|
|
spring 1933
|
Former Auburn Automobile Company president Errett Lobban Cord is now Chairman of the Board of the Cord Corporation, a holding company. Cord has by now sold nearly all of his Auburn
stock.
and
In Detroit, General Motors Art and Color Division, headed by Harley Earl, runs a contest among its stylists. One of the four competing teams is headed by young
Gordon Miller Buehrig ,
formerly chief stylist for Duesenberg, Inc.
His entry
places last. |
|
September 1933
|
The last factory-fresh
Cord Front Drive , of the 1929-32
series today called the L-29, is finally sold by its Auburn makers. (Production had ended in December 1931.)
and
Harold T. Ames, president of Duesenberg, Inc., a division of
the Cord Corporation, offers Gordon Buehrig a job. |
|
October 1933 -
April 1934
|
Buehrig returns to Duesenberg, charged with developing a 'tricky body' for a new 'baby' Duesenberg. He bases the style on the rejected GM contest entry. Ames orders a prototype
V-8 engine from Lycoming Motors, another Cord Corporation division.
A prototype body is delivered by coachbuilder A
.H. Walker.
and
Ames becomes Executive VP of the Auburn Automobile Company, yet another Cord Corporation holding. Divisive rivalry surfaces between Ames and Auburn President
Roy Faulkner.
and
Ames brings Buehrig over from Duesenberg to redesign
the Auburn line
for 1935. |
|
July 1934
|
Since the demise of the L-29, Auburn's engineers have continued to develop a state-of-the-art front wheel drive chassis. Ames decides that Auburn, the corporation's bread-and-butter,
needs a boost even more than Duesenberg does. He sees the potential of Buehrig's body on Auburn's new FWD chassis, powered by Lycoming's new V-8.
|
|
August-December
1934
|
Most of Auburn's resources, human and financial, are applied to the development of the new front drive car. Buehrig and his styling team create a quarter-scale
clay model of a
striking four-door sedan. Chief engineer Herb Snow and his engineers refine their
chassis designs. Lycoming modifies its new
V-8 for front drive use. Tooling work begins, at Auburn and subsidiaries. |
|
January 1935
|
Cash-poor Auburn presents the new-from-the-ground-up front drive project to the Board of Directors of the parent Cord Corporation, along with a request for $2 million for startup costs.The Board is reluctant --- Auburn had lost nearly $4 million in 1934, and the Board doesn't want to throw good money after bad. It finally agrees to a
bond issue to try to raise the cash. Auburn is urged to keep costs down.
|
|
January-March
1935
|
Snow proposes a hybrid design to minimize tooling costs, using Buehrig's front end sheet metal, an Auburn body, and the front drive chassis . Buehrig resists, but Snow builds and tests
a prototype, labelled
E294. Different sizes of V-8s
and several transmission designs are tried too. Nobody likes the hybrid body. |
|
March 1935
|
To increase employment, President Franklin Roosevelt asks the Automobile Manufacturers Association to advance the date of the annual auto shows (at which new models are introduced) from
January to November. AMA agrees.
and
Auburn negotiates with Montgomery Ward for a major sale of
kitchen cabinets.
and
The revised AMA show dates cut Auburn's development time by two full months. Roy Faulkner calls corporation Board
chairman E.L. Cord in California, asks him to back the immediate construction of prototypes of the all-new front drive car with Buehrig's body design. Some cash will be available
from the Ward contract and Faulkner hopes the rest will come from the pending bond issue. The new front drive car will carry Cord's name again, and he agrees. |
|
April 1935
|
Auburn's bond issue appears. Takers are few.
still
|
|
March-June
1935
|
Auburn throws itself into the creation of five prototype Cord 810s, still known by the engineering designation E306. In engineering, styling, experimental garage, and wood and metal
shops, everyone goes on overtime. Temporary help is even hired, this in the depths of The Great Depression! Vendors are selected for tooling. By the end of June, five
sedan prototypes stand completed on the lower level of
Auburn's administration building. |
|
