Auburn, Cord and Duesenberg

[Kevin H]

I am categorising some automotive books at present and one of the references I am using has a section titled "Auburn, Cord and Duesenberg" - are all these the same company? (I can't see any other reason why they would put them all under the same category)

[Ashley James]

They are all American but very different in concept and company,
however I believe that Cord and Auburn used Lycoming engines.

Ash

[Dale409]

Yes they were all, ultimately, built by the one company. E L Cord was something of an entrepreneur and purchased Auburn in the '20s when they were having trouble. He introduced the Cord as an additional marque and snapped up Deusenberg from the D brothers when they got into financial strife.

[RGSchmitt]

Hi all -

They were all owned, eventually, by Errett Lobban Cord and there is
great museum (not visited yet) for all in Auburn Indiana. I think
grouping the books together is appropriate.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Errett_Lobban_Cord

Trivia - Long ago, I went to a Dusenberg "seminar" conducted by this
marque's expert, Randy Ema. He mentioned that he purchased all the
assets of the Dusenberg company and the personal assets of Fred &
Augie Dusenberg. Also owns the rights to the Dusenberg name!

Bob

[Rubbond]

I briefly visited the museum which is located in the former Auburn-Cord factory in Auburn, Indiana, in the 1980's when visiting Cooper Tire, whose Head Offices are also in Auburn. Awe inspiring and certainly all three makes were on display then. Beautiful building too - can't remember if the facade was Art Nouveau or Art Deco.
As a schoolboy in England I also remember being allowed to drive a superb white Auburn-Cord Speedster belonging to James Leasor. Not easy to drive as a sixteen year old and I think Duessenburgs are about twice the size!
Andrew Knox.

[Ashley James]

I remember visiting the collection of Duesenburgs in the Imperial
Palace Hotel in Las Vegas about 20 years ago, but I think it's gone
now. It was an astonishing collection.

Ash

[RGSchmitt]

Ash -

I was there about 10 years ago; the "collection" auctions, buys and
sells constantly. Probably a few Duesenbergs are still there:

http://www.autocollections.com/

It's been longer since I've been to Harrah's collection (now the
National Automobile Museum) in Reno, (actually, when Harrah was still
alive), but that was a "Schlumpf-like" experience - a few nice cars,
but also great quantities of ordinary cars. The Nethercutt's two
museums just 20 miles north of Los Angeles is quite good and now
serious about authenticity and well-endowed for the future. Last
summer, we went to the Blackhawk Museum, east of San Francisco. Like
the Nethercutt, it has a beautiful building and is a nice presentation.

I had a great visit to an amazing, private collection of Indy cars a
few months ago, near Corona, California.

Bob