Soundtrack

"Down here in Texas, when we catch a big fish we don't ship him off to a zoo. We eat him."

Grandpa's hot rod

Interest in sports cars is at a new peak these days but it is just as well for the pride of many a modern hot-rodder that he never has seen a Duesenberg perform. The Duesenberg was the greatest American sports car and our greatest luxury car. It was the car a man bought when he felt too rich to be seen in a Cadillac. But the last of the Big Ds was built in 1937.

Ten years later Augie Duesenberg thought for a while of hand-building some more of his famous Model Js (to sell at $25,000) but there wasn't much interest in the idea and he went back to his farm at Camby, Ind. There, while the sports car fever rose, Augie raised turkeys and, once in a while, tinkered with an automobile engine. He died last week and all around the country people remembered him and his older brother Fred, killed 23 years ago in a highway accident, and the days when Duesenbergs were winning the Indianapolis 500 and the Grand Prix at Le Mans. The latter victory was in 1921, the only time an American-built car ever has won a major European Grand Prix.

Augie was the obscure member of the Duesenberg fraternity, perhaps because his family followed the German tradition that the eldest son shall be the boss, perhaps because he preferred to live with his head bent over an engine, his elbows deep in its vitals. But, for all that Fred was famous, Augie, working quietly in the factory, was indispensable.

The brothers were born in Germany (Augie in 1879 and christened August) and came to this country as boys. Their family settled on an Iowa farm, but when the brothers were old enough to work they opened a bicycle shop in Rockford, Iowa. They went from bikes to motorcycles and then, in 1904, entered the automobile field in Des Moines, where they built the Mason automobile. Ten years later they had their first racing car finish in the Indianapolis 500. It placed 10th. Driver: Eddie Rickenbacker.

Thereafter, for a score of years, Duesenbergs starred at Indianapolis. Seven of the first 10 places in 1922 were taken by Duesenbergs. Pete de Paolo was driving a Duesenberg when, in 1925, he roared around the brick oval at 101.13 mph and thus, before the biggest crowd (145,000) ever to attend an American sporting event, surpassed the 100 mph mark for the first time at Indianapolis. Next day a New York Times editorial writer, presumably unaware of what was being reported on the sports page, sniffed: "It was expected that the automobile would eliminate the horse, but the price of horseflesh is higher than ever."

The price of a Duesenberg was even higher. Fred and Augie were interested solely in quality, not at all in pricing for a mass market, very little in making money. Fred turned down a $50,000 salary offered him by a big automobile manufacturer, though it was triple what he earned in his own company. The Duesenbergs had an amateur spirit toward their work. They just wanted to build the best cars possible. They were the first to put four-wheel hydraulic brakes on a car and if they had bothered to patent the device they would have earned a fortune. But the Duesenbergs seldom patented anything and are reported to have given their friendly competitor, the Stutz company, the blueprints for their 32-valve, double-overhead camshaft head. This unMacy-Gimbel gesture resulted in the Stutz DV-32.

A Model J Duesenberg cost $8,500 for the chassis alone. Its engine gave 265 hp with two carburetors and one of them, with compression ratio raised to 8 to 1, is reported to have delivered 390 horse. Long and husky, the chassis was the delight of coachmakers, who put their finest effort into turning out bodies worthy of the Duesenberg engine. Kings and movie queens and Mayor Jimmy Walker of New York rode in elegant Duesenbergs.

Then along came the Model SJ, regarded as the finest automobile ever made in America. It had the luxury of the Rolls Royce and the speed of a racing car. The SJ would do better than 100 mph in second gear, hit 130 in high and reach 100 in 17 seconds. Chassis price: $11,750. Clark Gable bought one and so did Gary Cooper.