A $20,000 Car When Most Americans Were Counting Pennies
In 1933, with the United States still deep in the Great Depression, Duesenberg arrived at Chicago’s Century of Progress World’s Fair with a Model SJ that bordered on absurd. Its official price was $20,000 at a time when many new automobiles cost only a few hundred dollars. Fairgoers quickly gave the extravagant machine a nickname that stuck: “Twenty Grand.” More than 90 years later, the one-off Duesenberg remains one of the most famous American luxury cars ever built and has recently been valued at around $50 million.
The car was created to show visitors what the absolute peak of American automotive engineering and design could look like. Gordon Buehrig, one of the great American automobile designers of the Classic Era, penned its dramatic close-coupled sedan body, which was constructed by New York coachbuilder Rollston. Beneath it sat a long-wheelbase Duesenberg chassis and the supercharged version of the company’s 420-cubic-inch straight-eight. Producing roughly 320 horsepower, the SJ engine delivered an extraordinary level of performance for the early 1930s.
Twenty Grand wasn’t alone at the Chicago fair. Packard, Cadillac and Pierce-Arrow brought spectacular automobiles of their own, including the Packard “Car of the Dome” and Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow. But the Duesenberg’s combination of extravagant price, enormous power and one-off styling ensured people remembered it. In an era defined by unemployment and economic hardship, Duesenberg had essentially built an American hyper-luxury car and put it on display for millions of people to see.
Even Wealthy Buyers Apparently Thought It Was Too Expensive
Twenty Grand was certainly admired, but finding someone willing to spend $20,000 on it was another matter. After its initial appearance at the 1933 fair, Duesenberg modified the car in an effort to make it easier to sell. The striking light-colored body was repainted black, and its appearance was updated with enclosed fenders before it returned for the second year of the Century of Progress exposition in 1934.
The car eventually found a buyer in Shreve M. Archer of Minneapolis, an executive associated with Archer Daniels Midland and an established Duesenberg customer. Its years as a factory showpiece were over, but decades of changes followed. Later owners altered the interior, body details and paint, gradually moving the car away from the appearance that had made it famous in Chicago.
The Duesenberg’s mechanical sophistication remained remarkable, as it had ever since Duesenberg won its first race. The supercharged Duesenberg straight-eight combined dual overhead camshafts, four valves per cylinder and racing-derived engineering at a time when many American cars were still comparatively simple machines. The Twenty Grand was also intended to accommodate chauffeur-driven owners, complete with a partition and instrumentation that allowed rear-seat passengers to keep tabs on what the driver was doing. It was simultaneously a luxury limousine and one of the most powerful road cars America could build.
Twenty Grand Became One of America’s Most Valuable Cars
The Duesenberg’s return to its original appearance began after collector and cosmetics entrepreneur J.B. Nethercutt acquired it in the late 1970s. Nethercutt commissioned a comprehensive restoration that reversed decades of alterations and returned the car to its dramatic World’s Fair specification, including its metallic silver finish. The result was spectacular. In 1980, Twenty Grand won Best of Show at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. It later earned Best of Show honors at Amelia Island and the Las Vegas Concours d’Elegance as well.
The car remains a centerpiece of the Nethercutt Collection, but it made a particularly appropriate public appearance again in August 2026. For the 75th Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, organizers reunited surviving stars from the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair, including Twenty Grand, the Packard Car of the Dome and Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow, along with a surviving Cadillac V-16 Aerodynamic Coupe. More than nine decades after Americans first encountered them in Chicago, the cars were together again on the Pebble Beach lawn.
Twenty Grand has never publicly changed hands at anything approaching the $42.9 million recently paid for the Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe, so its modern value is an estimate rather than an auction result. Current reports have placed that value around $50 million. Whether someone would actually pay that much is impossible to know unless the Nethercutt family decides to sell it. What is easier to understand is why collectors consider it so important: there is only one, it represents Duesenberg at the height of its abilities, and it combines one of America’s most celebrated prewar designs with one of the most formidable engines of its era. The $20,000 price that seemed almost unbelievable in 1933 ultimately became part of the car’s identity. Today, it is the cheapest-sounding number associated with Twenty Grand. MORE: The last Duesenberg.
