Duesenberg

US, 1920 – 1937, 1966

(1) Duesenberg Motor Co, Indianapolis, Ind., 1920 – 1937

(2) Duesenberg Corporation, Indianapolis, Ind., 1966

Fred Duesenberg began by making bicycles and designed his first Duesenberg car, the Mason, in 1904. He and his brother August made engines with horizontal overhead valves for the 1912 Mason racing cars, and founded Duesenberg Motors in the following year in order to produce marine engines and complete racing cars bearing the Duesenberg name. The most famous of the latter appeared in 1920: a 3-litre Bugatti-inspired Duesenberg straight-8 with single overhead camshaft and three (vertical) valves per cylinder. This Duesenberg won the 1921 French Grand Grand Prix. In the 1920s the Duesenberg racing cars were the great rivals of the Millers at Indianapolis, and victory was assured in 1924 by the adoption of a centrifugal blower on Duesenberg cars. Though a two-stroke 1½-litre 8-cylinder racing engine capable of 7.000rpm was made in 1926, this was not proceeded with. The horizontal-valve Duesenberg engine was taken over in 1920 by the Rochester Motor Manufacturing Co Inc and was used in various sporting and luxury cars.

Meanwhile, at the end of 1920, the first Duesenberg production car made its debut. This Duesenberg Model A was an extremely expensive, if very advanced, luxury car, embodying an 8-cylinder in-line engine – the first to be seen in an American production car – of 4.2 litres, basically similar to the Duesenberg racing unit, but with only two valves per cylinder and developing about 100bhp. There were also hydraulically-operated front wheel brakes – another ‘first’ as far as America was concerned. The Model A was current until 1926. A handful of its little-altered successor, the Duesenberg Model X, was made in 1926-1927, but in the former year E.L. Cord of Auburn acquired control of the Duesenberg company. He stipulated that Fred Duesenberg’s next car should be completely new, and a quite exceptional machine. In fact, the Duesenberg Model J, which made its bow at the end of 1928, was the most remarkable automobile in America: bigger, faster, more elaborate and more expensive than any other, yet also superior to them in refinement and good looks. Its 6.9-litre, 8-cylinder engine, made by Lycoming (a firm which Cord had also bought), had two chain-driven overhead camshafts operating four valves per cylinder; a layout of racing type unique among American cars at the time and said to develop 265bhp at 4250rpm – more than double the output of any rival. Although the complete Duesenberg car weighed more than 4980lb, it was claimed to be capable of 116mph in top gear and 89mph in second. Only Duesenberg Model J chassis were made for which $8500 was asked in 1929. Immensely long and strong and lowbuilt, Duesenberg cars were very popular with all the leading coachbuilders. The Duesenberg company preferred to sell cars complete with bodies designed by them but made by approved builders, such as Murphy, Bohman & Schwarts, Judkins, Derham and Le Baron. In this form, catalogued Duesenberg models cost up to $17.950. The transmission – apart form the double dry-plate clutch – was conventional, as was the suspension by half-elliptic springs and hydraulic shock absorbers. The brakes, of course, were hydraulic, with vacuum servo assistance from late 1929.

In 1932 a supercharged version of the Model J, the Duesenberg SJ, was added. To cope with the 320bhp now alleged to be available, bearings, reciprocating parts and valve springs were strengthened. Usually, the shortest Duesenberg J chassis was used, with the highest axle ratio and stronger front springs. A maximum speed of 129mph was attributed to the Duesenberg SJ, with an acceleration figure of 0-100mph in 17 seconds.

Duesenberg survived the Depression, but died in the collapse of the Cord Corporation in 1937. Attempts to revive the Duesenberg name were made in 1947 and in 1966. The first Duesenberg was unsuccessful, and in 1966 only one Duesenberg car was actually made, powered by a 7-litre V8 Chrysler engine with push-rod overhead valves, developing 431bhp at 5.000rpm. Transmission was automatic, front suspension was independent, and there were disc brakes. Body styling was by Ghia. This Duesenberg venture, too, collapsed.

Source: Georgano, encyclopedia of motorcar; TRN 

The information is written with the greatest of care. However, if you have any suggested amendments please contact us at office@prewarcar.com

Hispano Suiza

E, 1904 – 1944

SA Hispano Suiza, Barcelona

Although the Hispano Suiza car became most famous as a French make, the origins of Hispano Suiza were Spanish, it was always made in Spain as well as in France (indeed, in greater numbers) and in the country of its birth Hispano Suiza cars outlived its French offshoot as far as serious production  was concerned. The Swiss engineer Marc Birkigt, who had designed the Barcelona-built La Cuadra car in 1900, was responsible for the design of a car made in the same city from 1901 to 1904 and called the Castro. The first Hispano Suiza car, of 1904, was in fact the 20hp Castro renamed. A range of Hispano Suiza cars, with large, beautifully-built T-head pair-cast fours with live-axle drive and the luxury of water-cooled brakes was established and by 1907 these Hispano Suiza cars had found their way into the stables of King Alfonso XIII. Two similar sixes with 6.2- and 10.4-litre engines (the Hispano Suiza 30/40 and the Hispano Suiza 60/65) joined them in the following year. All were expensive machines of conventional design, intended mainly for the carriage trade – although not the Alfonso XIII model of 1912. In 1910 an Hispano Suiza racing voiturette won the Coupe de l’Auto race in France. This Hispano Suiza car had a T-head engine with a very long stroke. The Hispano Suiza Alfonso was based on it. Various versions were made, but the best-known, a 3.6-litre car, had cylinder dimensions of 80x180mm. The range of Hispano Suiza cars of tourer type was retained. While the design of the Hispano Suiza Alfonso did not change, thanks to its extreme popularity abroad, the rest of the Hispano Suiza models by 1913, were much more modern, consisting of monobloc 4-cylinder cars, still with long strokes, but with overhead valves operated by an overhead camshaft, all neatly enclosed. V-radiators relaced the former flat pattern in 1914. Two ohc fours, a Hispano Suiza 16hp and a Hispano Suiza 30hp, were listed until 1924. They were solid, reliable machines without front-wheel brakes, seen usually as taxis. By then, they had been overshadowed completely in the international field by the radically new Hispano Suiza H6B of 1919, which was made at the Paris factory and is dealt with under Hispano Suiza France. The next Hispano Suiza car model to originate in Spain, and the first six since before 1914, was a cheaper version of the Hispano Suiza H6B intended for the less opulent Spanish market, consisting of a basically similar but smaller engine of 3.7-litres, with an detachable cylinder head, installed in an H6B chassis. This power unit needed the assistance of a lower set of gear rations than those of the H6B, as it was expected to pull the same weight. This Hispano Suiza car was replaced by another ‘utility’ Hispano Suiza car in 1930, a 3-litre model with pushrod-operated overhead valves like the contemporary small Hispano Suiza car model in France. It had an interesting history; the design of this Hispano Suiza car was to have been taken up by Hudson in America, but because of the Depression American motorists were denied a Birkigt car. By 1935 the Hispano Suiza car had been enlarged to 3.404cc and there were three other sixes in the range: the 3.750cc Hispano Suiza Type 49, the 4.580cc Hispano Suiza Type 65, and the 8-litre Type Hispano Suiza 56bis, which had the same engine dimensions as the French-built car, Hispano Suiza H6C. The smaller sixes were made until 1944. In all, some 6.000 Hispano Suiza cars were produced by the Barcelona works, against about 2.600 from the Paris factory. One or two prototype Hispano Suiza cars of the French V12 were built at Barcelona but there was no series production.

France, 1911 – 1938

(1) Sté Francaise Hispano Suiza, Levallois-Perret, Seine, 1911 – 1914

(2) Sté Francaise Hispano Suiza, Bois-Colombes, Seine, 1914 – 1938

In 1911, a French company with a Paris factory was founded to assemble the Hispano Suiza car from Spain, a hitherto obscure make that had recently won sporting renown in France and was already an established manufacturer of luxury vehicles in its home country, enjoying royal patronage. The Spanish market was poor compared with the rich potential of France and other motoring countries and so it was that when a superb new model of Hispano Suiza cars of the most modern and advanced design was introduced, it came from the French factory. This was the Hispano Suiza H6B of 1919, the first French-developed Hispano Suiza car. It gained such immediate and lasting fame that henceforth, Hispano Suiza car was regarded as a primarily French make, and the products of the Spanish Hispano Suiza car factory (though made in great numbers) fell into onscurity. The Hispano Suiza H6B was designed as the last word in advanced transport for the rich. The engine of this Hispano Suiza car was the outcome of the company’s experience of aircraft engine manufacture during World War 1 – a field in which it was already famous. Its six cylinders, totalling 6.6-litres, were of aluminium, with light steel liners. The cylinder head was fixed on the Hispano Suiza car. A single overhead camshaft operated two valves per cylinder. This engine gave 135bhp at 3.000rpm. A 7-bearing, pressure-fed crankshaft coped with the power. Thus a good power-to-weight ratio was combined with reliability on Hispano Suiza cars, according to the best aviation practice. The chassis was light, yet rigid, and extremely efficient servo-assisted four-wheel brakes were provided to check the 85mph which was available on Hispano Suiza cars in top gear. In spite of a high final drive ratio of 3.4 to 1, the engine developed such excellent low-speed torque that 6 to 50mph in an Hispano Suiza car in top gear occupied only 21 seconds.

The new Hispano Suiza car was not quiet compared with the cars of competitors who counted silence above mechanical efficiency, but in its combination of most of the desirable qualities of a true luxury car – comfort, flexibility – and of the sporting machine – first rate reliability, performance, brakes and handling – the Hispano Suiza car was unique in 1919. Not surprisingly, what amounted to a single-model policy was pursued for many years. Alongside the Hispano Suiza H6B, the Hispano Suiza H6C Sport or Boulogne model appeared in 1924. Bore and stroke were 110x140mm against the H6B’s 100x140mm, giving eight litres. This fabulous Hispano Suiza car was capable of up to 110mph and could be had in short-chassis form. Modified Hispano Suiza H6B’s had won the Coupe Boillot at Boulogne in 1921, 1922 and 1923, in the last instance with the 8-litre engine, which accounted for the new Hispano Suiza car’s name. The H6B and H6C were both still available in 1929, and, as the Hispano Suiza car Tipo 56bis, the latter was made in Spain well into the 1930s. From 1924 to 1927, the former was made by Skoda of Czechoslovakia, under licence. In 1930 Hispano Suiza took over Ballot and fitted a smaller, 4.6-litre, 6-cylinder engine into a Ballot chassis. This Hispano Suiza Junior model, which had central gearchange, was not a car in the same class as its predecessors. In spite of the coming of the Depression, however, in 1931 Hispano Suiza cars produced their biggest, most complex and most expensive design. This Hispano Suiza car was the V12 which abandoned, for the first time since 1919, the six-in-line, overhead-camshaft layout. Cylinder dimensions were ‘square’, at 100x100mm, providing 9½-litres and even greater low-speed torque than that of the old H6B. The overhead valves were operated by push-rods and rockers. Top gear ratio was now 2,75:1 and bottom 5,4:1, or about the same ratio as the top gear of many family saloons of the period. All Hispano Suiza V12s could exceed 100mph and in its fastest, short-chassis open form, the Hispano Suiza car was said to attain 115mph. The V12 was made until 1938. Meanwhile, the Hispano Suiza Junior had been superseded in 1935 by the 4.9-litre, 6-cylinder Hispano Suiza K6, which used push-rod overhead valves like its big brother Hispano Suiza car. It too was current until 1938. Hispano Suiza of Paris then abandoned car production, never to resume it. A prototype Hispano Suiza car was built after World War 2, with front-wheel drive and a Ford V8 engine, but it never achieved catalogue status.

Source: Georgano, encyclopedia of motorcar; TRN

The information is written with the greatest of care. However, if you have any suggested amendments please contact us at office@prewarcar.com