The Lost Car of the INternet

[balthazar]

You're supposed to be able to find anything on the web, but I have searched a few times for this one car and come up empty (looking for pics). Maybe one of you guys knows where it is.

There have been, I believe, 4 proposals for a 'new' Duesenberg to date (excluding 'classic repros').

This is the latest, the '06 'Torpedo' (frankly, it's hideous):

Here's the '66, which came the closest to production; reportedly 50 were sold, but only 1 was built before legal issues cropped up and things were shut down. The prototype exists in fine shape at the A-C-D museum:

This was a '63 proposal from Virgil Exner (he also proposed a number of other 'renewal' classics). Never built:

This one shows up if you search for 1958/1959 Duesenberg. Built on a '51 Packard chassis and titled as a 1930 for some unknown reason:

-- --- -- --- --

Now... what I am searching for is NONE of the above, but sketches of a design done in/intended for '59, a 2-dr hardtop with a 'flying buttress' roof design that bears some resemblences to the '66 Exner design. Exner may well have penned it. Anyone seen it anywhere?

Edited July 30, 2007 by balthazar

[Hudson]

I wrote an article one time on the post-WWII history of the Duesenberg brand. There were no fewer than three "production" Duesenbergs including the 1959 (built by a nephew of the original Duesenbergs) and the 1966. There was also a rebodied late 1970s Cadillac badged as a Duesenberg (can't tell you how many, if any, were sold). And, of course, the truck-based Duesenberg II.

[balthazar]

Right: that one was built off a stretched Fleetwood Brougham and billed as a 1980, I believe- I forgot about that one. I seem to recall only -again- 1 was built. I have an article on it in my files somewhere....

No pics of the '59 then, Hudson??

[balthazar]

I found the sketch of the '59 in a book I already have- perhaps that's the only spot I ever saw it.

Interesting thing is, the illustration bears no resmeblense to what the text describes, which is the Mike Kollins-built roadster on a 1950 Packard chassis... or the tan & brown job pictured above. Illustration shows a 2-dr hardtop with long flying buttress C-pillars and chiseled lines- very modern for '59.

Sounds like the guy who proposed the '59 built the "1930" instead (same name: Kollins). A shame- the '59 looked damned sharp from the drawing.

[Drew Dowdell]

Why do they all have to be so hideous?

Duesenberg could be the American version of Bugatti.

I'd love to see the resurrection of the entire company so I could get myself a Cord 810 or an Auburn boattail.

[Sixty8panther]

Or Cadillac could have the American Bugatti/RR/Bentley if they ever built the damn SIXTEEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Balthazar: I'll poke around for you...

[Sixty8panther]

Oh and before I forget, what is that giant machine in your Sig?

[Drew Dowdell]

Or Cadillac could have the American Bugatti/RR/Bentley if they ever built the damn SIXTEEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'd rather Cadillac be Cadillac. It doesn't need to be anything else.

[XP715]

Oh and before I forget, what is that giant machine in your Sig?

*bump*

...... I've been wondering that myself. It looks like it could kick the ass of that giant steam-powered iron spider from Wild Wild West (and from the same era too!).

[Sixty8panther]

The SIXTEEN is more of a Cadillac than anything ever made after 1979.

[balthazar]

The monster in my current sig:

>>"The biggest tank was built in Russia in 1915, too (the designer - Lebedenko). It was the ugly and huge tricycle monster, weighing some 40t; the forward wheels were almost of 10m in diameter! The multuply armament emplaced in the left and right sponsors, and upper (bigger) and lower (smaller) turrets. It was powered by 2x240hp engines. The tank failed the tests. "<<

When Cadillac applied itself fully ('30 V-16, '57-58 Brougham), it handily eclipsed all it's competition, without question including bugatti, rolls & bentley. You should read some of Bentley's evaluation of the V-16- he was very impressed. The only exception I can see is the Duesenberg, based on it's extreme performance capabilities. Then again, the Caddy had 165 HP, Duesey had 320 & 400. The '57 EB had no superior.

Like I said above, Sixty8, I did find a side-view sketch in a book I have- I don't hold hope of finding anything more, but that's why I posted this: more eyes & fingers are always better.