1932 Duesenberg J Judkins Fixed-Top Coupe

1932 Duesenberg J Judkins Fixed-Top Coupe



edited by David Barth, 13 December 2008.
Courtesy "The Auto Collections" showroom at the Imperial Palace Hotel and Casino in Las, Vegas, Nevada, USA. Photos were taken 5 November 2007.

Some of the information presented below is from "Imperial Palace Auto Collection" by Ralph Engelstad, owner of the hotel/casino and the automobiles until his death in 2002.



Chassis number: 2162
Engine number: J137

This is the only Duesenberg of this design in the world.
It was originally purchased by Joseph P. Wright, the president of Continental Diamond Fiber Company, on June 1, 1929. Very few coupes were built on a Duesenberg chassis, and this is the only one known to survive. Mr. Joe Folladori of Indianapolis purchased this car in March of 1986 and instituted a complete nut-and-bolt restoration which was finished in 1989.

The quality of the workmanship and the striking color scheme capture attention wherever the car is shown. It has received many first-place awards including the Gordon Buehrig Award at the 1990 Meadow Brook Concours d’Elegance for the best Duesenberg of the show.

This car has many custom features including a roll-out cabinet that holds Waterford crystal goblets and decanters.

The price at the time these photos were taken was $2,500,000.

History:
Frederic Duesenberg was born in 1878 in Lippe, Germany. He was followed the next year by the birth of August. Seven years later, the family immigrated to America. By age nineteen and twenty, the Duesenberg brothers had built racing bicycles. In 1898 Fred set a world bicycle record over a two-mile distance. In Des Moines, Iowa, their first bicycle manufacturing venture went bankrupt in 1903. In 1904, they built their first automobile, the two-cylinder Mason. A few years later, their improved, four-cylinder Mason failed to qualify for the Indianapolis 500. In 1913 the brothers founded their own firm, and it 1921 Jimmy Murphy drove a straight-eight Duesenberg to victory in the French Grand Prix. Duesenbergs won the Indianapolis 500 in 1924, 1925, and 1927.

The Duesenberg road car, the Model A, introduced in 1920, was a poor seller due to its uninspiring body design. In 1927 the company was in trouble. E. L. Cord bought the company and it began to prosper. The three talents responsible for the turnaround were the engineering genius of Fred Duesenberg, the styling expertise of Gordon Buehrig, and the financial savvy of Errett Lobban Cord.

Characteristics:

In 1932 Fred Duesenberg was killed in an accident in one of his own cars at the age of 54. In 1937 the company suffered financial difficulties and Cord sold his automobile empire, which resulted in termination of the Duesenberg company.

1932 Duesenberg J Judkins Fixed-Top Coupe

1932 Duesenberg J Judkins Fixed-Top Coupe

1932 Duesenberg J Judkins Fixed-Top Coupe