The Most Expensive Duesenberg Ever Made - Jay Leno's Garage
Jun 03, 2021this is what is called weight that adapts to the road but accelerates very well pulls i mean the car weighs six thousand that's three tons welcome coburn enthusiasts another episode from jay
leno
'sgarage
the car we present today 1934duesenberg
walker coupe This is the only aerodynamic Dusenberg coupeever
developed. This was built especially for Lilly Pharmaceutical. I'm sure you've heard of them in Indianapolis, just a big company and in the '30s, they're probably still one of the biggest and richest companies in the world. two brothers eli lilly ii and josiah lilly josiah lilly was the brother the younger brother of eli and he was the president of lilly pharmaceutical and he was a car enthusiast he is a very conservative guy and very private but he liked his cars he wantedduesenberg
which was literally just down the street from them in Indianapolis to design a car especially for him, so he walked up there and met with, I think, Harold Ames, the president of Duesenberg, and told him what he wanted and, of course, to be literally pharmaceutical money It was no problem to make this themost
expensive
Duesenbergever
produced.This was five thousand dollars more than the legendary 20 Grand Duesenberg that was presented at the world's fair. Well, let's see what we have here. What he wanted was an aerodynamic coupe. I wanted a car that was efficient, stylish, modern and for any kind of interpretation of that word, I would want something that looked dated and I think a guy called phil durham, if I'm not correct, was the head of design at duesenberg and he had a new designer named jay herbert newport who designed this car, uh, this new part had run on what was called the baby duesenberg, which later became the 810 cable.
Now this car was built before it went into production, but it had Some similar ideas, but the 810 chord though looks elegant and a little sinister. It wasn't aerodynamic, this car was truly aerodynamic, for example now you see these headlights here, I know they look like implants on a bad stripper, but they are here for a specific reason, unlike if they were on the fender they wouldn't be as aerodynamic. Right on the center line of the fender, the wind comes in, breaks here and comes out this way, that was more aerodynamic than having a crank where you know the headlight came out in a bucket or something of that nature, notice that what I call the biplane bumpers that look like two airplane wings, well, that's what they're supposed to look like.
What they do is cut the wind much more efficiently. The big, flat bumper. This grille here, which I think was probably the
most
expensive
car. part that you could think of in the past this grill cost twelve hundred dollars now a house cost twelve hundred dollars in the early thirties the V-shaped windshield, you know, the way it's tilted back it's very aerodynamic, It has a very aeronautical look and the interior is really aeronautical. Looking, but we'll get to that in a second. You have this type of pontoon fenders. I have to tell you how I came to get this car.That's another fascinating story. Well, I guess I'm going off track. uh, let me go back to Lily, what happened to Lily was that Lily got this car and, being a very reserved, conservative guy, it was too big and too extravagant. Remember we are in the middle of the depression and people were throwing rocks at cars like This back in the day because you see this thing, I mean it looks like it was only meant to run over the poor, that was the idea behind you. He looked like a landlord coming to collect rent and stopping at this thing.
Also, Josiah Lilly wasn't driving. I don't think he drove well, but he never drove this car. He always had a driver and since it is a two-seater car, it is somewhat narrow. It seemed quite strange to see two guys driving together with a driver sitting right next to them. sitting in the back anyway he felt the car was too hot, a little too big, too hard to drive, he only kept it for a year and the interesting thing was when this car came out in 1934 he met with Ames I think in May looked at the plans for the streamlined coupe and in August it was ready to be mounted on the chassis.
The chassis of this car weighs 4,400 pounds and with the body on top makes this over three tons. I mean, but you know, aerodynamics really works. It's 70 miles per hour, it turns at a lower rpm than the other Duesenbergs and it cuts through the wind and you can have a conversation. It's pretty quiet in this car because the wind literally goes through it and over it anyway. José Lily had the car. About a year ago he negotiated it and then, oh, he went to New York and then a woman named Rita Demay bought it, sort of like she was the mistress of one of those Tammany Hall politicians, a guy called boss, oh, it sounds as boss pig.
The boss said something like they had one of these relationships anyway that was kind of ooh hush, you know that kind of thing, so the car was never seen in public, she kept it, she was Canadian and she would drive this from New York to Canada. to visit her family, he took this to Europe with her, but it was never really photographed or seen much. So a guy named Otto Steuerst s-t-o-y-e owned a gas station on Long Island, at that time the car was starting to wear out a little bit and he bought it. This thing and believe it or not, he used it as a tow truck, it had a hook on the back and he dragged cars off the road with it and they left it outside and the fenders rotted away and the top, by the way, this is a leather top. . this is leather, every time it rains you just go back to the dealership and they put a new top on, well how profitable is that, but that's what you're dealing with here, they were rich people back in the day, anyway, this thing is sat. in the back of Otto's gas station for 10 years, maybe 15 years, just rotting away and the guy who gave it to me, Morton French, bought it in 1963 for 400.
Now French was a very rich guy who owned a patent on various plastics, but He was, let's say, thrifty and didn't put in a lot of time or effort and they had a friend of theirs, a gentleman named Guthrie, who did a lot of work on the car, but it wasn't done the way we think of working on a classic today, you know, he put white leather on it and some other stuff anyway, my friend Randy Emma, who was the Duesenberg expert, had never seen this car, but I had always heard about it because don't forget that no one saw it in the past.
One day once it was delivered to Lily it just went into her mansion, her compound and it was never really seen and then this guy's mistress bought it and then it went to Canada so no one really knew about this car and every time Randy was in New York and wanted to see this. Martin Francine wasn't interested in showing it to him and finally Guthrie was working like he called Randy about some parts or some information, he invited Randy to come see him and Randy realized, oh my gosh, this is really nice. It looks cool when you see period photos and there aren't many of them, it just looks big and ugly, but in person it's quite stylish, a bit sinister and really fascinating, so he told me about it and I said, well, I have to buy it.
This guy, so I called Mor Morton, then he was one of those harassable 80+ year old guys. I must have talked to him every week for a year, so I finally wanted half a million dollars. It was just a complete wreck, but it's the only one, so I said, well, so I bought it for half a million dollars, okay, I go, they give him the check, he goes, no, I don't want to check, no, I'm not going to pay capital gains. Capital gains is 28. I'm not paying that I'm not paying the government's money the government's not getting my money black boys just hold on just hold on tight how 'bout that? just take the car just don't pay me I don't I don't want to I'm not going to pay capital gains so I bring the car here and now we're about 11 months away from making this car in Pebble Beach unless Randy has done a herculean task to restore it.
I went to Randy's store and they
made
it new. the fenders did everything, the engine after years of towing cars was completely worn out, just banged and banged up, every piece needed to be repaired or replaced, well Randy did all that in the meantime, you know, you're writing checks to do this. I don't own it yet, okay, Pebble Beach is coming. I figure I've owned the car, God, about eight or nine months. Now let me call Morton again. Martin, I want to get it. No, I will not pay capital gains. IM not going to do it. pay that guy, the government is not welcoming me, well, so I thought, let me talk to his wife, you know, so in a couple of weeks I call the wife and go hello, listen, you know, I have half million dollars a year. money i would like to give it to you and i hear martin say thatleno
tells him not to take the capital gains, he's fine, he doesn't want to take the money because he doesn't want to pay capital gains, it doesn't make sense. for me, okay, and then the car is done, the car is done, I put another half a million dollars into it, now it's at Pebble Beach, okay, we got second place, uh, because the car wasn't quite finished , it literally worked for the first time that morning.At Pebble Beach, Randy was very hectic, he did a beautiful job, we won the fanciest car, we got a lot of others, it was a lot of fun, it was great, it was great, so now I have the car, but I don't have it yet. You know, Morton is like 88 right now, so I'm thinking what I'm going to do, so I sit back for a couple of weeks and collect the payment, Clinton says, to reduce the capital gains from 28 to 20. percent okay, I'll say it, so I said when did that happen, oh, what happened yesterday, so I called martin, I go, Martin, he goes, I said, did you check the paper?, oh, I kept looking, yeah, yeah has reduced to 20 percent, you're right, send me the check.
Well, so I sent him the check and sadly two weeks later he passed away, but if that had happened two weeks earlier I wouldn't have had the car, it would have been a nightmare, but it all worked out, it's really an unusual car. It's just interesting that it has no history because it's been hidden all this time. As you can see, you have these huge doors here that open up so you can let cool or hot air in, depending on what you want. These hubcaps are interesting, they were like 14 pounds each, so it's okay, we
made
some new ones and one day I'm going down Highway 5 and I'm driving about 70.And on one of them I hit a pothole, a hubcap goes flying and hits the The ground turns into a frisbee and because I press the brake at that moment I see it pass in front of me it does like this it is literally frizz bringing the air blow hits the retaining wall goes or crosses fortunately it didn't take anyone I got out, so I go to the Next exit, I turn around, pick it up and it was all dented and everything, but luckily it didn't hit anyone. If you watched the last Duesenberg video we did, I showed you how this wheel lock works when you tighten it.
Pull this forward to unlock the wheel so you can remove it, but you can watch that video and see how it works. What we don't discuss with these, well, these trim rings here, the way they work is they hold the tire on, you see there's a ridge on the inside that applies pressure against the wheel, so when you fill a tire with air , push out and lock the tire in place. What happens to many old cars and have we done it? You also have something called hydrogen embrittlement, which happens when you chrome steel, unless you bake it immediately after chroming it, it will become brittle and that's what happened.
Here are two wheels on this car, they were made before I got it, they had been chromed by someone else and what happened was you go down the road and boom, literally the wheel falls off. What happened was this car, like I said, weighs six thousand pounds and at 70 miles an hour going around the corner, I have no idea how much pressure is in that. wheel lock but that rim lock but it's a lot as you can see it just breaks it just breaks them like nothing like glass but that's what's called hydrogen embrittlement when you get some chrome no it happens with nickel, it only happens with Chromium When you take steel and chrome it, you have to bake it immediately after you have chromium plated it or else it will start to become brittle, it will become brittle from the chrome plating process and we will lose all of its potential strength so that's what happened here fortunately we didn't have an accident they didn't kill us but it's something to be careful with come on let's go see another car okay let's open the hood let's see there's nothing there's nothing light about this car everything is heavy, this hood is huge, if anyone decides to make carbon fiber river bodies let me know, let me show you what this engine looks like.
Well now, as I said in the past, all Duesenbergs were built in 1928. It just took 10 years to sell them because the depression hit and what they did back then was whatever year you bought the car, that was the year it was sold. titled, so although this engine was developed and built in 1929, it is considered 1934 and had some Improved features note that this is a downdraft carburetor, most of themfront cuts through this is like a knife blade that just cuts, you can't even stick your elbow out the window because it's too high and these suicide doors you don't make the mistake of accidentally opening that door, oh my god, you'll never be able to hold it if it's open and we're doing 55 60 and I'm barely at 2200 rpm something like that the redline on this thing is about 4000 yeah 4500 you can go. maybe which is awesome big hunk of cast iron like that 420 cubic inch eight piston moving up and down i love finding a fast two lane highway for these here is where this really seems illegal because obviously there was no super highway It was built to go 60 or 70 on a two lane highway back in the day, only rum runners did it.
This is the most cozy car in the windows. I love taking it out when it's really cold. You know, a nice, crisp winter day. Get the engine. The heat is coming, you know, it's starting to get to rush hour here in Los Angeles, getting close to four-four-thirty, all the crazy people are out, people are rushing to get home, so I'll probably drive a little further and then I'll take him back. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this little trip in Duesenberg. You've never seen one. They are just fascinating cars and I wish more owners would go out and use them.
Drive them so the parts are available. You know the Bentley drivers club is the best. All Bentley owners drive. A lot of guys remember guys just parking them or putting them in a museum. And that's not where they belong, they belong on the open road, so if you see me driving this thing, just say hello, see you later, thank you very much, bye, uh.
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