Gordon Miller Buehrig: Designer of American classics (1904-1990)
By Warren W. Fitzgerald
With his retirement from the Ford Motor Co. in July
1965, Gordon Buehrig became the last of the great individual classic era
designers to leave active participation with an automobile company. Road &
Track has published articles which cite specific phases of his productive
career and we now feel it time to chronicle his many contributions to the
richness of our automotive heritage. He will best be remembered for his
stunning 810/812 series front-wheel-drive Cords, but he was also responsible
for the appearance of more examples of cars loved and collected by classic
enthusiasts than any other designer.
Gordon Buehrig was born in Mason City, Ill. on June 18,
1904. As a youngster he was fascinated by automobiles and was frustrated
because his father didn't own one. His older cousin acquired a 1904 Orient
Buckboard and started to build a special car on this primitive chassis.
Gordon and his brother, then high school students, inherited the project
when their cousin got another car. They attempted to construct a speedster
body for the Buckboard, using screen wire over a wooden frame, covering this
with a mixture of sawdust and glue. Finding this unsatisfactory, the boys
covered the framework with canvas and motored about the small Illinois town
in their miniature speedster.
Following high school, Buehrig spent a year at Bradley
College in Peoria. His love for automobiles then took him to Chicago, where
he obtained a job as a taxi driver. He drove from July 1923 until just after
Thanksgiving, when his tender age of 19 was discovered and he was fired.
During his time with the taxi company he became acquainted with the auto
body building firms in Chicago. Attired in his cab driver uniform he went
one day in search of employment to the C. P. Kimball Body Co. There Mr.
Wexelberg, Kimball's chief engineer, advised the young Buehrig to go to
Detroit and join a production body firm, suggesting Fisher or the C. R.
Wilson Body Co. Buehrig wrote letters to each firm and upon receiving
favorable responses went to Detroit for interviews. Mr. Walter Jones, chief
engineer at C. R. Wilson, was in the process of changing jobs and was going
to the Gotfredson Body Co., of Wayne, Mich. as chief engineer. He offered
Gordon a job and the would-be, automobile designer started his career in
November 1924. His apprentice's pay was 400 an hour. During the ensuing year
the young Buehrig became familiar with the ins and outs of composite bodies
being built for Wills Ste. Clair, Jewett and Peerless. Bill Jones, brother
of Walter, was chief draftsman and Gordon worked for him as a detailer and
also ran the blueprint machine.
In January 1926 an opportunity with increased pay
opened at the Dietrich Body Co., so Buehrig signed on as a detail draftsman.
He stayed until August, when wanderlust got the best of him. Quitting, he
drove to California with his brother in hopes of working for Walter Murphy.
This did not come about, so he returned to Detroit in December and went to
work for the Budd Co. This short employment was terminated by a layoff and
through a man he met at Budd, Buehrig found a job at more money with
Packard. There he worked part of his time as a detailer, part as a full-size
body draftsman. His salary had grown to $200 per month, but the urge to
create, rather than execute the designs of others, needed fulfillment.
Farther west on Detroit's Grand Boulevard, General
Motors had initiated their Art and Colour Section under Harley Earl, and
they were hiring designers—at lower than Buehrig's salary. He discussed the
opportunity with his good friend Fred Hooven, now a Ford Motor Co.
executive. Fred told him to follow his conscience and he'd never regret it.
Taking a cut of $30 a month, Gordon became one of the first to join Harley
Earl's staff.
The so-called "pregnant Buick" of 1929 was being
designed and Buehrig did the instrument panel. He recalls that their model
of the car was built on the long-wheelbase chassis and was rather nice. It
suffered and gained its ill-repute in the translation into the production
versions. Flushed with the excitement of his first design assignment,
Buehrig bought a 1929 Buick roadster in the fall of 1928. It didn't take him
long to realize that the $80 per month payments left him little of his
salary for living expenses, but he was afraid to approach Mr. Earl for more
money. A man from Stutz was in Detroit looking for a designer and Gordon
interviewed for the job, asking for what he felt was sufficient money to pay
for the Buick and eat as well. He was accepted.
On Nov. 28, 1928, Gordon Buehrig left GM. Taking a week
off, he drove his beloved Buick to New York to see the auto salon. In the
lobby of the Hotel Commodore he saw the first Model J Duesenberg, but never
dreamed that shortly he'd become chief designer for that firm. He returned
to Detroit, packed his belongings and left for Indianapolis. He started with
Stutz on Dec., 10, 1928.
At Stutz he made his first trip on expense account, in
connection with the design of an instrument panel. He recalls that he spent
the magnificent sum of $79.94. His only design for Stutz which reached
production was his rework of the cowl and windshield on roadster and phaeton
models LeBaron had created. He did design the, boat-tailed bodies for the
three Stutz 1929 Le Mans entries, following the specifications laid down for
that event. He remembers them as being rather stubby because they were used
on the small Black Hawk chassis in which were installed the big Stutz
engines. These were the first Buehrig-designed bodies built by Weymann
American Body Co. of Indianapolis. Later Weymann would execute a number of
his Duesenberg designs.
Stutz was in financial difficulty and Buehrig felt his
future with this firm was not too bright. He met Harold T. Ames, then sales
manager of Duesenberg, and found that they needed a designer. On June 10,
1929, he started the association with them which was to enable him to design
some of the most exciting American automobiles ever built. He was 25 years
old and chief designer for this country's most expensive, most prestigious
motor car.
The Duesenberg Model J chassis had been designed before
Buehrig joined the firm, and the artist who translated the wishes of E. L.
Cord and Harold Ames into reality is unknown to him. He credits this unnamed
artist with doing a superb job on the development of the radiator, fender
and cowl ensemble. Initial orders were placed by Duesenberg for a number of
bodies by LeBaron, Murphy, Derham, Judkins, Holbrook and Willoughby. These
coachbuilders were supported by volume business with larger firms such as
Packard, Pierce Arrow, Lincoln, and others. Though the Murphy convertible
coupes and LeBaron phaetons were popular, customers viewing Duesenbergs at
the salons with Willoughby and Judkins limousines, or Derham sedan bodies,
could see the same designs on lesser chassis and Duesenberg could not
justify a premium price for them.
Had the demand for luxury cars not
diminished even before the stock market crash, sales of these bodies would
have been a lesser problem. But now Harold Ames saw the need to design more
exclusive creations for Duesenberg patrons.
This was the task assigned to Gordon Buehrig in the
summer of 1929.
Three days after joining Duesenberg he made a tour through
the east with Harold Ames to review the coach-builders, thus becoming
familiar with their facilities: The large and potent chassis provided an
excellent basis for some elegant bodies and Buehrig responded at once to the
challenge. Working closely with the sales department, he prepared side-view
drawings of proposed designs for presentation to customers. Upon receipt of
an order his next job was to draw an eighth-scale body draft, which was
turned over to the selected coachbuilder for execution.
The first Buehrig-designed
Duesenberg was a close-coupled coupe on the short wheelbase chassis for
Schreve Archer, of Minneapolis. It was built by Judkins, as was his second
design, a 5-passenger coupe. His first popular model, the Beverly sedan,
started as a catalog rendering which was shown at the 1929 Drake Hotel Salon
in Chicago. It generated considerable interest and the bodies were built in
some quantity by Murphy and Rollston. During 1929 Buehrig made scores of
proposals, most of which never came into being. Had the economy remained
sound, there is no doubt that he'd be credited with many more designs.
The Derham Tourster is Buehrig's favorite Duesenberg.
Built as a show car and finished in goldenrod yellow with pale green
fenders, it was displayed at the Drake Hotel Salon and later at Los Angeles,
where it was purchased by Gary Cooper. Joe E. Brown had a similar car and
several others were built. The Duesenberg which ranks next in Buehrig's
affection, and the only car he designed to a customer's specific wishes, was
the Brunn Torpedo Phaeton built for Marc Lawrence. It became one of the
first Model SJs, being converted to the supercharged version in the summer
of 1932.
This car was reproduced in four more bodies by Weymann
and A. H. Walker. Rich in detail, with a completely disappearing top, the
Torpedo Phaeton is, in the minds of many, the most elegant open Duesenberg.
Another equally handsome Buehrig-designed Duesenberg was the Rollston
"Twenty Grand," originally called the Arlington but popularly renamed for
its $20,000 price tag. This one-of-a-kind example was Duesenberg's show car
for the 1933 Century of Progress Exhibition in Chicago. The Rollston Torpedo
Victoria, designed as a rebodied chassis, was another striking Buehrig
creation and shows his characteristic touch in the long piano hinges used on
the doors.
During his tenure with Duesenberg, Buehrig designed a
car for himself on the Model A Ford chassis. Though he managed to drive
Duesenbergs on occasion, his designer's salary would not permit the purchase
of one. He lowered the top of the Ford, transformed it into a convertible
victoria and regained the headroom by dropping the seats through the
floorboards. It was a handsome little Ford with a distinctly custom look. He
drove it to Detroit in an attempt to show it to Edsel Ford, who he felt
would recognize its esthetic worth. He was prevented from doing so by the
chief body engineer, who declared that Mr. Ford would not be interested.
Business at Duesenberg was lagging in the fall of 1932
and Howard O'Leary, Harley Earl's assistant at GM, contacted Buehrig to ask
if he'd like to rejoin the Art and Colour Section. Gordon replied in the
affirmative and returned to Detroit in February 1933. While at GM he led a
team of artists' in a design contest. The theme of his group's entry became
the germ of the idea from which the 810 Cord evolved. Buehrig always had
liked clean engine compartments and the notion of sealing the hood and using
external radiators to keep out road dirt appealed to him. Their car did not
win the contest but the idea stayed in Buehrig's mind. He did not remain at
GM very for his former boss, Harold Ames, now president of Duesenberg, Inc.,
had other plans for him. Ames was intrigued by the marketing philosophy
behind the revised La Salle, introduced in the fall of 1933. It was an
inexpensive version which used off-the-shelf parts from a higher production
car, the Oldsmobile, while keeping the prestige of the La Salle name. Ames
intended to do the same with a Duesenberg made from Auburn parts and wanted
Buehrig to design the car.
The challenge meant more than security to Buehrig and
he returned to Indiana.
On Nov. 7, 1933, he drew two small pencil sketches of a
rakish, streamlined sedan to show Ames his idea of what the baby Duesenberg
should be. The design incorporated the sealed hood and external radiators
from his GM contest entry. Harold Ames liked the proposal and a prototype
was started on an experimental chassis designed by August Duesenberg. The
car reflected Buehrig's sketches to an exceptional degree when it was
completed in the late spring of 1934. Ames, however, had more pressing
problems and took Gordon off the project.
The 1934 Auburn had been poorly received by cars buyers
and a crash program was needed to facelift the 1935 line. Ames invited
Buehrig to join him at a cottage on Lake Wawasee, Ind., over the 4th of July
holiday. Together they determined the design of the 1935 Auburn. The
facelift included straightening the belt line, reworking front fender dies,
new hood louvers, smaller and better placed headlights and a handsome new
radiator. Buehrig's touch imparted a coherence and solidity lacking in the
previous, model. He also was given the task of designing a boat-tail
speedster, using as much of the 1933 Auburn speedster body as possible.
Auburn had more than one hundred of these bodies left over at the Union City
Body Co. and-wanted to convert them. The details of the 851/852 Auburn
Speedster were related in R&T, March 1961. These cars are cherished by
collectors today.
In the interim the baby Duesenberg had been changed in
concept to become a re-introduced front-wheel-drive Cord. Buehrig led a
small group including Dale Cosper, Dick Robertson, Vince Gardner and Paul
Lorenzen in the development of a quarter-scale model. Contours taken from
this model were given to the late Bart Cotter (until his death in 1964 head
of Fisher Body Engineering), at that time assistant chief body draftsman.
Cotter "eyeballed" the full-size body drawings from a series of 10-in.
sections, and die tooling was made. Most of the body dies were completed by
late 1934. At this time Gordon Buehrig married Betty Whitten and left on a
honeymoon.
Upon his return he found the project halted. Alternate
programs requiring less expensive tooling were being considered. One was an
adaption of the Cord front end styling on the Auburn, retaining the
conventional Auburn chassis and body. Buehrig admits that in building a
scale design model of this hybrid (at management's request) a sly bit of
cheating was used to make it look as bad as possible.
The Cord was salvaged through the efforts of Roy
Faulkner, president of Auburn. He sold the project to the board of directors
with a set of photographs of the clay model. These pictures were taken and
processed by Buehrig and Cosper during a frantic all-night session and
rushed to Chicago just in time for the meeting. It was now just four and one
half months before the New York Auto Show, and to meet AMA requirements 100
production models would have to be built. With concerted effort on the part
of Auburn employees, 100 hand-assembled cars were ready at show time. But
their transmissions were not and none could be demonstrated. The beautiful
Cord was the hit of the show and orders poured in. However, six months
elapsed before they could be, filled and the marketing of the car suffered
severely.
In addition to the basic Cord 4-door, Buehrig and his
small staff translated the design into a 3-passenger convertible coupe and a
5-passenger "convertible phaeton sedan." Actually, this was neither a
phaeton nor a sedan, but rather a convertible victoria with rear quarter
windows, pioneering the style common to convertibles today. The quarter
window on the Cord Phaeton was solidly, attached to the main bow of the
folding top and consequently could not be opened when the top was up. It
rotated to the down position as the top was folded. The 812 Cords of 1937
included supercharged versions and these required new hood inset panels to
accommodate their chromed external exhaust headers. Also, a stretched-out
sedan on a 132-in, wheelbase was designed. It had a small bustle trunk
faired into its rear which unfortunately spoiled the purity of Buehrig's
original design. This longer model was offered in two trim series, the
Custom Berline and Custom Beverly.
The sagacity which made E. L. Cord a wealthy man also
caused him to lose affection for the automobile business. It did not require
even his brand of acumen to see that the mass producers of automobiles would
prevail as the quality gap between their products and custom or
low-production cars narrowed. He transferred his interests to other areas of
his corporate empire and closed out his automobile business. With it went
much of the character of individuality which stamps motor cars classic.
Gordon Buehrig left the Auburn Automobile Co. on Sept.
1, 1936. He had been the director of the design department just short of
three years. A month later he joined the Detroit office of the Edward G.
Budd Mfg. Co. in the same capacity. Things were different at Budd and much
of the effort was concerned with speculative prototype design. One small car
Gordon worked upon had many ingenious details, including a very early
workout of a padded instrument panel. Buehrig remained with Budd for almost
two years, then struck out on his own as a free-lance designer. .
The ensuing decade was very frustrating for the man who
had already carved a niche in automotive history with his designs for
Auburn, Cord and Duesenberg cars. The industry was in a period of
transition, with the market for luxury cars nearly gone. Influence was
concentrated in Ford, Chrysler and General Motors and the 34-year-old
Buehrig had no seniority established where it counted. Immediately after
Pearl Harbor he entered the war effort and his knowledge of surface
development enabled him to make worthwhile contributions to aircraft
component design. At the war's end he had a brief stint with Studebaker
styling under Raymond Loewy, but this gave him little satisfaction. He tried
to go it alone again and even took a brief fling at sales work as a
manufacturer's representative. He found, as have many creative minds, that
this was not for him. By 1948 he had every reason to wonder if he'd ever get
back to his first love, automobile design. Then his luck changed. A job
opened for him with the Ford Motor Co. in 1949.
Buehrig went to work for John Oswald, then head of body
engineering and styling, as head of the body development studio. This group,
one of five studios at Ford Styling, was responsible for developing station
wagons and convertibles from basic sedan bodies designed in the other
'rooms. His first assignment was the car which became the 1951 Ford hardtop.
The design was well integrated into existing body lines. Ford management
wanted the body development studio to work up an all-metal station wagon
patterned after the wood-paneled models in production. Buehrig's group
dutifully executed the wagon as requested and at the same time proposed a
wagon which didn't attempt to imitate the "Woodie." It used sedan doors and
other production panels and cost $200 less to produce. Introduced as the
1952 "Ranch-wagon," it boosted Ford's yearly station wagon sales from 7000
to 140,000 units!
Late in 1952 Gordon Buehrig was appointed chief body
engineer for the Continental Mark II project and worked in this capacity
until 1957. In that year he moved to the product planning group as head of
station wagon planning. He became interested in light cars and was involved
in the early work which culminated in the Falcon. From 1959 until his
retirement last year Buehrig was a principal design engineer in the
materials applications group. In this assignment he worked with special
projects, with special emphasis on plastic body and chassis component
investigations. Buehrig became a very vocal proponent of the use of plastics
in automobiles. In his retirement he continues to spread this gospel,
teaching classes in plastic technology to young designers at the Art Center
School in Los Angeles.
Gordon Buehrig's 810 Cord is the only example of the
mid-Thirties "modern design" idiom revered and collected in numbers today.
We asked him why he left the comparative security of General Motors to take
on what was certainly a questionable project. He replied, "It was the
opportunity to come in and do a complete new automobile—you can't turn that
sort of thing down." Had he stayed at General Motors through all these years
he might be a wealthy man today. But then our world of automobiles would not
be quite so rich.
©1966 Warren W. Fitzgerald - Road & Track
xxxxxGordon Miller Buehrig was born in 1904 in Mason City, Illinois. At 20, he
got his first job in the automobile industry as chief engineer of the Gotfredson Body Company. In the next five
years, he gained experience at Dietrich Incorporated. Packard, General Motors and Stutz. When he was only 25, Gordon
Buehrig became the chief body designer for the most prestigious automobile in the United States, Duesenberg.
Buehrig became very close to the Duesenberg brothers and in fact was invited to live in the home of Fred's family
and did so for over three years. His fabulous Duesenberg designs include the Shreve Archer Judkins Coupe, the
Judkins Victoria Coupe, the Beverly Berline, the Derham Tourster, the Torpedo Phaeton, the Brunn Town Car, the
Roliston Convertible Torpedo Victoria, the Whittell Speedster, the Derham Four-Door Convertible, the La Grande
Phaeton and the Arlington, better known as The Twenty Grand. He also designed the famous "Duesenbird" radiator
ornament.
\
In 1930, Buehrig took delivery on a new Ford and proceeded to give it something a little
different, a body by Buehrig. Augie Duesenberg's racecar shop went to work and the car was cut in half and the back
half discarded. Changes included the windshield and door hinge pillar being cut down three inches and a special
engine hood four and one-half inches longer than the original. The back half was rebuilt. Then it was taken to the
plant and given the same quality paint and trim used on the Duesenberg. Experimental balloon tires were added later
as well as a redesigned radiator and other changes. MoToR Magazine wrote about the car and Buehrig drove it 89,000
miles before selling it in 1934.
In 1934, Auburn Automobile Company's line wasn't being received well by the public. Harold Ames,
the company's vice president, brought Buehrig to the project to redesign the 1934 line. The result was the classic
1935 line introduced in mid-year. Later in 1935, Buehrig also produced the Auburn Speedster, which was so popular
that it remained unchanged in 1936 except for the number on the grill.
In 1933, Buehrig had designed a "Baby Duesenberg" for the company that was to be a fast car and
sell at a lesser cost. It had two outrigger radiators on either side of the car between the front fenders and the
body. But, the twin radiator system proved inadequate under high ambient temperatures and he was taken off this
project to design the 1935 Auburn. When asked to design a new Cord, he brought back to life some of his concepts for
the Baby Duesenberg. According to Buehrig, "the opportunity to work out the design of the new Cord and to have it a
front wheel drive vehicle gave me an assignment as ideal as an automotive designer could imagine." He also
remembered the engineering department excitement was so great, many worked extra several nights a week while
listening to Fred Allen, Amos and Andy and other popular radio programs. Everyone considered working on the Cord
fun.
Though it was fun, the Cord project had many problems within the company and was killed while
Buehrig was on his honeymoon in December of 1934. After his return, it was resurrected, but by this time the company
had less than four months to complete 100 cars for the 1935 New York Auto Show. They made the deadline because the
cars did not have transmissions, which were still being fully developed, and the phaetons were all shown with the
tops down because these particular cars didn't have any tops.
None of this mattered. The Cord stopped the show. People were having to stand on surrounding cars
just to get a glimpse of the beautiful Cord with its exciting new design.
Buehrig left Auburn Automobile and went to the Budd Company where he designed an economy car
called the Wowser. It was never produced. His next position was at White Truck and the King Seeley Company. He
eventually went to Studebaker, and while there, a private opportunity presented itself.
A group of men wanted Buehrig to design a car to be used for European-style grand prix racing in
New York State. The result was the Tasco, an acronym for The American Sports Car Company. Buehrig was never
satisfied with the design, which was done by a committee of investors rather than one designer. He considered the
Tasco his personal Edsel. But, from this car came the design for a top, which became the removable T-top for
Thunderbird and eventually Corvette. The only Tasco made is now on display at the Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg Museum.
Buehrig finally worked for the Ford Motor Company from 1949 until his retirement in 1965. While
there, his projects included the 1951 Ford Victoria Coupe, a 1952 Ford all-metal station wagon and the Continental
Mark 11.
Upon his retirement from Ford, Buehrig was asked to teach a course in plastics at the Art Center
College of Design in Los Angeles. He taught there five years.
Not only has Buehrig received accolades from nearly every automotive publication in the country,
but also he has the distinction of having his 810 Cord recognized by the Museum of Modem Art. In 1951, the museum
printed in its catalogue "the originality of the conception and the skill with which its several parts have
been realized makes it one of the most powerful designs in the exhibition...."
His designs will remain some of the most powerful in automotive history.
7his article is a brief synopsis of the book, Rolling Sculpture, written by Gordon Buehrig in conjunction with
William S. Jackson.
xxxxxxx
Cord 810
This snapshot of the quarter-scale clay model was taken by Gordon Buehrig and Dale Cosper in July 1935. So
perfect was the model that the production version of the Cord 810 differed only in details. Windshield and rear
window became 2-piece designs, because curved glass wasn't available. Bumpers were replaced with a stock design that
could be purchased from a supplier. Fender seams were not needed, and sheetmetal covering the transmission was
reshaped.
The clay model was painted with red lacquer.
xxxxxxx
Gordon Miller Buehrig was born in 1904 in Mason City, Illinois. At 20, he got his first job in the automobile
industry as chief engineer of the Gotfredson Body Company. In the next five years, he gained experience at Dietrich
Incorporated, Packard, General Motors and Stutz. When he was only 25, Gordon Buehrig became the chief body designer
for the most prestigious automobile in the United States, Duesenberg.Buehrig became very close to the Duesenberg brothers and in fact was invited to live in the home of Fred's family
and did so for over three years. His fabulous Duesenberg designs include the Shreve Archer Judkins Coupe, the
Judkins Victoria Coupe, the Beverly Berline, the Derham Tourster, the Torpedo Phaeton, the Brunn Town Car, the
Rollston Convertible Torpedo Victoria, the Whittell Speedster, the Derham Four-Door Convertible,
the La Grande Phaeton and the Arlington, better known as The Twenty Grand. He also designed the famous "Duesenbird''
radiator ornament.
In 1930, Buehrig took delivery on a new Ford and proceeded to give it something a little different, a body by
Buehrig. Augie Duesenberg's race car shop went to work and the car was cut in half and the back half discarded.
Changes included the windshield and door hinge pillar being cut down three inches and a special engine hood four and
one-half inches longer than the original. The back half was rebuilt. Then it was taken to the plant and given the
same quality paint and trim used on the Duesenberg. Experimental balloon tires were added later as well as a
redesigned radiator and other changes. Motor Magazine wrote about the car and Buehrig drove it 89,000 miles before
selling it in 1934.
In 1934, Auburn Automobile Company's line wasn't being received well by the public. Harold Ames, the company's
vice president, brought Buehrig to the project to redesign the 1934 line. The result was the classic 1935 line
introduced in mid-year. Later in 1935, Buehrig also produced the Auburn Speedster which was so popular that it
remained unchanged in 1936 except for the number on the grill.
In 1933, Buehrig had designed a "Baby Duesenberg" for the company which was to be a fast car and sell at a lesser
cost. It had two outrigger radiators on either side of the car between the front fenders and the body. But, the twin
radiator system proved inadequate under high ambient temperatures and he was taken off this project to design the
1935 Auburn. When asked to design a new Cord, he brought back to life some of his concepts for the Baby Duesenberg.
According to Buehrig, "the opportunity to work out the design of the new Cord and to have it a front wheel drive
vehicle gave me an assignment as ideal as an automotive designer could imagine." He also remembered the engineering
department excitement was so great, many worked extra several nights a week while listening to Fred Allen. Amos and
Andy and other popular radio programs. Everyone considered working on the Cord fun.
Though it was fun, the Cord project had many problems within the company and was killed while Buehrig was on his
honeymoon in December of 1934. After his return, it was resurrected, but by this time the company had less than four
months to complete 100 cars
for the 1935 New York Auto Show. They made the deadline because the cars did not have transmissions. which were
still being fully developed, and the phaetons were all shown with the tops down because these particular cars didn't
have any tops.
None of this mattered. The Cord stopped the show. People were having to stand on surrounding cars just to get a
glimpse of the beautiful Cord with its exciting new design.
Buehrig left Auburn Automobile and went to the Budd Company where he designed an economy car called the Wowser.
It was never produced. His next position was at White Truck and the King Seeley Company. He eventually went to
Studebaker and while there,
a private opportunity presented itself.
A group of men wanted Buehrig to design a car to be used for European-style grand prix racing in New York State.
The result was the "Tasco", an acronym tar 'The American Sports Car Company. Buehrig was never satisfied with the
design which was done by a committee of investors rather than one deigned He considered the Tasco his personal
Edsel. But, from this car came the design for a top which became the removable T-top for Thunderbird and eventually
Corvette. The only Tasco made is now on display at the Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg Museum.
Buehrig finally worked for the Ford Motor Company from 1949 until his retirement in 1965. While there, his
projects included the 1951 Ford Victoria Coupe, a 1952 Ford all-metal station wagon and the Continental Mark II.
Upon his retirement from Ford, Buehrig was asked to teach a course in plastics at the Art Center College of
Design in Los Angeles. He taught there five years.
Not only has Buehrig received accolades from nearly every automotive publication in the country, but also he has
the distinction of having his 810 Cord recognized by the Museum of Modern Art. In 1951, the museum printed in its
catalogue "the originality of the conception and the skill with which its several parts have been realized makes it
one of the most powerful designs in the exhibition ....''
His designs will remain some of the most powerful in automotive history.
Gordon Buehrig's 55th year in the automotive design field was highlighted by Detroit entrepreneur Richard Kughn
introducing the Buehrig Motor Car. It was designed by Buehrig and was meant to combine luxury with race car
sleekness in the neo-classical style.
The Buehrig is a Carriage Roof Coupe hand-built of fiberglass. It is powered by a 350 cubic inch General Motors
V8 engine with computerized fuel injection and a four-speed Turbo-Hydromatic 400 automatic transmission. The car
sits on a lengthened Corvette chassis and weighs 3300 pounds.
To the first prototype, Buehrig added two very personal features: first, Sweden's national colors of blue and
yellow were used throughout the interior in honor of his wife, Kay, who is of Swedish ancestry and second, he added
a T-top, which he originally designed some thirty years earlier.
The Buehrig Motor Car was meant to be a limited production automobile, selling for approximately $130,000.
However, the company fell victim to the astronomical costs of manufacturing and only four prototypes were produced.
Richard and Linda Kughn graciously donated the company's first prototype Buehrig to the Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg
Museum. It sits proudly next to Buehrig's Cord 810 and the Tasco which is adjacent to the restored Auburn Automobile
Company design studios which Buehrig headed in 1934-1936.
LARGE BEAUTIFUL AUTOMOBILE
In November, 1988 Gordon Buehrig entered a competition for The Rolex Awards For Enterprise 1990. His project title:
Large Cars of the Future. The following are excerpts from the application form Buehrig filled out.
''I have little formal education to record. I graduated from high school in 1922 in my home town of Mason City,
Illinois. I attended the Fall and Spring term at Bradley College (1922-23) now Bradley University. in Peoria,
Illinois. I also attended the Spring term of 1924.
As a child I was fascinated with automobiles and about age ten I decided that I wanted to be an automobile
designer. When I was nineteen I met an automobile executive in Chicago who advised me on my career. He said that
before I try to design automobile bodies I should learn how to build them and that I should start as an apprentice
in the body factory."
A brief description of the project: "Large Cars of the Future: A completely new concept which incorporates the
use of two small engines rather than one large one to propel the vehicle. Why? By this arrangement the following
advantages are achieved:
1. Approximately a 50% improvement in fuel efficiency.
2. Approximately 30% more people space in a vehicle of the same length and width.
3. Greatly improved ride due to optimum weight distribution.
4. Four wheel drive when desired.
5. Improved aerodynamic shape.
6. Greater dependability
7. A more diverse market.
8. A totally new look.
A detailed project description included:
"The LBA (large beautiful automobile) has a 3 liter V6 engine driving the front wheels and a 2 1/2 liter engine
driving the rear wheels. On a trip the operator sets the cruise control at 70 miles per hour or at whatever speed he
desires and shuts off the rear engine which automatically goes into neutral. By this arrangement. the car will
operate at an estimated 30 miles per gallon. At 70 miles, the car only requires 20 horse-power. Note: A special
device is required to put the rear automatic transmission into free wheeling when it is in neutral.
Although this is a completely new concept for large cars, it uses all present day technology and parts. In other
words, no new inventions are required and present day state of the art methods of manufacture of both the chassis
and the body are used. Consequently producing such a vehicle presents no unsolved problems to either the engineering
department of a company or to its manufacturing division."
''The front engine is larger than the rear because it drives the accessories: the alternator to charge the
battery, power steering, air conditioning etc. Synchronization of the two engines is not a problem. Friction between
the tires and the road surface will keep the wheels turning at the same speed even if one engine is producing more
power."
7his article is a brief synopsis of the book, Rolling Sculpture, written by Gordon Buehrig in conjunction with
William S. Jackson.
xxxxx
GORDON BUEHRIG
This first Eyes on Design show (formerly Eyes on the Classics) paid tribute to automobile design of the past,
present and future. It is therefore fitting that the first designer to receive our Lifetime Achievement Award is the
man responsible for the styling of more automobiles that are revered and collected by classic car enthusiasts than
any other designer.
The Detroit Institute of Ophthalmology and the Eyes on the Classics committee is proud to honor Gordon Miller
Buehrig's vision and contributions to the art form of automobile design by presenting him with the Steuben Lifetime
Achievement Award.
Buehrig, among the last of the great individual American car stylists, designed automobiles that make classic car
lovers' eyes light up--such names as Duesenberg, Cord, Stutz, Auburn.
At the age of 24 he began developing sketches and then production drawings of what eventually became Detroit's
rolling sculpture. Today, more than 60 years later, he continues to create clay models and drawings with the clean
lines and pure beauty that epitomize classic automobiles.
Buehrig considers himself an automobile architect and sculptor rather than a technologist and engineer.
Throughout his career, he chose opportunities to create individual new designs over those which offered financial
security and career advancements.
Born in Mason City, Illinois on July 18, 1904, Buehrig has had a lifelong passion for cars. While in high school,
he tried to create a speedster body for a 1904 Orient Buckboard by covering the car's wooden framework with canvas.
Buehrig's first design job was in November 1924 as a 40 cents per hour apprentice with the Gotfredson Body
Company in Wayne, Michigan. There he learned about composite bodies, working as detailer and running the blueprint
machine. In January 1926, he began earning more money at a new job as a draftsman with Dietrich Body Company. He
quit that August, driving to California with his brother, in hopes of working for Walter Murphy. This was not to be.
Buehrig returned to Detroit, in December 1926, worked for the Edward G. Budd Company and was laid off.
He soon found a job at Packard. There he split his time working as a detailer and as a full-size body draftsman,
earning $200 a month.
In 1927, he took a $30-a-month cut in pay to become one of the first designers at General Motors' Art and Color
Section, under the direction of Harley Earl. He immediately went to work designing the instrument panel of the 1929
"pregnant Buick."
Buehrig bought his first car in 1928 while at General Motors--a 1929 Buick roadster and soon found that making
$80-a-month payments on the car left him very little to live on. Afraid to approach Mr. Earl for a pay raise, he
interviewed with Stutz, and at age 24, was hired as the auto company's chief body designer.
He left General Motors on November 28, 1928. That week, Buehrig drove his Buick to New York for the Auto Salon,
where, in the lobby of the Hotel Commodore, he spied the Model J Duesenberg. Buehrig says he never dreamed that he
would soon be chief designer.
He joined Stutz in Indianapolis on December 10, 1928. While there, he designed the boat-tailed bodies for the
three Stutz 1929 Le Mans entries. These were the first Buehrig-designed bodies built by Weymann American Body
Company of Indianapolis. They later produced a number of Buehrig's Duesenberg designs. Buehrig's only design which
reached production at Stutz was the rework of the cowl and windshield on roadster and phaeton models LeBaron
created.
In 1925, young American men would have done most anything to get close to the American dream machines--the
Duesenbergs. A meeting with Duesenberg sales manager Harold T. Ames led Buehrig to the ultimate dream for a designer
becoming chief designer for the fastest, most prestigious and luxurious motor car in the country.
"The best fringe benefit of working for Duesenberg was being allowed to drive all the cars . . . I used to drive
all night, with the top down, the moon up . . . just drive," Buehrig says today.
Buehrig's first challenge was to design more exclusive bodies for Duesenberg patrons. Three days after joining
Duesenberg, Buehrig made a tour of the coach-builders facilities. Working with the sales department at Duesenberg,
he prepared side view drawings of proposed designs which were presented to customers. When an order came in, Buehrig
drew an eighth-scale body draft which was turned over to the selected coachbuilder to produce.
The first Buehrig-designed Duesenberg was a close-coupled coupe on a short wheelbase chassis. It was built by
Judkins, as was his second design, a five-passenger coupe. The first popular Duesenberg, the Beverly Sedan, was
built by Murphy and Rollston.
Buehrig's favorite "Doozie" was the Derham Tourster, a show car finished in goldenrod yellow with pale green
fenders. Displayed at the Drake Hotel Salon and later at Los Angeles, it was purchased by actor Gary Cooper.
Buehrig's next-favorite model and the only car he designed to a customer's specific wishes, was the Brunn Torpedo
Phaeton built for Marc Lawrence. Considered by many to be the most elegant open Duesenberg, it became one of the
first Model SJ's. The model was converted into the super-charged version in the summer of 1932, and reproduced in
four more bodies by Weymann and A. H. Walter.
Working at Duesenberg did not mean Buehrig could afford to own one, so he designed a car for himself on a Model A
Ford chassis--he lowered the top, transformed it into a convertible victoria and regained headroom by dropping the
seats through the floorboards.
Buehrig left Duesenberg in 1932 as luxury car sales, which had been slowing even before the Depression, continued
to lag. In the fall of 1932, Howard O'Leary, Harvey Earl's assistant at General Motors, invited Buehrig to rejoin
the Art and Color Section at GM, which he did in February 1933.
At GM, the germ of the idea which became Buehrig's masterpiece--the 810 Cord--evolved. Buehrig, who liked clean
engine compartments, wanted to seal the hood and use external radiators. That was the theme for his team's entry in
an in-house GM design contest. While the idea did not win, it stayed with Buehrig.
Buehrig rejoined Duesenberg in the fall of 1933 to work again for Ames, who by this time was company president.
Ames liked the marketing strategy for the revised La Salle, introduced in the fall of 1933. It was an inexpensive
version using off-the-shelf parts from a higher priced production car, the Oldsmobile, while retaining the prestige
of the La Salle name. Ames wanted to make and market a Duesenberg made from Auburn parts, and he wanted Buehrig to
design the car.
On November 7, 1933, Buehrig drew two small pencil sketches of a stream-lined sedan, his idea for the baby
Duesenberg, with sealed hood and external radiators. A prototype was started on an experimental chassis designed by
August Duesenberg. The car, completed in the spring of 1934, was a clear reflection of Buehrig's sketches. But by
this time Ames had more pressing problems. He took Buehrig off the project to provide a fast facelift to the 1935
Auburn line. During a fourth of July weekend, Buehrig and Ames reworked the Auburn design--straightening the belt
line, changing fender dies, creating new hood louvers, smaller and better headlights and a new radiator.
Buehrig also designed the boat-tail 851/852 Auburn speedster, revered by car collectors today, using some of the
100 1933 Auburn speedster bodies which were unused at the Union City Body Company.
In the meantime, the baby Duesenberg had been transformed and was reintroduced as a front-wheel-drive Cord.
Buehrig led a small group of designers, including Dale Cosper, Dick Robertson, Vince Gardener and Paul Lorenzen, to
develop a quarter-scale model. The late Bart Cotter, then assistant chief body draftsman and later head of Fisher
Body Engineering, "eye- balled" the full-size body drawings from a series of 10-inch sections. Tooling was started
and most of the body dies were completed by late 1934. The result would be the Cord 810 whose bold and innovative
styling would capture and hold the interest of classic car enthusiasts.
At about that time, Buehrig married Betty Whitten. When he returned from his honeymoon, he found the project
halted, with talk about alternate programs with less expensive tooling. The Cord was saved through the efforts of
Roy Falkner, president of Auburn, who sold the project to the company's board of directors with a set of photographs
of the clay model. Buehrig and Cosper had taken and processed the photos during a frantic all-night session and
rushed them to Chicago in time for the meeting.
The next challenge was to complete the required 100 production models in less than five months to show the car at
the New York Auto Show. Auburn employees finished 100 hand-assembled cars by show time, but the transmissions were
not completed and the cars could not be demonstrated. The Cord was the hit of the show and orders poured in. But it
was six months before they could be filled and marketing of the car suffered, Buehrig reminisces.
Buehrig's small staff translated the basic four-door Cord design into a three-passenger convertible coupe and a
five-passenger car billed as a "convertible phaeton sedan." The latter was actually a convertible victoria with rear
quarter windows, a pioneer to the modern convertible style, The quarter window of the Cord Phaeton was solidly
attached to the main bow and could not be opened when the top was up; it rotated to the down position as the top was
folded.
The 812 Cords of 1937 included supercharged models which required new hood inset panels to accommodate the
chromed external exhaust headers. Buehrig's design team also created a stretched-out sedan on a 132-inch wheelbase
which was offered in two trim series--the Custom Berline and the Custom Beverly.
After serving as director of the design department at Auburn Automobile Company for slightly less than three
years, Buehrig left the company in September 1936. A month later, he joined the Budd Company in the same capacity,
where he concentrated on speculative prototype design. He stayed at Budd for almost two years, leaving to free-lance
as a designer.
The next decade was a frustrating time for the designer who had carved a niche in auto design history with his
creations of Auburns, Cords and Duesenbergs. The market for luxury cars was very small and auto design influence was
concentrated at Ford, Chrysler and General Motors.
Immediately after the Bombing of Pearl Harbor, Buehrig became involved in aircraft component design, to which he
brought his knowledge and expertise in surface development. At the end of the war, he worked briefly in the design
department at Studebaker under Raymond Loewy, but was soon a free-lancer again, and even took a sales job as a
manufacturer's representative.
By 1948, Buehrig wondered if he would ever get back to what he loved best, auto design. He did, with Ford Motor
Company. In 1949, Buehrig went to work for Ford's John Oswald, then head of body engineering and styIing, as head of
the body development studio. One of five studios at Ford Styling, this group was responsible for creating station
wagons and convertibles from standard sedan bodies designed in the other studios. Buehrig's first assignment was the
car which became the 1951 Ford hardtop.
Ford management asked the body development studio to create an all-metal station wagon patterned after the
wood-paneled models in production. Buehrig's group did so, simultaneously proposing a wagon which did not copy-cat
the "woodie." With sedan doors and other production panels, it cost $200 less to produce. Introduced in 1952, the
Ranchwagon boosted Ford's annual station wagon sales from 7,000 to 140,000 units.
In 1952, Buehrig was named chief body designer for the Continental Mark II project and served in that position
until 1957, when he became head of station wagon planning. Buehrig became interested in light cars and participated
in the initial effort from which the Falcon became a reality.
From 1959 until retiring from Ford in July 1965, Buehrig was a principal design engineer in the materials
applications group. He worked on special projects with an emphasis on exploring plastic body and chassis components.
A vocal proponent of the use of plastics in automobiles, Buehrig continues to spread this gospel today to young
designers around the U.S. and the world.
Buehrig's indelible mark on the automobile design world assures his place in automobile history. But fame, money
and security have never meant as much to him as the challenge to design automobiles that are beautiful and
functional.
The wealth of ideas, knowledge and expertise he has accumulated in his 60 years as a design genius keeps Buehrig
busy today at his studio and garage in Grosse Pointe, where he lives with his second wife, Kay.
On a recent visit he showed final production drawings of one of his favorite design themes, a spacious,
aerodynamically-styled wagon, with two small engines and a special driveline configuration to provide plenty of room
for the low-seat passenger compartment. In Buehrig's garage are a Honda CRX coupe with automatic transmission along
with a 1951 Ford Victoria hardtop coupe he designed, and a 1971 Corvette with T-roof, a special configuration which
he created and patented after World War II.
"The mark of the really exceptional car designer is the degree to which his creations are coveted and revered
long after they were built. Many of Gordon Buehrig's cars are in this class-true collector items. They were
considered classic cars when introduced, and the feeling about them, the sense of distinction and value, has
increased with the passage of time," wrote former American Motors Vice President for Styling, Richard A. Teaque in a
prologue to a volume of Buehrig's work, "Rolling Sculpture".
Eyes on the Classics is proud to have many of Buehrig's classics, including the 810 Cord and the 1951 Ford hard
top, displayed today.
The growing popularity of classic cars has led to the reproduction of many of Buehrig's greatest designs. The 810
Cord Roadster and 866 Auburn speedster are replicas of his originals. In 1979, business leader and classic car
collector Richard Kughn launched the Buehrig, a replica sports car. One of the three prototype Buehrig's is
displayed today.
Eyes on the Classics salutes Gordon Buehrig for his insight, sensitivity and creativity. He has given us examples
which have created automobile legends. Gordon Buehrig is the finest example of a living legend.
xxxxxx
Designer Gordon M. Buehrig is issued a US patent for his "vehicle top with removable panels," an invention that
would eventually appear as a "T-top" on the 1968 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray.
Buehrig was a member of America’s first generation of automobile stylists. As a boy, he
had always dreamed of designing cars, so at the age of seventeen he took a summer job with the Yellow Cab Company in
Chicago in order to be around the greatest variety of cars possible. He held the job until the company discovered he
was under-aged. Before he left Chicago, Buehrig called Clarence Wexelburg, designer for the custom body-building
C.P. Kimball Company, and asked him how he should go about becoming a car designer. Wexelburg directed him to take
classes in drafting, wood and metal shop, and art. Buehrig pursued all three at Bradley Polytechnic before leaving
for Detroit in search of an apprenticeship, which he found at Packard. His inexperience limited him to unexciting
work as a body panel designer, but it was at Packard that he made valuable connections in the design industry and
where he first discovered Le Corbusier’s book, Toward a New Architectrure, a text that would influence Buehrig’s own
aesthetic sense for the rest of his life.
In 1928 Buehrig was the fourth man hired by Harley Earl for GM’s new Art and Color
Section, the first GM department dedicated solely to design concerns. Buehrig didn’t stay long there, just long
enough to share Earl’s frustration with the execution of the Art department’s designs. Of the 1929 Buick, the
"pregnant Buick," Buehrig objectd: "Harley Earl’s original design was a masterpiece, but Art and Color was new and
he couldn’t swing a lot of weight." Leaving GM’s fledgling Art Department may have been a mistake for Buehrig, as
Earl would rapidly establish the department as the industry’s first design dynasty. But just as likely Buehrig’s
inventiveness would have been harnessed by Earl, and while Buehrig would have become rich, he might never have
achieved the boldness of his later designs.
Buehrig, just twenty-four, left GM to become chief body designer at Stutz before moving
on to the even more prestigious role of chief designer at Duesenberg. At the age of twenty-five he began designing
America’s most high-profile car bodies. His crowning achievement came in 1936 with the Cord 810. Heavily influenced
by Le Corbusier’s designs, the 810 had disappearing headlights, a hidden gas cap, and venetian blind louvers that
accentuated the car’s lean "coffin-nosed" hood. It was an affordable future car. In 1951 the Museum of Modern Art
picked the Cord 810 as one of eight automobiles selected worldwide to be exhibited as pieces of art. Curator Arthur
Drexel wrote Buehrig that in the museum’s view, the 810 was "the outstanding American contribution to automobile
design." Buehrig quietly changed the way cars look today. Ironically, his former employer Harley Earl would follow
Buehrig’s work closely, often incorporating his innovations into GM’s designs. It was Buehrig who first erased the
running board from the American car… and Earl who first got the credit.
xxxxx
Buehrig was born in 1904 in Mason City, Illinois, and began his automotive career in 1924 at Gotfredson Body Co.
in Wayne, Michigan, which made bodies for the Wills St. Clair, Peerless and Jewett cars.
In 1927, he was hired by General Motors, the fourth designer hired for Harley Earl’s new Art and Color
Department, the industry’s first styling operation. A year later, at age 24, he became chief body designer for
Stutz, in Indianapolis, then the year after that became chief designer for the most legendary American nameplate of
all, Duesenberg, also built in Indianapolis.
He designed such Duesenberg classics as the Beverly Berline, the Torpedo Phaeton, the Derham Tourster and the
Weymann Boattail Speedster as well as the Duesenberg eagle hood ornament.
In 1934, he was transferred to Auburn, where he designed Auburns and Cords and produced his most celebrated
designs, the Auburn Boat-tail Speedster and the 1936 “coffin-nose” 810 and 812 Cords. It is said that a poll of
visitors to the New York Auto Show in 1936 where the Cord 810 was released was that twice as many people rated the
Cord tops as the second place-getter, the Lincoln Zephyr.
After World War II, Buehrig moved to Ford, where he designed the ’51 Ford Victoria hardtop coupe and worked on
the Mark II Continental. He retired from Ford in 1965 and taught five years at the Art Center College of Design in
Pasadena, California.
He died in January, 1990.
Gordon M. Buehrig bolted Studebaker and joined the Dearborn boys in 1949 to design the Crestliner and
the Victoria. His classic touches had graced early Packards, Duesenbergs and Stutz cars. For a while he worked for
GM. His former mentor, Richard Loewy, had been a “see though top” enthusiast for years. Buehrig developed hinged
clear panels for the experimental TASCO car long before the “T-top” idea became in vogue. [TASCO was an acronym for
the American Sports Car Company and the only one built is displayed at the Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg Museum.]
Prototype car, acronym name stands for 'The American Sportscar Company. Based on
a design by Gordon Buehrig, built of post-World War II aluminum. It was shown in Wichita in 1948 in the hope of
contracting with Beech Aircraft Company for production of the aviation-inspired automobile. This model is the only
one ever built, it is now owned by the Cord Auburn Dusenberg Museum in Auburn, Indiana. Shown here at the Cardwell
Manufacturing Company in Wichita; owner H.W. Cardwell and employees are identified (on file).
|
Over the last number of years, I have bought and sold many cars, either in a complete form or parted them to pay for the 1929 Ford hot rod project. One of these cars was a 1991 Ford Mustang. I sold many parts from this car, kept several, including the headlights with the intention of converting the old Model A Ford headlights to halogen lighting. These sat around in the shop for a couple of years before I actually got around to this. Now that I am very close to having the 1929 Ford hot rod on the road, headlights are important.
The modified 1991 Ford Mustang headlight sockets were then attached to the Model A Ford reflectors using only two #6 by 32, half inches screws.
As an in term measure, I decided to paint the Model A Ford reflectors with a high heat silver paint that had decent reflective properties. These newly modified reflectors using halogen bulb will do till I replace the reflectors later on. As luck would have it, I found in the workshop two identical stainless steel mixing bowls that would make perfect reflectors in the Model A Ford headlights. As a future post, I will have a video, showing the entire process of making new headlight reflectors using parts from an old Ford Explorer and the stainless steel mixing bowls. Both of these conversions will only cost me my time and no out of pocket expense. I do intend to sell the first set I converted in the next while. These would be perfect for a daily driver or rat rod.
