The Duesenberg Model D: What if?

"JR1" (type35bugatti) 04/02/2016 at 12:00 • Filed to: Duesenberg Model D

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Photo from madle.org

Nostalgia is a powerful thing. Like a time machine it has the power to transport us back to another time, a better time. There is no doubt that if the Duesenberg Model D would have been produced many a people would have been transported back to a time when the American marque was the zenith and embodiment of what it meant to be a luxury automobile. But would it have been enough for people to buy them?

The Model D Duesenberg was designed by Ghia Body Works of Italy and with the help of Vergil Exner, the master behind Chryslers Forward Look. The Model D would have cost $19,500 dollars dwarfing the price of other automobiles from the era. It also would have dwarfed them in sheer size weighing more than 6000 pounds and having a hood 20 inches longer than the comparable Cadillac. The engine powering this mammoth of a luxury car you ask? A 425hp 440 cubic inch Chrysler V8 engine. It would not have the glamour or speed of the classic Duesenberg straight eight however, the Model D would have certainly had the power to move this boat down the road at a brisk speed.

Photo from carlustblog.com

Photo form madle.org

The interior would have been fit for a king. Ample use of cashmere, leather, and walnut throughout would have made the Model D’s interior not only well appointed but outstandingly luxurious. The gauge cluster complete with an altimeter (harkening back to the Duesenbergs of the 30s) was well positioned and placed. The rear occupants would have been happy as well with coach doors for ease of entry and egress.

There can be no doubt then that the Model D was well appointed and luxurious but would it have been a success if it made it to market?

Photo from carstyling.ru

The man behind the design was Virgil Exner. A man well know for creating the sleek futuristic look of the late 50s Chrysler products. So why then would a brief decade later he reverse course from a forward look to a conservative classic design? The finders do not flow elegantly with the body lines and the grill appears to be an oversized nose. While from some angles the car seems striking at others it appears to be an unrefined mess. Exner stated,

“Grand visions - and ours are just that - take time. What we want to do is bring back the custom market, just as it was in the old days... I hope this will lead into a renaissance of interest in the individualized, custom-bodied car.”

Perhaps then Exner believed the original design he crafted was just that a prototype design with which a larger platform could be built. There is evidence to support this idea with other mock ups such as this one:

Photo from pilotos-muertos.com

Yet even then the mock up appears to be a conservative design not looking forwards but towards the past. Why however? The 60s were a rather turbulent era in the United States and the values of the bright and optimistic fifties had been crushed by the assassination of a president, the ever looming possibility of war in Vietnam, and protests for civil rights. Perhaps Exner wanted to relieve an era that was brighter and ore optimistic. By the time the Duesenberg was released in the later half of the 1920s the American economy was strong and the Roaring Twenties highlighted the strength of an American century that was right at the nations finger tips. Was the Duesenberg Model D capturing that nostalgia through their design?

If so, one can assume the Duesenberg Model D would have sold relatively well in the price bracket it positioned itself in. Setting the trend for retro styling almost three years before the Mark III Continental, the Model D would have created a very popular and lucrative precedent every other American automotive manufactured would have soon followed.

oldconceptcars.com

Or it would have ended up like the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . But lets not talk about that...

Sources:

http://www.carstyling.ru/en/car/1966_du…

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jimz > JR1 04/02/2016 at 12:06

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I’m sorry, I just can’t appreciate the “clown shoe” (long hood, short passenger compartment and deck) proportions. The worst to me is the Jaguar E-Type; that would look a lot better if they sectioned out about a foot of it between the front wheels and doors.

PS9 > JR1 04/02/2016 at 13:14

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Oh man. Mr. Regular would have a field day with this thing.

“PEEENIIIIS. Dicks, cocks, rods, meatswords. They couldn’t have made it more obvious what this car is about [Voice]BUT THEY TRIED ANYWAY WHEN THEY CALLED IT THE MODEL DIIIIIIIIIIICK[/voice]

ranwhenparked > JR1 04/02/2016 at 14:43

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I don’t think it was unique enough to really be taken seriously as a proper luxury car in the ‘60s. Using someone else’s chassis and drivetrain would have caused any Rolls-Royce or Bentley intenders to see it as what it was, a rebodied Chrysler with a fancy interior. And the dash looked pretty dated for the mid ‘60s - and not in a retro 1930s way that would be desirable, but more of a decade old ‘50s way.

If it had been built, it would have been very much in the mold of the Stutz revival cars or the Excalibur neoclassics. It would have appealed to a small niche of buyers that wanted the unique style and air of exclusivity and identified with the time period it was trying to evoke. Sales would have been in the dozens to maybe a bit over 100 per year, and would have been consistent into the ‘80s, then dropped fast until dying off entirely in the late ‘80s or early ‘90s.

It would be remembered today as one of the many flamboyant cars in the fleets of Liberace, Elvis, and King Faisal, which people would mention whenever one came up in the daily Nice Price or Crack Pipe feature.

JR1 > jimz 04/02/2016 at 20:39

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I think it depends on the vehicle. It looms great on things like a Viper but I agree with the E-Type and this Model D it is a bit of a mess

JR1 > PS9 04/02/2016 at 20:41

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Maybe someone should let him review it!

JR1 > ranwhenparked 04/02/2016 at 20:45

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I agree the chassis and engine would have been a pretty hard selling point for a lot of people. Although the rumor is Fred Jr was looking at options to place a different engine in the car before it went on sale.

As for you're prediction on sales I'm not so sure I agree. I think this would have kick started the retro design the Continental championed a view years later. The grotesque styling would have probably evolved unlike the Stutz and it might have been a success (if they were able to get around the Chrysler platform.)