Friday, November 18, 2016

Horse carriage stored Duesenburg was stuck in the "barn" for 54 years


Phil Cade bought it in 1941 for $450, it was his wife's daily driver, then he took it racing, then put in a locked three-story brick carriage house in 1950.

The brick building was a true time capsule, the names of horses are above the stalls from the time when the building was home to horses, the walls of the carriage house are lined with racing posters from the 1940s,

Phil had started rebuilding the engine in the 1950s, but some time in the early ’60s, he lost interest in the project and left the straight-eight next to the car in pieces.

The paint on the Derham convertible sedan body had been stripped in the 1940s, exposing its aluminum construction, though the fenders retained their aged maroon color.

Mr. Cade took it racing at Watkins Glen after the family moved to Boston. He stripped the black paint off the Derham convertible sedan’s aluminum body, removed the fenders and top, and painted the number 10 on the car’s side. In Shappy’s opinion, “the car didn’t look like a race car at all.” However, in 1949, the car placed 28th in the annual race at Watkins Glen.


http://www.classiccars.ws/duesn2.htm

2 comments:

  1. One of the more unusual cars to have ever graced a racetrack. Reminds me of the local chap who raced at the Windsor RSL Speedway (just around the corner from me) in the late 1950's. His choice of hot rod was a mid-1930's Packard coupe with the mudguards removed.

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    1. That reminds me that in the 1st Daytona 500 was some car that simply didn't belong there either.
      I'm reminded, that you were trying to get through the archives from the beginning to the most recent, did you do that?

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