An Auburn Boattail Turned Up in a Kansas City Salvage Yard. What Happened to It?

Three photos, one unfinished story

An Auburn boattail Speedster sat weathering in a Kansas City, Missouri, salvage yard when a car enthusiast stopped to photograph it. Decades later, those pictures have resurfaced, but the car’s whereabouts remain a mystery. Joe Rooney, who shared the photographs, believes his father-in-law may have purchased the Auburn. What happened afterward is the missing piece.

According to Rooney, his father-in-law returned from Europe after World War II with an enthusiasm for automobiles that became a lifelong pursuit. He collected cars, attended shows, and left behind photographs of the machines that caught his attention. “I do believe he purchased it, but I have no idea what became of it,” Rooney explained. The possible purchase happened before Rooney married into the family, leaving him with intriguing pictures and few answers.

Before the chrome exhaust pipes

The car appears to be an early Auburn boattail Speedster 8-88, dating approximately to 1928–1930; Auburn built just 173 of the model. The front view reveals enormous round headlights, a distinctive Auburn radiator shell, wire wheels, and a side-mounted spare. The rear photographs show its defining feature: a body that narrows to a point behind the cockpit, giving the boattail its name. Even with deteriorating finishes and tired tires, the styling still makes an impression.

Auburn introduced its Speedster in 1928, offering a sporting two-seater with a long hood, rakish windshield, and an unmistakable silhouette. Early eight-cylinder versions included the 8-88 and larger 8-115. These were substantial American performance cars, combining dramatic bodywork with the power to support the image. The Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum preserves a 1928 8-88 and notes that relatively few examples of this early generation survive.

Did this one escape the yard?

The Speedster evolved into one of America’s most recognizable prewar automobiles. Its best-known expression arrived with the Gordon Buehrig-designed 1935 851 and subsequent 852, whose supercharged straight-eight produced 150 horsepower. Sweeping bodywork and exposed exhaust pipes helped make those later cars icons, but the weathered Auburn in Rooney’s photographs represents an earlier chapter of the same story. The first 851 Speedster ever built recently went to auction.

For this particular car, the trail currently ends in Kansas City. There is no confirmed purchase date, chassis number, or subsequent ownership history in the information Rooney shared. It could have been restored, dismantled, or passed along as a project; none of those possibilities is established. For now, three photographs preserve the moment when an extraordinary automobile was simply another old car in a salvage yard. Anyone who recognizes the Auburn, or the yard around it, may hold the next piece of its history.

Photographs shared by Joe Rooney; taken by his father-in-law.