The Duesenberg Model J Successor Prototype
1936 Cord E-300 Experimental Disappearing Top Cabriolet

288.6ci L-Head Supercharged V-8
2-Barrel Stromberg Carburetor, Schwitzer-Cummins Centrifugal Supercharger
170bhp at 4,200rpm
4-Speed Preselector Manual Transmission
Transverse Leaf Spring Independent Front Suspension, Leaf Spring Live Rear Axle
4-Wheel Hydraulic Drum Brakes

* Functional prototype for a Duesenberg Model J successor
* Bodied by LeBaron with details by Buehrig, Newport and Tremulis
* Unique style among five proposed LeBaron-built prototypes
* Meticulously restored in original colors
* Never shown or judged


CORD E-300 EXPERIMENTAL PROTOTYPE

1929 was a record year for E.L. Cord with over 22,000 cars produced across his Auburn, Cord and Duesenberg marques. Wall Street's Black Tuesday Crash of October 29, 1929 came late in the year and had little effect on the full year results.

1930 on the other hand was brutal. Sales plummeted to under 14,000 cars. Profits evaporated. Auburn, Cord's moderately priced volume leader, retrenched, dropping all but its Lycoming straight eight powered 8-98. Cord's Front Drive (L-29) was introduced only two months before Black Tuesday and never sold more than a couple thousand cars a year. And the incomparable Duesenberg Model J sold in minute quantities to an exclusive market.

1931, however, saw fortunes reverse, now under the umbrella of the Cord Corporation. Auburn sales of the 8-98 took off to over 34,000 units. Sales and profits hit records. E.L. Cord was hailed as a genius businessman. Cord and his managers shook off the malaise of the early 30's and looked for new opportunities.

One of those was a new, rationalized and less expensive Duesenberg that would take advantage of the Model J's exalted reputation while being accessible to a larger audience. It started life as experimental project E-277, later being reframed as project E-300 of which two prototypes (of five built) are known to survive. One of them is the car offered.


THE CAR OFFERED

Originally framed under project E-277 as a long wheelbase luxury car with power from a large displacement Lycoming BB L-head V-12, the E-277's mass made even more power necessary. The project added supercharging to deal with that and to make tangible the connection between it and supercharged Duesenberg racing car engines. Company engineering documents that survive support an estimate of 250 brake horsepower from 491 cubic inches.

Project E-277 was intended to be a major manifestation of Auburn Cord Duesenberg engineering, much more than badge engineering. Important features like four-wheel independent suspension were seriously considered, costed and engineered.

The company placed an order with coachbuilder LeBaron for five prototype bodies. Delivered in 1935, they were traditional coachwork constructed with hand-shaped panels over wood frames. By then, however, financial reality and the press to design, engineer, tool, and build the Cord 810 in a last-ditch attempt to salvage the company took priority. Project E-277 was shelved.

The hiatus lasted only a short time. When E.L. Cord during one of his increasingly infrequent visits to Auburn, Indiana spotted the five fully trimmed and painted prototype bodies from LeBaron he asked for them to be completed with at least one earmarked for his personal use. There was no time, or money, to complete the V-12 chassis but the engineers and designers in Auburn were creative, ingenious and skilled at adaptive reuse of components on hand.

It was likely at about this time that engineering project E-277 became E-300. It quickly took shape but instead of using the Lycoming V-12 the prototype chassis were shortened and a complete Cord 810 front subframe and drive train were welded on. The more compact and largely self-contained Cord 810 front wheel drive V-8 drivetrain resulted in a chassis wheelbase shortened by nearly a foot.

Two known survivors and photographic evidence shows that chassis were completed with all five LeBaron prototype bodies: 7-passenger limousine, Berline sedan (E.L. Cord's choice), fastback sedan, phaeton sedan (convertible sedan) and cabriolet. Fenders and bodywork forward of the firewalls were designed and fabricated in Auburn using repurposed Cord 810 components with conventionally styled radiator grilles, 810 fenders with crank-operated retracting headlights. The rear fenders also were Cord 810-origin lengthened to complement the longer wheelbase design.

The design team in Auburn had some of the most gifted and visionary designers and stylists in the American automobile industry. Gordon Buehrig, Herb Newport, Phil Wright and LeBaron designer Ralph Roberts were prolific and forward-thinking visionaries who shaped many of the classic era's most innovative designs. Alex Tremulis, who arrived at Auburn in the early Thirties, learned his craft and refined his eye in the atelier of these visionaries. They led, collaborated, sketched and laid out the E-300 project's coachwork even though they were limited by resources and finances to using available components.

Tremulis contributed the grille, suggested by some as being a representation of the grilles used by the racing cars of Fred and Augie Duesenberg. While fenders came directly from Cord 810 parts supply the designers added running boards that tapered into the front fenders and related visually to the familiar classic coachwork of the Duesenberg Model J. Chrome-trimmed longitudinal hood side vents resolved engine compartment cooling with a hint of Buehrig's Cord 810 hood. A particularly effective detail is the vestigial spline down the body's rear deck cover. A clever feature is the integrated folding top and rear deck top boot cover, an ingenious mechanism probably initiated by LeBaron that foretold "revolutionary" folding top systems of the 1980's and 90's.

Both surviving Experimental E-300 Cord Prototypes used FC-series centrifugally supercharged 289 cubic inch engines that made 170hp in Cord 812s. Both use standard Cord 810/812 pre-selector 4-speed manual transmissions. The Harrah Collection documented the history of its Cord Experimental Berline in its usual thorough and transparent way including interviews with E.L. Cord and his son, Charlie and E.L. Cord stated two of the experimental cars were crashed and destroyed. The fate of the last of the five is unknown.

After Cord Corporation's 1937 receivership this LeBaron cabriolet became the property of company president Lucius B. Manning. Manning, who one prior owner of this delectable cabriolet noted, "was known to be more fond of a sharp pencil than leather and steel" became president of America Airlines, bringing the E-300 Cabriolet with him to Chicago. Later owners include an unnamed woman in Florida, Arthur Medlor in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, Wilbur Sanders in Michigan, Thel Horn also in Michigan and then John Baeke's father from whom it passed to Baeke. The present owner acquired it in 2013.

Contemporary photos in the 1950s show it to have been in badly deteriorated and neglected condition but largely complete and a succession of owners through the middle of the last century while not knowing its history appreciated its style, design and uniqueness, a car they appreciated as special without knowing why.

The present owners began restoration, taking extreme efforts to document and reproduce the original paint colors from under brackets, the body tag and bolted joints. Similar efforts went into reproducing the original upholstery, carpet and top materials and colors. These efforts are documented in an extensive library of restoration photographs. In addition, a voluminous file of original document copies from the period and engineering analysis of materials, costs, component availability and accounting of obsolete inventory compiled by former owner Dr. John Baeke is an insightful recounting of the engineering and financial efforts of a company in extremis and responsibly trying to prolong its viability.

Resplendent in a distinctive red livery with hints of orange tint, the interior is beige leather matching the top cloth color. The engine, chassis, frame, and undercarriage are restored to concours condition. The instrument panel, with its engine-turned finish, is populated by an array of clear, crisp gauges. Elaborately grained wood embellishes the dashboard and door cappings, a flourish that highlights LeBaron's craftsmanship.

The restoration was completed in 2021 and has never been shown, displayed, or exhibited, giving the next owner the opportunity to expand upon its unique history, design, style and performance. It is a magnificent, beautiful, singular automobile derived from some of the most creative, innovative, ingenious minds of the classic era: E.L. Cord, Gordon Buehrig, Herb Newport, Alex Tremulis, Phil Wright and Ralph Roberts of LeBaron, Harold Ames of Duesenberg.

It is, in the true meaning of the word, unique.