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Duesenberg Automobile & Motors Company, Inc. was an American race car and luxury car manufacturer founded in Indianapolis, Indiana, by brothers Fred Duesenberg and August Duesenberg in 1920. The company is known for popularizing the straight-eight engine and four-wheel hydraulic brakes. A Duesenberg car was the first American car to win a Grand Prix race, winning the 1921 French Grand Prix. Duesenbergs won the Indianapolis 500 in 1922 (when eight of the top ten finishers were Duesenbergs), 1924, 1925 and 1927. Transportation executive Errett Lobban Cord acquired the Duesenberg corporation in 1926. The company was sold and dissolved in 1937. It was the only automotive company to go bankrupt in the Great Depression and not be rescued by the US government, largely a political move due to New Deal policies avoiding the imagery of helping the richest, despite Duesenberg being the largest employer in Indianapolis at the time.
The Duesenberg brothers then moved to Saint Paul, Minnesota, where they established the Duesenberg Motors Company in 1913. Eddie Rickenbacker drove the first Duesenberg-designed vehicle to race at the Indianapolis 500 in 1914, placing tenth. During World War I, the Duesenbergs designed and built aircraft engines in Elizabeth, New Jersey. A Duesenberg driven by Tommy Milton won the 1919 Elgin Trophy. In 1919, the brothers sold their Saint Paul factories.
In 1920, the Duesenberg brothers relocated to Indianapolis, Indiana, where they founded the Duesenberg Automobile & Motors Company, manufacturing the Duesenberg Model A. The brothers assumed engineering roles after signing over the naming rights and patents for Duesenberg engines to promoters Newton E. Van Zandt and Luther M. Rankin. The first ModelA was commissioned by Hawaiian businessman and politician Samuel Northrup Castle. The car had a straight-eight engine that output , the largest engine in a commercially available vehicle at the time, and was the first to have hydraulic brakes on all its wheels.
The company continued to build race cars as well, and a Duesenberg driven by Jimmy Murphy won the 1921 French Grand Prix, the first American car to do so. Duesenberg cars also performed well at the Indianapolis 500 during the 1920s, winning the race in 1922, 1924, 1925 and 1927.
Van Zandt left the company in 1921, after which it struggled financially and entered receivership in 1924. Duesenberg was purchased by Errett Lobban Cord in 1926. August's role in the passenger-car side of the business declined after Cord's takeover, and August worked primarily in Duesenberg's racing division after 1926, designing all Duesenberg race cars built from that year until the company's dissolution. Two years later, Cord had the Duesenbergs make a new model to "outclass" all other American cars. In 1929, the company began selling the Duesenberg Model J, which was powered by a straight-eight engine. The body and cabin were custom-built by . Prices for the cars ranged from $14,000 to $20,000 at the time.
Duesenbergs were considered to be among the most luxurious American cars ever made. Historian Donald Davidson called them the "most prestigious passenger car" in American history and likened them to an American version of the Rolls-Royce. The vehicles were popular with movie stars, royalty and other wealthy individuals. The company was sold by Cord and dissolved in 1937. The last Duesenberg to be made by the original company was completed in 1940, commissioned by German artist Rudolf Bauer and completed by August Duesenberg after the company had shut down.
In 1998, The Franklin Mint started producing collectible scale models of Duesenberg Coupé Simone, a fictitious custom-made luxury car allegedly manufactured in the late 1930s.
Despite plans of producing between 25 and 50 units per year, the project never materialised.
The Duesenberg Model A experienced various delays going from prototype to production. Deliveries to dealers did not start until December 1921. Sales lagged, and Duesenberg could not meet a 100-vehicles-per-month quota as the Indianapolis plant struggled to roll out one a day. In 1922, no more than 150 Duesenberg ModelAs were manufactured, with only a total of 650 units sold over a period of six years.
The Duesenberg Model X chassis is an upgrade over the ModelA chassis, offering a reworked straight-8 engine, an overhead cam, with a new crankshaft, revised valve train, improved pistons and superior intake manifold. Power is 100 hp, which made driving at possible. The chassis length increased to , with additional reinforcements. Improved leaf springs are mounted above the frame rails, thus, lowering the center of gravity. The Duesenberg ModelX chassis is the rarest Duesenberg street production chassis ever made, with only thirteen ever manufactured. Only five of the Duesenberg ModelXs manufactured are known to have survived.
The car's engine was based on the company's racing engines of the 1920s and was manufactured by another Cord company, Lycoming Engines. (2025). 9780760325728, Motorbooks. ISBN 9780760325728 It output , aided by dual overhead camshafts and four valves per cylinder, making it the most powerful car of its time. The ModelJ was capable of a top speed of , and in second gear. Duesenberg historian Randy Ema wrote that the ModelJ spurred change in engine design, "single-handedly (starting) the horsepower race that drove the number of cylinders from twelve to sixteen," but noted those engines still could not match the ModelJ's power output.
Only the chassis and engine of the ModelJ were displayed, as the body and cabin of the car were custom built per custom for luxury vehicles at the time. The company's chief body designer, Gordon Buehrig, designed around half of the ModelJ bodies, while the remainder were designed by coachbuilders around the world, including Gurney Nutting, Murphy, and Derham, among others.
The J was available in two versions of chassis with a different wheelbase; a longer one () and a shorter one (about ). There were also other special sizes, like the SSJs with a wheelbase shortened to and a few cars with the wheelbase extended to and over. (1996). 9780873414289, Krause Publications. ISBN 9780873414289
The supercharged Model J, referred to as the SJ, was reported to have reached in second gear and have a top speed of in third gear. Zero-to- times of around eight seconds and in 17 seconds were reported for the SJ despite having an unsynchronized transmission, at a time when even the best cars of the era were not likely to reach . The SJ had a wheelbase of . (2025). 9780760325704, Motorbooks. ISBN 9780760325704 The SJ was introduced in 1932. Only 36 units were built. A special version of the SJ, the Mormon Meteor, broke several land speed records.
Investors in New York City originally supported the ModelJ, but following the Stock market crash of 1929, the market for ModelJs switched to Hollywood stars. The One-off vehicle SJ Twenty Grand was produced in 1933 for the Century of Progress World's Fair to represent Duesenberg's automotive progress. Two modified ModelJs, known as the SSJ, were produced in 1935 for actors Gary Cooper and Clark Gable. The SSJ reportedly produced and could go in less than 8 seconds. Cooper's SSJ sold for $22 million in 2018, making it the most expensive American car ever sold at auction at the time. About 378 of 481 ModelJs of all types still existed as of 2002. (2025). 9781590844915, Mason Crest Publishers. ISBN 9781590844915
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