Category: Gordon Buehrig

The plane-like 1948 TASCO was the first car equipped with a T-top roof – Ronan Glon @Autoblog

The plane-like 1948 TASCO was the first car equipped with a T-top roof – Ronan Glon @Autoblog

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One of the Chevrolet Corvette’s most popular features traces its roots to an obscure, airplane-like prototype built in 1948. Although the third-generation ‘Vette is widely credited as being the first production car equipped with a T-top roof, the system was inaugurated by Gordon Buehrig’s one-of-a-kind TASCO prototype and patented in 1951.

Born in 1904, Buehrig was an accomplished stylist and engineer whose resume included the Auburn 851 Speedster, the coffin-nosed Cord 810/812, and several variants of Duesenberg’s Model J. Shortly after World War II, he was commissioned by The American Sports Car Company (TASCO) to create — you’ll get no points for guessing this — an American sports car. He drew a two-seater with a long hood and a short deck, proportions associated with grand tourers, but he injected an unusually large dose of aerospace DNA into the design.

Read on

Note from Editor

I actually saw this car a few years ago along with a lot of other Buehrig artefacts at the Auburn Cord Duesenberg museum in Auburn Indiana link here

 

 

Automotive Design Oral History Project – The Reminiscences of Gordon Buehrig

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This is an excellent interview with Gordon Buehrig from back in 1989 carried out as part of the Automotive Oral History Project.

Cord 810

Some of the cars designed by  Gordon Buehrig were the Stutz Black Hawk, Auburn 851 Boattail Speedster, Duesenberg J, Duesenberg J, 1956 Lincoln Continental Mark II, and, perhaps the car he’s most known for, the Cord 810/812. He also invented the removable T-top, patented in 1951

I’ve actually visited the excellent ACD Museum in Auburn Indiana and there is a display of Buehrig artefacts.

The Buehrig interview is here

 

 

 

Don’t call it a replica: Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg working on third-generation Auburn Boat Tail – Hemmings Daniel Strohl

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Those of you who read the blog will know that anything ACD, (Auburn Cord Duesenberg), are amongst my favourite vehicles.

I was lucky enough to visit the ACD Museum a few years ago to see a lot of  the original factory and artifacts in Auburn Indiana.

Daniel Strohl at Hemmings has written an article about the latest incarnation of the Auburn Boat Tail Speedster.

Glenn Pray followed by his son Doug along with the ACD Museum have kept the brands in the public consciousness over the years

You can Daniels article here

 

 

 

Here are some of the previous posts around the ACD and the Prays’

Shay, Pray and the Replica Car Movement Part 1
Shay, Pray and the Replica Car Movement Part 2
Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum (originally published in 2008)

 

Favourite Cars – Cord 810/812

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A few years ago we visited the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum in Auburn Indiana.

The museum is situated on the site of the old factory, design centre and superb Art Deco showroom.

Very prominent at the ACD were a number of my favourite Cord 810/812 cars and various other artifacts.

The Cord 810, and later Cord 812, was an luxury automobile produced by the Cord Automobile division of the Auburn Automobile Company in 1936 and 1937. It was the first American-designed and built front wheel drivecar with independent front suspension. It followed the 1934 Citroën Traction Avant and the Cord L-29, both of which also had front wheel drive. Both models were also the first to offer hidden headlights.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, read on here

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Cord Complete – A Study of the Cord 810 and 812 Automobile

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My favourite classic cars of all time are the Cord 810/812’s

This was increased after we visited the Auburn Cord Duesenberg museum in Auburn Indiana a few years ago.

An excellent book was written by the late Josh B. Malks called Cord Complete It was his second book on the subject, his first: Cord 810/812 – The Timeless Classic has become a classic itself. Details of the book can be found here on the excellent “Old Motor” online magazine. The ACD museum site is on this link.

It’s a wonderful place with an amazing Art Deco Showroom and a lot of the original artefacts from the days of Gordon Buehrig and E.L.Cord

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Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum (originally published in 2008)

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The Art Deco Showroom

A picture from the stairs showing an excellent view of the car and the original showroom floor.

Original Clay Model From The Thirties!

Displays of other vehicles that used to be built in the area, such as Studebaker
The preserved building sign outside the showroom in Auburn

As part of our road trip we visited the fantastic Auburn Cord Dusenberg Museum in Auburn IL

http://www.acdmuseum.org/

The museum has a fantastic display of all three marques (and other cars), and is sited at the old factory and showroom. The showroom is particularly interesting, it has been restored to it’s former art deco glory. The entrance fee is very low and the whole thing is maintained by enthusiasts.

The original offices of E.L.Cord and the design offices have been restored.

There is an excellent Gordon Buehrighttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Buehrig exhibit and also his clay models and drawings are on display along with those of the various designers of the three marques.

An excellent museum, well worth a visit!

Whilst we were there we watched the Ben Stiller film “Tropic Thunder” which was really funny.
Strange thing was there were only four people in the cinema including us, during the show the weather was so bad there was a power cut. The reason it was so quiet was that the cinema had only been open for a few days. We stayed at an any excellent Hampton Inn (also brand new) and ate at a Buffalo Wild Wings (very frendly, good food, again brand new) All three were next to each other on a new development just outsise Auburn.