All you need to know about Cord
Born: 1929
Nationality: American
As a marque, it lasted less than a decade. Mechanically, it wasn't remarkable. And just over 2,300 were built. Yet the Cord automobile became an icon of style and achieved a cult status among collectors of American cars from between the wars.
It was named after Erret Lobban Cord, a successful car salesman who persuaded the board of the ailing Auburn Automobile Company in 1924 to let him revive their enterprise. In just five years he had increased sales by a factor of 15 and he owned Auburn as one of a variety of manufacturing companies under his Cord Corporation. These included the Lycoming engine company, a couple of automobile body builders, an airline, and another car company, Duesenberg.
In 1929, though most of his car sales were Auburns and Duesenbergs, E.L. produced the first of the marque that was to bear his own name. The Cord L-29 was unique as the first American production car to have front-wheel-drive. The advantage was that it could be much lower to the ground than other contemporary designs. A very long bonnet gave it a rakish look, and as a striking design it left even Duesenbergs in the shade.
It was unfortunate that a year later saw the Wall Street Crash, and the beginning of the Great Depression that killed the market for flashy cars. Sales slumped, and after struggling along until 1932, the L-29 model was ceased.
Around the same time, Duesenberg's chief stylist, Gordon Buehrig, left to join General Motors. He produced a design for a competition which was innovative and streamlined, but it was rejected by GM's design bosses. It was seen, however, by his old boss at Duesenberg, and he was invited back to build it as a "baby" Duesenberg, as a luxury car for those straitened times.
Just after the first prototype was completed, it was decided that the new car would be a Cord. Again, it was to be front-wheel-drive and would have a new V8 engine produced by Lycoming. Lack of money in the parent Cord Corporation put the model on the shelf until the middle of 1935. When it restarted, there was less than four months to finish development and build enough cars to allow Cord enter them in the 1935 New York Auto Show.
Even though the cars at the show had gearboxes, there were no gears in them, because tooling hadn't been completed. The striking designs were the hit of the show, producing a flood of firm orders, the factory was unable to provide them immediately. Then, when they did roll out, they proved to be troublesome because of the rushed build.
Only 1,174 of that year's model, the 810, were produced. The next year, rebadged as the 812, just 1,146 were made. The beautiful, bug-ridden car was too expensive to make and never made a profit.
The marque ceased in August 1937, and the Auburn Automobile Company itself went bankrupt in December that year. An attempt by the Hupp motor company to build a saleable car using the Cord moulds failed after just 2,200 were built, so even the ersatz Cord disappeared from production in 1940. Oddly enough for a car with such a short life, many were exported to Britain, other parts of Europe, South America and South Africa. Today the Cord is regarded by enthusiasts as one of the greatest classics.
Best Car: Probably the L-29, because of its innovation and reasonable reliability
Worst Car: Any 810/812 . . . but they were the most beautiful cars of their time.
Weirdest Car:
They never got the chance to do one