into the photographer’s stand at that year’s Indianapolis 500 race didn’t sway Indiana native Mark Winzenread from wanting one of the matching Hemi Orange Challenger convertibles for himself.

“None of the ‘Big Three’ would step up to pace the race that year, and [Dodge dealer Eldon Palmer] organized the area Dodge dealers and they ordered 50 of these Challengers,” Winzenread says. “The truth was Eldon had been practicing where he had to stop the pace car all week and somebody moved the cones (the day of the race) and nobody told him. He came off the track too fast and locked it up. But they were saying the brakes were bad and Chrysler was rebating them $800.”

Winzenread was perfectly content driving his 1966 Plymouth Barracuda in that long ago summer of ’71. But then he spotted at McGinty Dodge of Indianapolis a pair of those Hemi Orange 1971 Challenger convertibles built for use during the Indy 500 and he couldn’t resist.

“I noticed these two pace cars on the showroom floor about a week after the race,” Winzenread says. “I talked my dad into going back there with me. I was 20—you had to be 21 to get a loan.”

The pace car that Palmer had crashed during the race and its backup were the only 383-cid V-8-powered Challengers built for use during the Indy 500, the rest being 318- or 340-cid V-8 cars. McGinty Dodge had one of each on its showroom floor.

“I wanted the 340, of course, and finally my dad said, ‘It’s the 318 or we’re going home,’ and I needed to go along with it, because I needed him for the financing,” Winzenread says.

“That loan surprised me. My two older brothers could destroy cars and it just broke his heart,” Winzenread says. “I didn’t think I would have a chance.”

The 318-powered Challenger at McGinty Dodge was well-optioned with power steering and a power top, radio, heater, the Torqueflite automatic with the Slap Stick gear selector and Rallye wheels. The Hemi Orange Challenger was built with a contrasting white interior and top like the actual pace car and the other cars built for race day.

The agreement that Winzenread made with his father was that he’d pay off the car in two years. Its sticker price was $4,257, and after the $800 rebate and his Barracuda trade-in, his loan came to $111 a month. It was a lot of money for a 20-year-old working at a grocery store, yet being single, Winzenread was comfortable with making the payments.

“I said, ‘I know I won’t be getting married for at least two years,’ and almost a year to the day, Linda and I got married.”

Despite being newlyweds, Winzenread and his wife were able to continue making the hefty payments each month, even through college. They never sold the car and today, they’re probably the only original owners of a Hemi Orange 1971 Challenger convertible built for support duty at the 1971 Indy 500 race.

“A guy was pestering me to buy it, and it was in pretty bad shape, and my wife is the one that told me, ‘You don’t want to sell that.’ I said, ‘I don’t know what I am going to do with it.’

By this time, the Challenger had become a spare car. Winzenread had used it as a daily driver until 1980, when he had finally tired of trying to drive the car during Indiana winters.

“I didn’t really plan to keep it, it was more of an accident that I did,” he says. “When I graduated from college to get my license to be a licensed CPA, I was running around to see clients. One day, I stopped at this four-way stop in this Challenger and I couldn’t get it going. It was like a pig on ice. Then this little old lady goes around me in a Plymouth Horizon and I thought, ‘Well, if I got to be out here fighting ice and snow, I got to get one. So I got a Plymouth Horizon 2+2, a great little car, and just parked the Challenger and it sat that way for several years.”

By 1988, Winzenread figured it was time to restore the now-forlorn Challenger and pulled it out of his garage for some restoration work.

“When the kids came along, I decided I had to have something to do when they were playing in the yard, so I took it apart and took it to a little body shop in the town I live,” Winzenread says. “The guy gave me an estimate for $2,700 to do the body work and repaint it. I already had the replacement rear quarters, and he said it would take about two weeks. Well, two weeks became six months and I got nervous. I drove by the body shop and they had it up on sawhorses and this kid, he couldn’t have been more that 20 years old, he’s drilling these little holes (where he found rust holes) and he’s soldering them with lead and I am thinking, ‘I didn’t pay for this level of restoration.’”

Winzenread had planned to reassemble the Challenger after the body shop painted it, and one bright, sunny day the following April, he received the call that the car was done. When he arrived to pick up the Challenger, he braced himself for a hefty bill.

“They are all standing around it, and I can see these guys are proud of their work,” Winzenread recalled. “[The owner] said, ‘You happened to come along when the guys were tired of insurance work and they wanted something to sink their teeth into. We’ll stick to that $2,700 estimate, but see that Mustang? The owner is going to pay $7,600 for what we did to your car for $2,700.”

After he had the Challenger home, Winzenread began reassembling it and then slowly tackled other aspects of its restoration.

“Every year I would do something to it,” Winzenread says. “One year, it was an all-new Legendary interior. Another year, I sent the dash and door panels to Just Dashes. The hardest part was replacing the dash in July. There are 11 bolts in there, and it’s hot and I am trying to get these 11 bolts out. I think that was the toughest thing.”

About three years ago, Winzenread finally had the original two-barrel 318-cid V-8 rebuilt, and in the process, he had a four-barrel intake and carburetor installed, as well as dual exhaust. The original 318 also received a high-lift cam and electronic ignition.

“The guy that did it, he had been wanting to get his hands on that car for a long time,” Winzenread says. “He builds race engines and said, ‘Do you want it to rumble or roar?’ I said, ‘A rumble would be nice. My wife won’t want it to roar—she’d kill me.’”

The Challenger currently has about 115,000 miles on the odometer, and Winzenread says he’s still not rebuilt its original Torqueflite automatic transmission. Despite the abuses to it with a young driver behind the wheel, Winzenread says the transmission shows no signs of its miles or its age.

“Shortly after I had that car, about a month later, you could go along and drop the transmission into first and punch it and it would stand up on all four wheels and take off. Well, I hadn’t read the owner’s manual on the Slap Stick and I [accidentally] put that thing into ‘Park’ going 70 mph and the thing started rabbit-hopping down the road. I pulled it out [of ‘Park’] and very carefully drove it home. That car has 115,000 miles on it and I finally had the transmission oil changed, but I had never had it changed. That transmission looked as good on the inside as it did when it was new. It was spotless.”

These days, Winzenread goes a little easier on the Challenger than he did in his youth. It’s no longer charged with trips to the office, but rather jaunts to local car shows where Winzenread has to continue fending off hopeful buyers.

“I had taken the car to the Goodyear store to get new tires that I had special ordered,” Winzenread says. “The day before, I had my wife follow me down to drop it off, and I told the tire dealer, ‘As soon as this car is ready, call me—I don’t want it sitting out. When I picked it up, he said, ‘Get that damn thing out of here. Ever since it has shown up, all the guys want to do is talk muscle cars, and I have a guy coming by with a purchase offer.”

Winzenread turned down that offer, of course, and instead, he now throws out a price that he figures is ridiculous enough to scare away all comers. His hope for his Challenger Indy 500 festival car is that it ultimately stays in the Indianapolis area, and in the family. His son currently owns a 2022 Dodge Challenger R/T, and the first-generation Challenger convertible stands tall with the younger-generation coupe.

“What I will probably end up doing is willing it to my son,” Winzenread says. “He keeps assuming he’s going to get it anyway!”

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JANESVILLE, Wis. – In time for its June 16 Father’s Day car show, the Rock County Historical Society plans to put its newly donated 1967 Chevrolet Caprice back on display.

The Caprice represents an historic milestone in General Motors production as the 100 Millionth car produced by the automaker. For many decades, it had been a permanent part of the Sloan Museum of Discovery’s collection in Flint, Mich. Since the Caprice was built at the Chevrolet-Fisher Body assembly plant in Janesville, Wis., the county seat of Rock County, the Sloan Museum donated the Caprice last fall to the Rock County Historical Society.

“We asked if we could borrow it [in 2022]… and then we asked what it would take for it to stay here, and they donated it,” said Daniel Mezera, campus caretaker of the Rock County Historical Society.

The car was officially donated last fall, but isn’t truly the 100 Millionth car—it’s actually number 100,000,001. Three identical cars were built for the celebration marking the occasion, and the fate of the other two, including the actual 100 Millionth car, has been lost.

“They were all built April 5 [1967] and they drove them back and forth to Edgerton,” said Mezera, who studies the history of the Janesville Chevrolet-Fisher Body assembly plant. “The other two kept breaking down and this one didn’t… this one didn’t have the defects, so they stickered it up and on April 21st, 1967, it was part of the celebration.”

The forthcoming exhibit featuring the Caprice will be part of an exhibit showing never-published images taken during the construction and celebration of the car’s completion, as well as original footage of the car rolling down the assembly line.

Mezera says that, during the society’s previous display of the car, many former Janesville employees came to see the car, rekindling memories of their time assembling cars and trucks on the line in Janesville. Some even recalled assembling the actual 100 Millionth car itself.

“A lot of people that had built the car have come through,” Mezera said. “One guy said, ‘I put the fenders on.’ Another said, ‘I put the seats in,’ or ‘I put the air conditioning in.’ I try to treat those people special. We try to keep it as pristine as we can, but we let them sit in the car and have their picture taken. It only has 1,600 miles on it.”

For More Info

Rock County Historical Society
426 N Jackson St.
Janesville, WI 53548
www.rchs.us

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Dirt, salt, moisture and simply time will lead to rust—there doesn’t seem to be any way to get around it. That’s certainly true of a nearly 70-year-old Cadillac from the “rust belt.”

The 1955 Cadillac Coupe deVille featured here was located in an auction advertised last fall in Old Cars’ e-mailed “enewsletter.” A pre-sale inspection of the Wisconsin-based car by 1955 Cadillac authority Rick Payton revealed the Cadillac was complete—including complete with rust—but remained surprisingly solid and buildable considering its age and geographic location. Essentially, it was in what we on the Old Cars staff call “Wisconsin solid” condition (rusty, but not too far gone to restore). After we won the bid for the Cadillac, Payton retrieved it and parked it in his shop, The Classic Garage, in Chippewa Falls, Wis., where body guru Jan Behlke went to work cutting out the rusty metal and welding in new panels that he fabricated. When Behlke is done, the Cadillac will be about as rust-free as when it rolled off the assembly line at the Clark Street Cadillac plant in Detroit.

Like other vehicles, the areas where mid-1950s Cadillacs rust are pretty predictable, and often in the same places as other GM products of the era. Most 1955 Cadillacs have wide lower body trim that traps dirt, salt and moisture against the body’s metal rocker panels and lower rear quarter panels, causing rust to form there. In addition, water running down the rear side windows of coupes seems to drip onto the back of the rear quarter panels, slowly torturing the panel until it rusts through in front of the rear wheel opening. This 1955 Cadillac body had this typical rust-through in both of these areas.

The Classic Garage has cut and welded many 1955 Cadillac bodies into eventual Cadillac & LaSalle Club winners, and with his proximity to us, he was the man for the job. Work started with the passenger rear quarter panel as it was not only rusted but also dented, making it the worst area of the car and most challenging to repair. The following are some of the steps taken to repair the passenger rear quarter panel.

The Classic Garage
720 E Spring St.
Chippewa Falls, WI 54729
715-861-3558 (Shop)
512-484-4501 (Rick Payton, owner)

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