The Duesenberg Mormon Meteor Was One Mean Tabernacle

"Money Hustard" (moneyhustard)
04/17/2015 at 16:28 • Filed to: Collector Cars, Classic Cars, Duesenberg

There’s an abundance of precedent in naming motor vehicles after ethnic groups. You have the VW Touareg, Indian Motorcycles, the Apache attack helicopter, Jeep’s Cherokee and Comanche, but you don’t often see an !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , if ever.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

The Mormon Meteor was introduced in 1932, but produced a not-at-all-bad-by-today’s-standards 320 horsepower, much of which was the product of a very high pressure supercharger. After several years of the development, during which Fred Duesenberg died (from a car accident, surprising right?), Augie Duesenberg took the thing to the Bonneville Salt Flats and set record after record, hence the Mormon moniker . (Hammerhead Fistpunch pointed out that it was infact the mormomness of the driver not the location of its exploits that earned the car its name)

It was August 31, 1935, scorching 120° heat was radiating off the glistening white salt flats, sending a wall of translucent distortion weaving skyward across the miles of barren terrain. In the distance, the sound of an engine shattered the still desert air like rolling thunder and a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! materialized, ghost like through the vortex of thermal reflection, hurtling past the timers at nearly 160mph. Over the next 24 hours David Abbot “Ab” Jenkins, already America’s number one speed record holder, would record an average speed 145.47mph on a 10 mile oval course laid out across the Bonneville Salt Flats. The distance traveled by Jenkins and the Duesenberg Special over 24 hours was 3,262 miles, nearly the equivalent of driving coast-to-coast in one day. Jenkins also established a new one-hour speed record of 152.145mph, breaking the previous one-hour speed of 134.9mph set in March 1934 at the Avus Ring in Germany by Hans Stuck, who was driving the brand new Auto Union racecar designed by Ferdinand Porsche.

But the Duesenberg nutters weren’t done with this falicemobile. They got the horsepower up to almost 400 horsepower increasing manifold pressure to roughly 8 pounds.

None of this sat well with the rest of the world’s psychopathic population. A duo of Brits headed to Utah later in 1935 with two cars powered by 12-cylinder aircraft engines. One of their cars was marginally faster than the Duesenberg, so obviously things escalated.

[Returning] to Bonneville in 1936 fitted with a 12-cylinder, 650 horsepower Curtis Conqueror aircraft engine, (what was good for the Brits was good for Jenkins and Augie Duesenberg) sweeping away all of the previous year’s records in every category from 50 miles to 48 hours.

650 horsepower!!!!!

After the Meteor, land speed record holders started to resemble rockets more than cars making the Meteor one of the last roadworthy cars to hold the title. It even looks good in whitewalls.

Can you think of a more mental depression era car? Heck, a more mental car period?

DISCUSSION (9)

Party-vi > Money Hustard
04/17/2015 at 16:32

There will never be another company like Duesenberg. I am simultaneously sad but ok with this fact.

HammerheadFistpunch > Money Hustard
04/17/2015 at 16:34

Ab Jenkins was also Utah’s 24th Major and a devout Mormon.

Money Hustard > HammerheadFistpunch
04/17/2015 at 16:44

Edited for accuracy, thanks!

Sam > Party-vi
04/17/2015 at 16:45

I’m just amazed that there aren’t any companies doing Pur Sang-style replicas of the ACD cars. If there’s a market for replica Type 34s, there’s a market for Mormon Meteors.

Money Hustard > Party-vi
04/17/2015 at 16:46

Right? I want to see them on the road, I just don’t want to be anywhere near that road.

RallyWrench > Money Hustard
04/17/2015 at 17:38

I love this car’s history, it’s just fascinating.

Party-vi > Sam
04/17/2015 at 18:54

There are replica Auburns and Cords (or at least Cords) being made. They usually run about $60k.

JR1 > Money Hustard
04/20/2015 at 14:19

This Duesy looks way better than the one tested by Jay on his show. That engine was decades ahead of itself.

Money Hustard > JR1
04/20/2015 at 14:56

Driving cars with that sort of power in today’s cars is crazy. I can only imagine what this did to the mind of someone from the 1930’s.