Cord was a brand of American luxury automobile manufactured by the Auburn Automobile Company of Connersville, Indiana, from 1929 to 1932 and again in 1936 and 1937.

Auburn was wholly owned by the Cord Corporation, founded and run by E. L. Cord as a holding company for his many transportation interests (which included the Lycoming engines, Stinson aircraft, and Checker Motors). Cord was noted for its innovative technology and streamlined designs.

Innovations

Cord innovations include front-wheel drive on the L-29 and hidden headlamps on the 810 and 812.

Though DeSoto used them in 1942, hidden headlamps did not reappear as a luxury feature until the 1960s, beginning with the 1963 Chevrolet Corvette. It was followed two years later by another General Motors product, the Buick Riviera, whose GM stylists later stated they were trying to capture the "feel" of the Cord's design.

"Servo" shifting was accomplished through a Bendix electro-vacuum pre-selector mechanism (a type of electromechanical shifting).

Cord L-29

thumb|A 1929 L-29 Phaeton on display at the [[2005 United States Grand Prix]]

This was the first American front-wheel drive car to be offered to the public, beating the Ruxton automobile by several months, in 1929. The brainchild of former Miller engineer Cornelius Van Ranst, its drive system borrowed from the Indianapolis 500-dominating racers, using the same de Dion layout and inboard brakes. While commonly used today in all front-wheel-drive vehicles, their first use was on the 1929 Cord. The lack of rear drivetrain components and straight frame (without rear kick-up to clear up the rear axle) allowed it to be much lower in height than competing cars whose average height was about six feet or almost two metres. Both stock cars and special bodies built on the Cord chassis by American and European coachbuilders won prizes in contests worldwide. The L-29 came with full instrumentation, including a temperature gauge, oil pressure gauge, and speedometer on the left with a gas gauge, oil level gauge, and ammeter on the right of the steering wheel. In all, Cord managed to sell only 1,174 of the new 810 in its first model year. Following the Second World War, Winslow sold rights to the Duesenberg brand but retained Auburn and Cord.

Glenn Pray replicas (1960-1966)

In 1960, the rights to the Auburn-Cord name were purchased from Winslow by school shop teacher Glenn Pray, with financial backing from Chevrolet dealer Wayne McKinley. Feeling he could make money selling spare parts to fellow enthusiasts (many of whom he knew personally), Pray firstly used the newly formed company to sell such parts, before moving on to replica automobile production.

In 1964, Pray's company began manufacturing the Cord 8/10, so named because it was an 8/10 scale replica of the original Cord 810. Designed with the assistance of Gordon Buehrig, the car was based on the drivetrain of a rear-engine Chevrolet Corvair, albeit rotated around, allowing the new Cord to be front-wheel-drive. The body was constructed from a plastic known as Royalite, through a partnership with U.S Rubber who were looking for a way to promote their new composite material. Corbell intended to begin production with the Cord Model III, a luxury reverse-trike featuring a 180-horsepower V4 motorcycle engine from Motus Motorcycles, before moving on to a more conventional four-wheeled replica resembling the Cord 810/812 models, albeit incorporating modern design and technology. Corbell later cancelled the project however, and the rights to the Cord name were offered for auction again in 2019.

In the novel Live and Let Die, Felix Leiter drives a Cord of unspecified model when he and James Bond are in Florida.

In the 1994 film The Shadow, Moses Shrevnitz (Peter Boyle) drives a 1936 Cord 810 Westchester that was stretched and custom-painted as a taxi cab.

In the film The Godfather, a Cord 810 convertible is briefly seen on the estate of Jack Woltz.

A 1930 Cord L-29 is featured prominently in the 2011 HBO miniseries Mildred Pierce.

See also

  • Century Airlines pilots' strike
  • List of automobile manufacturers
  • List of defunct United States automobile manufacturers

References

Sources

  • Malks, Josh B. Cord 810/812: The Timeless Classic.
  • Wise, David Burgess. "Cord: The Apex of a Triangle", in Northey, Tom, ed. World of Automobiles, Vol. 4, pp. 435–7. London: Orbis, 1974.
  • Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg Club
  • Auburn/Cord/Duesenberg Museum
  • Auburn-Cord-Dusenberg Flickr Group
  • Automotive History Online - Cord History and Photos Albums
  • CordNet, a site for Cord enthusiasts
  • History of second generation Cord Automobiles