Tag: auburn

E.L. Cord with an Auburn automobile. Courtesy of Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum. Errett Lobban Cord, better known as E. L., began his automotive career as a race car driver, mechanic and car salesman. He would go on to create an automotive empire that including ownership of some of the most luxurious American car brands in the 1920s and 1930s, Auburn and Duesenberg. During that time he also founded Cord, a vehicle among the most mechanically unique to come out of the era. Throughout this life he'd also hold roles as entertainment executive and state law maker. His career and life came to an end when he died from cancer on this day in 1974 at age 79. E.L. Cord with a Cord 810 E.L. Cord buys Auburn Automobile Company Born in Missouri in 1894, Cord became a jack of all trades ty...

Legend has it that Gordon Buehrig was expelled from his design college for drawing cars on textbooks. While the punishment may not fit the crime, if true, he didn't let it affect his day dreams. Those sketches soon, quite soon really, became reality. Instead of trying to finish college, he left his Illinois home headed for the Motor City. After arriving in Detroit he found work at Packard and then General Motors. For young Buehrig, born in 1904, designing the Le Mans competing 1929 Black Hawk couldn't be a better job. That is, until his artistic approach to car design caught the eye of E.L. Cord, who had purchased Duesenberg just three years earlier. Courted by Cord, Gordon Buehrig found himself as Duesenberg's chief designer at the tender age of 25. Among his first tasks: designing ...