Duisenbergs The Name Belies A Fine European Touring Vehicle

The Duesy. The Dusenberg fine automotive creations. These legends have not only entered the American if not European and worldwide vocabulary as “Its a Doozie”. On top of that the impact of the Duesenberg Motor Company live on today in the likes of many replica large touring cars that you may see the likes of Winnipeg’s famous scion Peter Nygard.

What is interesting and of great note , is that it was not that early innovators of this fine automotive tradition – the pair of the two world renowned car racing Dusenberg brothers – that resulted in this ultra fine luxury stable of products – but rather business and marketing staff and future factory owners. Indeed the model that the Duesenbeg family produced was a rather staid product. Their “Model A” was introduced at the’20 New York Auto Show and then went into full production in December’21. This Dusenberg Model “A” was from the designed from the same name racing vehicle that had won the French Grand Prix race , where its innovative hydraulic brakes had proved to be the most decisive factor in the automotive racing circuit. The A was of a most durable design and overall construct that it would later appear in the Indianapolis 500 mile race as late as’34 .

Sure there had been vehicles on the racing circuit and circuits that had used “in-line” 8 cylinder motors but these were largely test and experimental vehicles subject only the tinkering of automotive mechanics and their racing masters. Highly expensive and more temperamental, it was the American Duesenberg Motor Company that served to introduce this powerful automotive industry innovation to production vehicles. It was the Dusenberg Motor Company that introduced the “8″ to America not Henry Ford of the Ford Motor Company.

Why was it that it took a luxury high end automotive series of products to bring the Duesenberg line of motor vehicles to the automotive historical forefront and not the innovations of the racing car brothers ? First as always is cost – that is in relation to its marketplace. Always consumers and car buyers look and compare a vehicle for purchase to other products in its market segment and niche. Its a price comparison process to the “competition” and competitive vehicles in the auto transportation marketplace. The Model A was priced over the budget of most car buyers – a hefty seven to 8 thousand dollars – which was a very large sum in the eras of the roaring’20’s. Also add historical happen-chance to the mix. After all this was the era post World War 1. It was not only Duesenberg which suffered from the associated stigma of a Teutonic Germanic nameplate. The Chrysler Corporation as well suffered from the same automotive marketing issues to the American motoring public and communities.

While it can be considered that the legacy of the Doozies were the wonderful “boats” , extreme luxury vehicles popularized by the likes of European Royalty as well as American “Royalty” in the form of Hollywood movie stars it was after all the more simple and basic initial products of the Duesenberg Motor Company that overall had the greatest and lasting effects on the American and indeed worldwide European and Japanese Asian automotive industry and products. The straight eight motor power plant went on to become the auto industry base standard against which all other motors were compared and related to . It was first Packard and Buick that followed this trend , and then later with the introduction of the short stroke overhead valve V-8 engine by the General Motors G.M. divisions of Oldsmobile and the luxury vehicle of its time – the namesake Cadillac.

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