Distressed Merchandise

1936-7 Cord 810-812 Beverly Sedan - Gordon Buehrig's streamline moderne spectre, napping in the winter sun and dust of Insulbrick alley. According to Mike Lamm and Dave Holls' stupendous A Century of Automotive Style, Buehrig, during a brief time away from Duesenberg, was voted winner of a 1933 GM design competition by Art & Colour cohorts Tom Hibbard, Jules Agramonte, Jack Morgan and Frank Hershey - leaders of the teams he'd been competing against. Harley Earl, along with the Fisher Brothers and GM execs who made up the official judging team, put him dead last. Which hastened Buehrig's return to Indiana, where his simplified and refined GM proposal became the Cord, to prove to Mr. Earl that a car didn't need a face to be very, very beautiful.

Circa 1924 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost Piccadilly Roadster w/ possible Renault down the way. Looks very much like a right-hand drive Springfield car originally owned by Jack Dempsey that turned up in a 2007 Coys auction. From a comment left by Park-Ward - The RR is Dempsey's indeed, chassis #317LF with body by Merrimac. It was for sale again in 2010.

1955 Chrysler Imperial Coupe, design by Virgil Exner, White & Gold, 130,000 Mi.

1940 Lincoln Continental V12 Cabriolet, design by Bob Gregorie w/ Edsel Ford, 1 of 351, its graceful grille arcs (from a '41) safe behind an aftermarket bumper guard that sparks a feedback loop of vulgar connotations.

Circa 1947 Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Cabriolet, design by Giovanni Michelotti for Stabilimenti Farina, a blend of '42 Dodge and Plymouth up front.

1921-2 Franklin Brougham. Polaroid Type 47 print.

1948-50 Packard Eight Station Sedan.

1930 Packard Big Eight Custom 745 Convertible Victoria by Waterhouse - serial #186085, engine #186380, 7.50 X 19 tires, leather uphols., folding front seats, one pc. rear seat, round back. When Packard needed a version of the innovative Count Sakhnoffsky blind quarter Victoria pictured above my murky snapshot built on its new 745 chassis for the 1930 Paris Salon, the seven-week deadline was one only the struggling, recently established Waterhouse was willing to accommodate. "As it turned out, the Convertible Victoria body that resulted was a major improvement to the Van den Plas design, rather than just a copy of it. The molding treatment that (head designer) Briggs Weaver came up with was simpler and made the car seem even longer and lower. The top was as low as possible, and featured landau joints inside the passenger compartment, rather than outside, on the rear quarters. It was an idea that Walter M. Murphy had only recently adopted, and helped contribute to the novel appearance of the Waterhouse creation, somewhat distancing it from the original European design. Many years later (founding investor) S. Robert Dunham recalled Waterhouse’s first Packard: 'Briggs Weaver gave us everything he had in de­signing a similar body, with lines and proportions as attractive as possible. He designed a trunk with round lines - a trunk made just like the body, with aluminum applied over a wood frame.'" - Coachbuilt.com. Count Alexis de Sakhnoffsky's 1928 Van den Plas original from AACA Forum.

1933 Packard Twelve Sport Phaeton by Dietrich. 1 each in maroon, blue and white were built for that year's New York and Philadelphia Auto Shows and the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago respectively. 1948-50 Packard in background.

Possible '34 Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 Gran Turismo Coupé by Castagna amid early sixties US Beetle infestation. Polaroid Type 47 prints.

1958 Lincoln Continental Mark III Convertible.

1935 Cadillac V16 Fleetwood 2p Coupe, 1 of 2, w/ 1965 Michigan Historic Vehicle plates. Kodacolor print.

1936-7 Cord 810/812 Sportsman Cabriolet, design by Gordon Buehrig.

1942 Lincoln Continental V12 Coupe, 1 of 200, w/ 1946-8 bumper, dreaming of anyplace more than six inches from passing traffic.

1910s Rauch & Lang Electric Brougham.

1957 Pontiac Bonneville Convertible, 1 of 630, w/ 1974 Minnesota plates, its original fuel injection apparatus most likely in a cardboard box that I know is around here somewhere...

Chrysler, Hupmobile, Packard & Paige in the California desert.

1930-1 Cadillac V16 Fleetwood Transformable Town Cabriolet w/ LeBaron style hood, 1 of 35.

One-off 1934 Duesenberg J, converted from long wheelbase Murphy Town Car to shortened chassis Convertible Coupe by Graber in 1937.

1929 Auburn 8-125 Speedster, design by Alan H. Leamy, 1 of 147 (including model 8-90), upstate New York.

1930-2 Cord L-29 Convertible Coupe, design by Alan H. Leamy w/ Auburn Chief Body Engineer John Oswald, the scent of Eucalyptus in the heat and dust. Courtesy of Darrin's Car Photos.

Ford Model T; 1 of approximately 15,000,000; dead of winter, down at the shore.