This car, Lot 88, sold for $358,400, including buyer’s premium, at Bonhams’ Reno, NV, auction, on June 13, 2026.
When this prototype sedan was built, front-wheel-drive Cord 810 automobiles were the only ACD brand still selling, albeit slowly. The 1937 Cord 812 offered an optional Schwitzer-Cummins centrifugal supercharger. Ahead of its time in styling and the only front-drive car on sale in America, it represented the Indiana-based company’s best hope for survival.
Duesenberg had launched in 1929, just as the stock market tanked. By the mid-1930s, the tall, upright, rear-wheel-drive Duesenberg chassis was showing its age. Even the contemporary Duesenberg Model JN, with its smaller wheels, valanced fenders and bullet headlamps, looked dated. Still, with the Great Depression beginning to end, there were encouraging signs. If Duesenberg were to survive, the idea of a smaller, more-affordable but still custom-bodied new model had merit.
In Cord 810/812, The Timeless Classic, the late Josh B. Malks wrote that in 1935, company President Harold Ames charged designers Alex Tremulis and Phil Wright (who had designed the Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow) with developing concepts for a new series of Duesenbergs. The cars were to be “modern in concept, but not so far out that they would frighten Duesenberg’s traditional customers.”
Bringing up baby
The plan involved repurposing an Auburn chassis with that make’s Lycoming-built V12, but with a supercharger to uphold Duesenberg’s performance image. Tremulis and Wright produced drawings, and Malks wrote that a contract was signed with LeBaron Inc. Designed by Ralph Roberts, the new bodies were to be made of aluminum, and the initial order did not include fenders, a hood, a grille or bumpers.
Sources state 25 cars were planned. Four body shells were delivered: a fastback sedan, a Berline (limousine) with a trunk, a 4-door convertible sedan and a convertible coupe. Historical images exist of all of them except the convertible coupe, with all bodies sharing an identical running-board design. They were shipped to Auburn’s Connersville, IN, facility, where they sat unfinished. By that time, neither Duesenberg nor Auburn had the means to develop a new line of cars.
Years later, Alex Tremulis told Malks that company Founder Errett Lobban Cord saw the bodies at Connersville in the summer of 1936, and said he wanted the sedan to be completed as a personal car for him and his wife, Virginia. “Put some power in that one for me,” he reportedly said. Malks wrote that on July 15, 1936, factory engineering notes included a request for four Auburn frames “for some special cars with Duesenberg bodies.” The chassis were completed by welding Cord stub frames to the front of each Auburn chassis, then installing the latest FC-prefix supercharged Cord V8s. (Lycoming would sell its V12 engines to American-LaFrance for fire apparatus.)
The resulting wheelbase was 133.5 inches, and the LeBaron bodies were mounted on top of the Auburn frames, so they sat much higher than a stock Cord. Alex Tremulis (who styled the Tucker 48 in the post-war period) designed hoods and grilles for three of the cars. Bohman & Schwartz designed the fourth. All components were done in steel. Stock Cord front fenders, bumpers and hubcaps were utilized, while the rear fenders were an elongated version of the stock Cord units. Alex Tremulis penned a distinctive hood ornament that was used on all the cars.
Lost Cord
There was never an effort made to market these four prototypes as “Baby Duesenbergs.” After E.L. Cord’s ownership, our subject car reportedly fell into disrepair. There was one other intermediate owner after Charlie Cord and Eddie Meyer. When casino magnate and car collector Bill Harrah acquired it in 1964 (for $650!), it was immediately sent to Harrah’s in-house restoration shop. A year later, it was verified in a conversation between Harrah’s Automobile Collections employee Ralph Dunwoodie and E.L. Cord himself, and later that year it was confirmed by Charlie Cord as the family’s car. It was restored by Harrah’s in 1970. The rear divider window is operated by a hand crank and the engine is a correct supercharged Cord V8.
Sold out of Reno’s National Automobile Museum, which was founded with many Harrah-owned cars following his death, the winning bidder was the Singleton Collection. I corresponded with Singleton Collection manager Matt Goist, who wrote, “This 1936 Cord Experimental is actually a Berline, not a limousine. The limo does not exist, to our knowledge.” Cord authority Randy Ema agrees, adding, “This is a great piece of history.”
At the Singleton Collection,” Goist continued, “Along with focusing on the history of the American automobile, one of our guiding principles in what we acquire is the specific provenance associated with a car. The Singleton Collection is already home to two Auburns, two Duesenberg Model Js and a later Cord 812, but the opportunity to add the 1936 Cord Experimental Prototype Berline was a no-brainer, given its ownership history tied directly to the Cord family, and then the Harrah Collection. We also really appreciate the LeBaron styling, which perfectly suits this car. We are looking forward to performing the necessary mechanical work to return this important car back to the road.”
The reckoning
Bonhams estimated a selling price of $450k–$650k for this car. While the final result of $358k is significantly less, this is a rare survivor, and there are no real comparables. The sale price is considerably more than today’s market rate for a fine example of the most expensive Cord model, an 812 Convertible “Sportsman” Coupe.
This car is a one-off prototype; it was the personal transportation of E.L. Cord. The body design was the work of one of the acknowledged masters of the period, Ralph Roberts at LeBaron. This car was preserved by the Cord family, then fully restored and documented by the Harrah Collection, which was then considered the most respected shop in North America. We’d say this unique Cord was very well bought.
