Cord 812SC Convertible Phaeton
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Automobilhersteller : |
Cord |
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Modell: |
812SC Convertible Phaeton |
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Jahr: |
1937-1938 |
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Art: |
Cabriolet |
Cord was the brand name of an American automobile company from Connersville, Indiana, manufactured by the Auburn Automobile Company from 1929 through 1932 and again in 1936 and 1937.
The Cord Corporation was founded and run by E. L. Cord as a holding company for his many transportation interests, including Auburn. Cord was noted for its innovative technology and streamlined designs. Cord had a philosophy to build truly different, innovative cars, believing they would also sell well and turn a profit. This did not always work well in practice.
Cord innovations include front-wheel drive on the L-29 and hidden headlamps on the 810 and 812.
Hidden headlamps did not become common as a standard feature until the 1960s (though DeSoto used them in 1942). The early Oldsmobile Toronados, whose GM stylists later stated they were trying to capture the "feel" of the Cord's design, also featured hidden headlamps.
"Servo" shifting was accomplished through a bendix electro-vacuum pre-selector mechanism (a type of electronic shifting).
The Cord 810 (and related Cord 812) was an automobile produced by the Cord Automobile division of the Auburn Automobile Company in 1936 and 1937. It was the first American-designed and built front wheel drive car with independent front suspension. It followed the 1934 Citroën Traction Avant and the Cord L-29, both of which also had front wheel drive. The 810/812 was also the first to offer hidden headlights.
The styling of the Cord 810 was the work of designer Gordon M. Buehrig and his team of stylists, which included young Vince Gardner and Alex Tremulis. While the first American front-wheel-drive car with independent front suspension, it had an archaic tube rear axle with semi-elliptic rear springs. Power came from a 4,739 cc (289 cu in) Lycoming V8 of the same 125 hp (93 kW) as the L-29. The semi-automatic four-speed transmission (three plus overdrive) extended in front of the engine, like on a Traction Avant. This allowed Buehrig to dispense with the driveshaft and transmission tunnel; as a result, the new car was so low it required no running boards. It had a 125 in (3,175 mm) wheelbase.
Reportedly conceived as a Duesenberg and nearly devoid of chrome, the 810 had hidden door hinges and rear-hinged hood, rather than the side-opening type more usual at the time, both new items. It featured pontoon fenders with hidden headlamps (modified Stinson landing lights) (E. L. Cord owned a majority of Stinson stock) that disappeared into the fenders via dashboard hand cranks. This car was first and one of the only ever to include this feature.
It also featured a concealed fuel filler door and variable-speed windshield wipers(at a time when any wipers were rare, and those were likely operated by hand). Its engine-turned dashboard included complete instrumentation, a tachometer, and standard radio (which would not become an industry standard offering until well into the 1950s).The most famous feature was the "coffin nose", a louvered wraparound grille, from which its nickname derived, a product of Buehrig's desire not to have a conventional grille.
The car caused a sensation at its debut at the New York Auto Show in November 1935. The crowds were so dense, attendees stood on the bumpers of nearby cars to get a look. Cord had rushed to build the 100 cars needed to qualify for the show, and the transmission was not ready. Even so, Cord took many orders at the show, promising Christmas delivery, expecting production of 1,000 per month, but the semi-automatic transmission was more troublesome than expected, and 25 December came and went with no cars built. The first production cars were not ready to deliver until February, and did not reach New York City until April 1936. In all, Cord managed to sell only 1,174 of the new 810 in its first model year, as the result of mechanical troubles.
Supercharged 1937 Cord 812 Sedan
The 1937 Cords, designated 812, when custom sedans on a longer wheelbase joined the four-model range, though it is doubtful whether any independent offering ever matched Buehrig's original Beverly fastback sedan for sheer styleand little changed from 1936 models except for the supercharged engine option. Cord’s experience with Duesenberg, another of the Cord companies and his ownership of Lycoming, made it relatively simple for them to add a Schwitzer-Cummins centrifugal supercharger that provided a maximum of 6-psi boost and increased the Lycoming 289-cid V-8’s power to between 185 and 195 horsepower. The chromed outside exhaust pipes gave external identification. The car is built on a 125-inch wheelbase front-wheel drive platform and also has a four-speed electric pre-selector transmission, independent front suspension and four-wheel hydraulic brakes.
In September of 1937, a Cord crew headed by Ab Jenkins set 35 American stock car speed records on the Bonneville Salt Flats, certified by the AAA Contest Board, including 24 hours at an average speed, including stops, of 101.72 miles per hour.
Early reliability problems, including slipping out of gear and vapor lock, cooled initial enthusiasm. Although most new owners loved their sleek fast cars, the dealer base shrank rapidly. Unsold left-over and in-process 1936 810 models were re-numbered and sold as 1937 812 models. In 1937, after producing about 3000 of these cars, Auburn ceased production of the Cord. One of the most attractive – and certainly the rarest – variants of the 810/812 was the Convertible Coupe – often referred to by collectors as the “Sportsman.” Approximately 195 of these very attractive convertible coupes were built during the two year life of the Cord 810/812, though only 64, according to factory records, were supercharged. A single 1938 Cord prototype, with detail changes to the grille and transmission cover, was built, and it survived as of 2009.
