Concours d'Elegance of America, Plymouth, Michigan, July 30, 2017: Part Nine--Murphy of Pasadena

The Walter M. Murphy Company of Pasadena, California, was a coachbuilding firm that constructed bodies for some of the best cars in the world from 1920 until 1932.  It is particularly noted for its spectacular work on Duesenberg Model J chassis, producing around 125 bodies for that make, or around one-quarter of all that were produced.  Given the high survival rate of Duesenbergs, many of the Murphy-bodied cars still exist.

The "Class MP" at the Concours d'Elegance of America was a tribute to Murphy's work and included other luxury brands as well although the full range of Murphy products would merit a car show by itself.  According to www.coachbuilt.com, "Murphy is known to have built on Bentley, Bugatti, Buick, Cadillac, Cord, Crane-Simplex, Doble, Dorris, Duesenberg, Essex, Ford, Hispano-Suiza, Hudson, Isotta- Fraschini, Lincoln, Locomobile, Marmon, Mercedes-Benz, Mercer, Minerva, Packard, Peerless, Pierce-Arrow, Rolls-Royce, and Simplex chassis."  We were fortunate as we arrived to see many of the cars being driven.

1929 Duesenberg J Sport Sedan

One of the rarest bodies built by Murphy, this short wheelbase Sport Sedan is one of two built in 1929, with both still extant.  Murphy generally did not use the "V" windshield, which is typical of coachbuilt sport sedans of this era.  The body makes extensive use of aluminum, with only the fenders and side aprons being of steel.  There is a wood internal structure and the trunk and top are leather dyed to match the colour of the car.

1930 Duesenberg J Roadster

This classic Duesenberg is owned by publishing magnate Keith Crain and we spoke with the gentleman driving it and his wife who were dressed for the end of the Jazz Age.  He looks after Crain's extensive car collection but said that the owner has issues now with shifting a heavy clutch like that on the Model J.  And as beautiful as the Duesy is, he said it drives like a heavy truck.

1932 Duesenberg J Boattail Speedster

We had previously seen this car in Auburn, where it had pride of place at the Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg Museum.  J-476 was originally purchased by Cliff Durant, the colourful son of General Motors founder Billy Durant.  Cliff was a racing driver, pilot, businessman and a talented musician, owning a Cremona violin, a Guarneri del Gesu.  He was married four times.  Durant sold the Duesenberg after only brief ownership to oil tycoon John Paul Getty, who eventually sold it to novelist John O'Hara.  The car wound up with a collector who drove it over 100,000 miles and donated it to the museum.  The Murphy body is one of only a few examples of boattail styling on a Duesenberg, extravagant but particularly massive.

1932 Lincoln KB Dual Cowl Phaeton

This car was the Murphy display car at the Los Angeles Auto Show when new and was sold through a distributor in Long Beach, California in 1932.  The car, in the current owner's possession since 1995, has not been shown publicly for two decades.

1932 Packard Twin Six Convertible Sedan

Brought from America's Packard Museum in Dayton, Ohio, this Twin Six marked the return of the 12 cylinder engine to the Packard line-up as the original Twin Six was made from 1916 to 1923.  In 1933 it was renamed the Twelve.  The engine made 160 hp and 311 lb-ft of torque.  This car was owned by noted speedboat racer Gar Wood, the first man to exceed 100 miles per hour in a boat.

1932 Cadillac 452 Convertible Sedan

This magnificent V16 Cadillac was built for Charles Howard, a successful Buick dealer in California who also served as a General Motors Vice President.  He is perhaps better known as a prominent breeder of thoroughbred horses and owner of the great racehorse Seabiscuit.  There was no bare chassis V16 available when Howard wanted one, so he bought the least expensive factory car and had Murphy discard the body in favour of this one-off, which includes an extra rear passenger windshield, giving the effect of a dual cowl phaeton when the top is down.

1932 Duesenberg J Convertible Victoria

1931 Duesenberg J Beverly Sedan

The Beverly was designed by Gordon Buehrig, and is believed to have been his personal favourite.  The windshield design is unique to the Beverly and only eight Murphy-bodied examples were built.  This is one of only four that retains the original body and drivetrain.  The engine block, crankshaft and rods are marked as J-468.

1929 Duesenberg J Dual Cowl Phaeton

The dual cowl phaeton is considered one of the most ostentatious styles of the great era of coachbuilt autos due to its requirement for exceptional length and limited seating.  This car was first owned by Samuel "Roxy" Rothafel, the cinema tycoon famous for his movie palaces, including the Radio City Music Hall. The current owner purchased the car in 1954, negotiating the price down from the initially requested $4,000, and drives it regularly.  It was recently underwent a full restoration.

1929 Duesenberg J Clear Vision Sedan

Murphy built five Clear Vision Sedans, employing the distinctive bronze windshield frame used on the company's open cars, with the thin pillars allowing for excellent forward visibility,further enhanced by the large rear and rear quarter windows.  All five of the Clear Vision cars (of which four still remain) were different and this particular car was owned by aviation pioneer Harold Pitcairn, a founder of what became Eastern Airlines and a developer of rotary-winged aircraft with his autogiros.  The Duesenberg is one of the few from the factory equipped with overdrive.

Continue to Part Ten here

Concours d'Elegance of America, Plymouth, Michigan, July 30, 2017: Part Eight--Auburn/Cord/Lincoln Motor Cars

"Class C" at the Coucours d'Elegance of America was devoted to one of our favourite (albeit doomed) car companies, featuring two of the three brands of the Auburn Automobile Company, namely Auburn and Cord.  That such a smallish company from a little town in Indiana could produce some of the most striking designs ever offered by an American car manufacturer never fails to impress and it is always a pleasure to admire these cars from the high point of Moderne design.

1930 Cord L-29

Introduced in 1930, the Cord was the first mass-production front-wheel drive car by an American manufacturer and its lowered ride height and elegant coachwork went some way towards making up for its rather lacklustre performance.  This was the most popular body style, a cabriolet produced for Cord by the Limousine Body Company of Kalamazoo, Michigan, and styled by Cord's designer Al Leamy.  The car, powered by a 125hp Lycoming straight-eight engine, weighed 4,300 and listed new for $3,295.  L-29 production, which ran from 1930 to 1932, totalled 5,010 cars.

1932 Auburn 8-100A Speedster

Only 75 of the Al Leamy-designed Speedsters were built in 1932 by Auburn.  This particular car actually began life as a sedan but was rebodied with a Speedster body from the Union Body Company, which supplied in-the-white bodies to Auburn.  The 8-100A  was powered with a 100 hp Lycoming and featured a three speed transmission coupled to a two speed differential rear axle, providing appropriate gearing for city driving as well as the open road.

1932 Auburn 8-100A Phaeton

Yet another handsome Al Leamy design, the Phaeton was powered by the same 100hp engine as the Speedster above and sold new for a mere $975, an indication of the effect the Great Depression was having on car prices.  While 1931 was Auburn's best year, with 28,000 cars sold, but a year later only 11,646 were produced and the company began to lose money.  By 1932 sales had plunged to 6,000 and by 1936 no more Auburns were produced.

1935 Auburn 851 SC Phaeton

Using the same 150hp supercharged engine as the more famous Auburn Speedster, with the supercharger adding $220 to the cost of the car, the handsome Phaeton, a reworking of an unsuccessful Al Leamy design by Gordon Buehrig, offered excellent styling, good performance and a bargain price (although the highest for an Auburn four door that year) of $1,725. the company was on the rocks financially at this point.  This car was the top of the line model and included the Columbia dual ratio rear axle.

1935 Auburn 851 Coupe

With the restyling of the Auburn line in 1935, no money was available to develop a coupe body style so the designers simply took the cabriolet model and added a padded top over a wooden frame.  These are quite rare models.  This car was restored by the owner himself from a basket case after acquisition in 1975 and then subsequently re-restored in 1995 by the same owner to its current condition and then presented to his granddaughter.

1935 Auburn 851 Speedster

1936 Cord 810

The magnificent swan song of the Auburn Automobile Company, the Cord 810, designed on the cheap by Gordon Buehrig--the stylish holes in the hubcaps were actually a measure to reduce heat from the brakes!--the coffin-nose Cord is a landmark of auto design.  In addition to its front-wheel drive, the car offered independent front suspension and a semi-automatic four-speed transmission.  In 1937 the 812 model offered supercharging as an option.  While the 810 was a sensation at the New York Auto Show in 1935, production problems hampered sales to only 1,174 cars in the first model year and subsequent reliability problems cooled the initial enthusiasm.  Unsold cars were re-labelled as 1937 models and given the 812 designation but when production ended in 1937 only around 3,000 Cord 810/812s had been produced.

Coming from Oakville, the headquarters of Ford of Canada, our family naturally thought that Lincolns were the top of the automotive heap in the 1960s and 1970s, although we never did have one.  At the Concours, there were two classes for Lincolns, pre-World War II and post-War.

1927 Lincoln L Coupe

Founded by Henry Leland in 1917, the Lincoln Motor Company, which was better at engineering than styling, was on the ropes by 1922, when it was purchased by the Ford Motor Company and Henry Ford's son Edsel put in charge.  The "L" was the first Lincoln developed under Ford auspices, although using an engine derived from Leland's work, and this particular car was fitted with a custom Opera Coupe body by coachbuilder Judkins of Merrimac, Massachusetts.  1927 marked the first year that four-wheel brakes were made standard on Lincolns and the company guaranteed that its cars were capable of 70 mph.  Prior to the current owner, who purchased the car in 2013 and has driven it on tours extensively, the car was in possession of one family for more than forty years and had been restored when it first came into their ownership.

1930 Lincoln L Type 172 Berline

1930 marked the final year of Lincoln L production and this sedan, a Berline by J.B. Judkins, features safety glass in its steeply raked windshield.  Judkins was noted for the Berline style and build over 3,000 examples for various car companies between 1922 and 1939.

1933 Lincoln KB Convertible

The 12 cylinder KB was Lincoln's first foray into the V12 market in 1932 and the following year became the first car producer to manufacture exclusively V12 cars when it dropped its straight-8 version.  The very expensive KB was offered in no fewer than 26 body styles from 17 different coachbuilders and this car was a Five Passenger Convertible Coupe made by the Hermann A. Brunn coachworks and is one of only three known to survive from a run of 15 cars.  In all, only 533 KBs were built in 1933 due to the economic circumstances.  The K-series would soldier on in tiny numbers as a halo car for Lincoln until 1939, although displaced by the more popular and practical Zephyr and Continental models.

1933 Lincoln KB Convertible Coupe by LeBaron

1934 Lincoln Convertible Victoria by Brunn

1932 Lincoln KA Town Sedan

This KA, powered by a Leland-derived V8 engine of 120 hp, features a Town Sedan body by the Murray Corporation, a major supplier of bodies to the Ford Motor Company from 1925 until 1939, including many for the Ford Model A.

1935 Lincoln K Series 541 Coupe  by LeBaron

1937 Lincoln K Touring Car

Weighing in at over 3 tons, this seven-passenger touring car by coachbuilder Willoughby of Utica, New York, was meant for Lincoln's most elite clientele.  Powered by a V12 engine, it sits on a 145 inch wheelbase. This particular example, one of two known to survive from seven built, was used as a parade car for the Governor of California and features innovative styling features for the period, such as the faired-in headlights and steep "V" windshield.  It listed for $5,500 when new.

1940 Lincoln Continental Cabriolet

1947 Lincoln Continental Cabriolet

Considered to be the brainchild of Edsel Ford, the Lincoln Continental came about as a custom car based on Lincoln Zephyr underpinnings, for Edsel to drive in Florida.  People were enthusiastic about its European-type styling and the car went into production in 1939 and 1940, with 350 being build in both cabriolet and coupe versions.  The design was squared off a bit subsequently but production came to a halt in 1942 with the advent of World War II.  Continentals were again on the market from 1946 to 1948 but its looks were marred by a big chrome-slathered grille, ruining the original car's simple and elegant lines.  The Continental was to be the last American car offered with a V12 engine.

1951 Lincoln Cosmopolitan Convertible

The Cosmpolitan was a full-size luxury car produced from 1949 to 1954 and shared its V8 engine with Ford's heavy truck line.  The car was considered the top-level Lincoln and was available in four door and two door versions, as well as the convertible.  Power windows and seats were standard equipment in 1951.  Modified Cosmopolitans were used as Presidential State Cars by Truman and Eisenhower.

1956 Continental Mk II

Not actually a Lincoln but clearly meant to invoke the style of the 1939 Edsel Ford custom, the Mk II was produced by the Continental Division of the Ford Motor Company between 1955 and 1957 as its only product.  Unveiled at the Paris Auto Show in 1955, it was the most expensive car produced in America at its introduction.  It weighed 5,000 lbs and was powered by a 285 hp V8 (upgraded to 300 hp in 1957). Only 3,005 of the handbuilt Mk IIs were sold and it is estimated that Ford lost $1,000 on each sale but achieved its goal of demonstrating it could build a quality car to the highest standards in the world.  Ford re-entered the luxury personal car market in 1969 with the Lincoln Continental Mk III, which was less expensive but offered some of the same styling features.  Around half of the Mk IIs built are still extant.

1964 Lincoln Continental Sedan

Introduced in 1961, the suicide-door Lincoln Continental is considered a modern classic.  This car, which we had previously seen at the "Eye on Design" show in Dearborn, is probably the most original one there is as it has only 1,700 miles on it.  The car is fully equipped for the period, boasting air conditioning, a transistorized radio with a power antenna and a power trunk release.  It is powered by a 7 litre (430 cu in) V8, putting out 320 hp and 465 lb-ft of torque.  Fuel consumption for this 5,258 lb car is an unsurprising 9.7 mpg (US).

Continue to Part Nine here