Automobile museums are seemingly everywhere. One that I encountered in March 2020 was in the
Riverside resort-casino in Laughlin, Nevada. Since I don't gamble, I decided to view the main part of Don Laughlin's car museum at the facility. Some cars were Laughlin's, others on view had different owners.
Perhaps the most interesting car on view was a 1937 Cord 812 with a boat-tail body that was labeled as being a Cord Speedster.
There was never such a production Cord, as best I can tell, so this was a custom job. But when and were was it made? I have no idea. And the sign by it at the museum did not say. Let us know in a comment if you have solid information regarding this fascinating car.
Let's take a look.
Gallery
My iPhone photo showing a front quarter view. The blending of frontal Cord styling with the boat-tail cockpit and rear is very nicely done -- an interesting design.
Here is the information plaque that says nothing about the car on display aside from an estimate of its value.
Rear quarter view. Very interesting. Definitely something Cord might have marketed had the company the financial resources to do so. Question: Where did the boat-tail bodywork come from?
Mecum auction photo of a 1936 Auburn Speedster. The boat-tails of 1935-36 Speedsters are not like that on the Cord shown above.
Instead, its boat-tail design appears to be from an earlier Auburn Speedster such as this 1933 model (Mecum photo).
The grammar/writing of the caption is terrible, starting with "it's" for the possessive form of "it". Awesome car though, although the boat tail does look a little like it's from a generation before the front half in the front 3/4 view.
ReplyDeleteThis is a kit car that originated in South Africa. The car in question started out as a Auburn Boatail that had its fenders removed and raced in ZAR. Till it was involved in a quite serious accident,where an enginious mechanic decided to combine bothe beauties.
ReplyDeleteThe original was stripped and restored to former glory and now resides in the UK
The custom front end that was built from real cord parts was sold to an man in the USA.
There has been a number of spin off kits of this combination.
I had noticed on a visit to the holy grail in Indiana that there was a 1934/35 Auburn sedan (buck )with cord nose.
Nicknames Corburn
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