It's a Doozie - The History of the Duisenberg Automobile Classic Motor Car

It can be said that many of the greatest things in lifedriver was the Model A tourer. The Model A "Tourer"
start off with humble beginnings. So is it with thehas been dated for the year 1920. It can be rightly
Duisenberg Motor car. You may have heard thesaid with truthfulness as well as knowledge that the
expression off times - "That's a Doozie" or "It's aDuisenberg road cars were more than heavily based
Doozie". These are all references to a great car andon the knowledge and expertise gained from auto
car automaker of renown - the Duisenberg.racing itself and were excellent examples of
The Duisenberg began its life as theadvanced engineering and automotive mechanical
Auburn-Cord-Duisenberg. Ernest Lobban Cord begantechnologies of the time. The Duisenberg automotive
his career in the automobile industry in a most humbleproduct line quickly established a more than solid and
manner - as a simple repairer of model T Ford cars. Itwell earned reputation on the roads just as the
could be said that this start of the Duisenberg lineDuisenberg racing cars had collected a bevy of speed
met with even fairly mixed fortunes. - Mr. Cord saidand racing records. Amazingly the Duisenberg racing
to have become a millionaire three separate timesgroup had taken the venerable race wins of
even before he reached the ripe and experiencedIndianapolis in the years 1924, 1925 and 1927.
age of 21 - losing his entire fortune fully each of theIt can be said that Mr. Cord's tough leadership and
three times. Finally at the ripe old age of 30 yearsempire-building ambitions had brought a most vital had
and with lasting and real wealth,, Mr. Cord joined thebrought a most effective combine into being and
failing Auburn company as its "general manager".,Auburn-Cord -Duisenberg proceeded to flourish in no
bought a substantial share in the company anduncertain terms. Unfortunately Cord's timing was
proceeded to bring Auburn back onto the path ofparticularly bad and all of his projects reached fruition
financial security and wealth.in the same fateful year - 1929, the same year as
Aside from being obviously a clever engineer himself,the great stock market "crash". Miller, himself,
Cord had the greatest ability and abilities to spotpatented his version of "Front Wheel Drive"
great talents and talents in others. As a result heThe following year - 1929 - in which for the first time
spotted, hired and employed such classic notablesthe Cord nameplate itself was used - the L29 was
and famous legends in the automobile trades asintroduced and released for sale. Designed by Carl
Gordon Buehrig, Harry Miller and Count Alexis devan Ranst , it carried Miller's front axle setup. Next in
Sakhnoffsky. Next Mr. Cord promptly bought controlline were such speedy and flighty cars as the Auburn
of the Lycoming engine plant and the DuisenbergSpeedster which was had the distinction of being the
Company itself.first car line that stated and guaranteed that each
The Deisenberg brothers, Fred and August hadcar had been individually been speed tested to 100
originally begun by actually making bicycles in theirmiles per hour.
adopted "home town" of Des Moines Iowa, beforeHence the Duisenberg reputation as fine motor cars
going into the sport of motor racing, building theirof great speed as well as beauty was born, cultured
first racing car in 1903. The Duisenberg Companyand maintained. It's no accident that the name
itself was formed in 1912 to build race cars, and theirDuisenberg carries such a reputation and notoriety
success led inevitably to the manufacture of standardamong car aficionados.
road cars. The first of the Duisenberg line ofThe expression "It's a Doozie" has been well earned.
standard motor cars for the road and non-racing a