Cord (automobile)
42°22′47″N 83°01′44″W / 42.379617°N 83.028928°W
Luxury Automobile |
Cord was a brand of American
Auburn was wholly owned by the Cord Corporation, founded and run by
Innovations
Cord innovations include
Though DeSoto used them in 1942, hidden headlamps did not reappear as a luxury feature until the 1960s, beginning with the 1963 Chevrolet Corvette. It was followed two years later by another General Motors product, the Buick Riviera, whose GM stylists later stated they were trying to capture the "feel" of the Cord's design.[citation needed]
"Servo" shifting was accomplished through a Bendix electro-vacuum pre-selector mechanism (a type of electromechanical shifting).
Cord L-29
This was the first American front-wheel drive car to be offered to the public,
It was powered by a
The L-29 was priced around US$3,000 ($53,233 in 2023 dollars
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Cord L-29 Cabriolet
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Cord L-29 Cabriolet
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1931 L-29 Convertible Coupé
Cord Model 810/812
The Model 810/812 are probably the best-known of the company's products. Styled by
The car caused a sensation at the
Demise
Early reliability problems, including slipping out of gear and vapor lock, cooled initial enthusiasm, and the dealer base shrank rapidly. Unsold left-over and in-process 1936 810s were re-numbered and sold as 1937 812s. In 1937, Auburn ceased production of the Cord. A single 1938 Cord prototype with some changes to the grille and transmission cover was built, and it still exists (2015). The Cord empire, amid allegations of financial fraud, was sold to the Aviation Corporation, and E.L. Cord moved to Nevada where he earned millions in real estate and other enterprises.
Hupmobile/Graham
In 1940 ailing automakers Hupmobile and Graham-Paige tried to save money and revive the companies, by using the 810/812 body dies. Except for their similarity to the 810, their four-door sedans, the Hupp Skylark and the Graham Hollywood, were unremarkable. Retractable headlights gave way to plain headlight pods, and power came from a standard front-engine/rear-wheel drive design. While Hupp Motor Company built a few prototypes in 1939 that gained them sales orders for the 1939 model year they did not have the resources to manufacture the car. Graham Paige stepped in offering to build the Hupmobile Skylarks on a per piece contract basis. Graham built a combined 1850 units for sale in the 1940 model year. Hupmobile closed before the 1941 model came around. Of the 1850 cars produced in the 1940 model year by Graham only about 450 were the Hupmobile Skylarks. Graham continued to build the Hollywood late into 1941. They stopped production in November of that year having only built a rumored 400 units. The Hollywood was powered by a supercharged Continental in line six making 124 HP, almost 50 less than the original supercharged Cord.
Trivia
The plot of the David Niven movie Where the Spies Are features a rare Cord convertible as the incentive for the hero to undertake an espionage mission. The movie was based on the James Leasor novel Passport to Oblivion, which is one of a series of suspense/intrigue novels featuring the fictitious Dr. Jason Love, whose "infatuation" with the Cord roadster played a prominent part.
In the novel Live and Let Die, Felix Leiter drives a Cord of unspecified model when he and James Bond are in Florida.[7]
The original design for the Batmobile was a red convertible based on the Cord 812, which Batman creator Bob Kane considered one of his favorite vehicles and fitting for the millionaire vigilante.
The 1965 film What's New Pussycat? featured a rather battered red Cord 810 convertible with French selective yellow headlights. The car was piloted in several scenes by Woody Allen whose character drove on the Paris pavements (sidewalks).
A yellow Cord 810 is seen driven by young gangster Bobby Malto in the 1991 TV-Movie "The Return of Eliot Ness", which starred Robert Stack, reprising his title role from "The Untouchables" 1959-1963 TV series.
In the 1994 film The Shadow, Moses Shrevnitz (Peter Boyle) drives a 1936 Cord 810 Westchester that was stretched and custom-painted as a taxi cab.[8]
"bePUZZLED" brand puzzles is a series of puzzles which feature a short mystery story to go along with the picture in the assembled puzzle. A puzzle and story in the series is called A Classic Case of Murder and features a creme colored 1936 810 Cord in the story and pictured in the puzzle. Copyright 1992.
In the 2001 PlayStation exclusive car combat game Twisted Metal: Black. The playable driver No-Face has a car based on the Cord 810, nicknamed "Crazy 8".
In the 2002 PC and PlayStation 2 game
As part of his series Jay Leno's Garage in 2013, Jay featured his own Cord 812 which he had previously written about in Popular Mechanics. The car had been lovingly restored by amateur restorer Arthur Pirre.
On Gram Parsons' 1973 album GP, the song "The New Soft Shoe" is written about E.L Cord and his famous automobiles.
In classic crime film The Godfather, a Cord 810 convertible is briefly seen on the estate of Jack Woltz.[9]
A 1930 Cord L-29 is featured prominently in HBO's 2011 Mildred Pierce (miniseries).[10]
Some sung versions of Rodgers and Hart song
See also
- Century Airlines pilots' strike
- List of automobile manufacturers
- List of defunct United States automobile manufacturers
References
- ^ a b c d "Directory Index: 1929 Cord Catalogue". The Old Car Manual Project. October 29, 2019. Retrieved August 28, 2020.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wise, David Burgess (1974). "Cord: The Apex of a Triangle". In Northey, Tom (ed.). World of Automobiles: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Motor Car. Vol. 4. New York: Columbia House. pp. 435–437.
- ^ Brown, Matt (6 January 2020). "Consider Roaring Through The 2020s With These 1920s Cars". Jalopnik.
- ISBN 978-0873414289.
- ^ 1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved February 29, 2024.
- ^ "Cord front-drive car is here". The New York Times. April 12, 1936. p. XX7.
- ISBN 978-0425053690.
But Leiter had got hold of an old Cord, one of the few American cars with a personality, and it cheered Bond to climb into the low-hung saloon, to hear the solid bite of the gears and the masculine tone of the wide exhaust. Fifteen years old, he reflected, yet still one of the most modern-looking cars in the world.
- ^ "1936 Cord 810 Westchester Stretched Taxi". Internet Movie Car Database. Retrieved August 28, 2020.
- ^ "1936 Cord 810 Convertible Coupe". Internet Movie Car Database. Retrieved August 28, 2020.
- ^ "1930 Cord L-29". Internet Movie Car Database. Retrieved 2 February 2024.
Sources
- Malks, Josh B. Cord 810/812: The Timeless Classic.
- Wise, David Burgess. "Cord: The Apex of a Triangle", in Northey, Tom, ed. World of Automobiles, Vol. 4, pp. 435–7. London: Orbis, 1974.