Any Duesenberg is certain to draw consideration, however the automobile featured on this episode of “Jay Leno’s Garage” has all the time stood out from the remaining.
This four-door was constructed as a present automobile for the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair, the place it turned well-known in its time because the “Twenty Grand” Duesenberg due to its then-outrageous value of $20,000. Leno notes within the video that the common American automobile price lower than $1,000 on the time, and the common home was lower than $2,000.
The one-off Twenty Grand was not the most expensive Duesenberg ever built—the 1934 Duesenberg Walker Coupe price $25,000 when new—however it was too costly to draw a purchaser the primary time round. Duesenberg repainted it black and introduced it again to Chicago in 1934, the place it was finally bought to a rich purchaser. It’s now a part of California’s Nethercutt Collection, the place it’s displayed alongside different classics from storied automakers like Bugatti and Hispano-Suiza.
Like different Duesenbergs, the Twenty Grand is powered by a straight-8 engine primarily based on Indianapolis 500 racing engines. This automobile’s engine displaces 421 cubic inches and has a supercharger, producing 320 hp. Like the automobile’s value, that was an astounding determine within the Nineteen Thirties.
The race-bred engine and the efficiency it supplied meant that Duesenbergs had been thought-about driver’s vehicles of their time, however this automobile was additionally designed to be chauffeur pushed. Its distinctive coachbuilt physique features a partition and a whole set of gauges for rear-seat passengers so that they monitor what the driving force is doing. It provides new that means to the time period “back-seat driver.”
The automobile was restored in 1979 and has been proven continuously since then, though due to its worth it isn’t pushed fairly often anymore. That means the driving portion of this video is proscribed to a little bit of taxiing round an airport apron, however it’s uncommon to see this distinctive Duesenberg in movement in any respect.
This article was initially revealed by Motor Authority, an editorial companion of ClassicCars.com.
