The Cord 810, and later Cord 812, was a
luxury automobile
A luxury car is a car that provides increased levels of comfort, equipment, amenities, quality, performance, and associated status compared to moderately priced cars.
The term is subjective and reflects both the qualities of the car and the ...
produced by the
Cord Automobile
Cord was the brand name of an American luxury automobile company from Connersville, Indiana, manufactured by the Auburn Automobile Company from 1929 to 1932 and again in 1936 and 1937.
The Cord Corporation was founded and run by E. L. C ...
division of the
Auburn Automobile Company in 1936 and 1937. It was the first American-designed and built
front wheel drive
Front-wheel drive (FWD) is a form of engine and transmission layout used in motor vehicles, where the engine drives the front wheels only. Most modern front-wheel drive vehicles feature a transverse engine, rather than the conventional longitu ...
car with
independent front suspension
Independent suspension is any automobile suspension system that allows each wheel on the same axle to move vertically (i.e. reacting to a bump on the road) independently of the others. This is contrasted with a beam axle or deDion axle system in ...
. It was preceded by Cord's own 1929
Cord L-29
Cord was the brand name of an American luxury automobile company from Connersville, Indiana, manufactured by the Auburn Automobile Company from 1929 to 1932 and again in 1936 and 1937.
The Cord Corporation was founded and run by E. L. Cor ...
, and the French 1934
Citroën Traction Avant
Traction may refer to:
Engineering
*Forces:
** Traction (engineering), adhesive friction or force
** Traction vector, in mechanics, the force per unit area on a surface, including normal and shear components
* Traction motor, an electric motor ...
front wheel drive cars, but the 810 / 812 was commercially less successful than these.
The Cord 810 and 812 were also the first production cars to feature
hidden / pop-up headlights. Additionally, the radical new styling of its nose completely replaced the traditional radiator grille, in favor of horizontal louvers, that curved all around the sides of the nose, earning the car's styling the nickname of 'coffin nose'.
History
![Wolfsburg Jun 2012 081 (Autostadt - 1937 Cord 812 S-C Sedan)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8e/Wolfsburg_Jun_2012_081_%28Autostadt_-_1937_Cord_812_S-C_Sedan%29.JPG)
The styling of the Cord 810 was the work of designer
Gordon M. Buehrig and his team of stylists, which included young
Vince Gardner and
Alex Tremulis
Alexander Sarantos Tremulis (January 23, 1914 – December 29, 1991) was a Greek-American industrial designer in the North American automotive industry. Tremulis held automotive design positions at Cord Automobile, Duesenberg, General Motors, Tu ...
. While the first American front-wheel-drive car with independent front suspension, it had an archaic tube rear axle with semi-elliptic rear springs.
Power came from a
Lycoming V8 of the same as the L-29.
[ Burgess-Wise, p. 437.] The semi-automatic
four-speed transmission (three plus overdrive)
extended in front of the engine, like on a ''Traction Avant''. This allowed Buehrig to dispense with the driveshaft and transmission tunnel; as a result, the new car was so low it required no
running board
A running board or footboard is a narrow step fitted under the side doors of a tram ( cable car, trolley, or streetcar in North America), car, or truck. It aids entry, especially into high vehicles, and is typical of vintage trams and cars, ...
s.
It had a wheelbase (shared with several 812 body styles), and in 1936 came in four models: the entry-level sedan at US$1995, the Beverly sedan ($2095), Sportsman ($2145), and Phaeton ($2195). The 1937 812s had the same models, priced $2445, $2545, $2585, and $2645, plus two more, on a wheelbase, the $2960 Custom Beverly and $3060 Custom
Berline called the Westchester.
Reportedly, conceived as a
Duesenberg and nearly devoid of chrome, the 810 had hidden door hinges
and rear-hinged hood,
rather than the side-opening type more usual at the time, both new items. It featured
pontoon fenders
Ponton or pontoon styling is an automotive design genre that spanned roughly from the 1930s-1960s, when pontoon-like bodywork enclosed the full width and uninterrupted length of a car body — eliminating previously distinct running boards a ...
with
hidden headlamps
Hidden headlamps, also commonly known as pop-up headlamps, pop-up headlights, flip-eye headlamps, or hideaway headlights, are a form of automotive lighting and an automotive styling feature that conceals an automobile's headlamps when they are not ...
(modified
Stinson landing lights
Landing lights are lights, mounted on aircraft, that illuminate the terrain and runway ahead during takeoff and landing, as well as being used as a collision avoidance measure against other aircraft and bird strikes.
Overview
Almost all moder ...
)
(E. L. Cord owned a majority of Stinson stock) that disappeared into the fenders via dashboard hand cranks. This car was first and one of the few ever to include this feature.
It also featured a concealed lockable fuel filler door and variable-speed windshield wipers
(at a time when wipers were often operated by intake vacuum, and so tended to stop when the driver stepped on the gas pedal). Its
engine-turned dashboard included complete instrumentation, a
tachometer
A tachometer (revolution-counter, tach, rev-counter, RPM gauge) is an instrument measuring the rotation speed of a shaft or disk, as in a motor or other machine. The device usually displays the revolutions per minute (RPM) on a calibrated analo ...
, and standard radio
(which did not become an industry standard offering until well into the 1950s). The most famous feature was the "coffin nose", a
louver
A louver (American English) or louvre (British English; see spelling differences) is a window blind or shutter with horizontal slats that are angled to admit light and air, but to keep out rain and direct sunshine. The angle of the sla ...
ed wraparound grille, from which its nickname derived,
a product of Buehrig's desire not to have a conventional grille.
The car caused a sensation at its debut at the
New York Auto Show
The New York International Auto Show is an annual auto show that is held in Manhattan in late March or early April. It is held at the Jacob Javits Convention Center. It usually opens on or just before Easter weekend and closes on the first S ...
in November 1935. The crowds were so dense, attendees stood on the bumpers of nearby cars to get a look. Cord had rushed to build the 100 cars needed to qualify for the show,
and the transmission was not ready.
Even so, Cord took many orders at the show, promising Christmas delivery, expecting production of 1,000 per month, but the semi-
automatic transmission
An automatic transmission (sometimes abbreviated to auto or AT) is a multi-speed transmission used in internal combustion engine-based motor vehicles that does not require any input from the driver to change forward gears under normal driving ...
was more troublesome than expected, and 25 December came and went with no cars built.
The first production cars were not ready to deliver until February, and did not reach New York City until April 1936. In all, Cord managed to sell only 1,174 of the new 810 in its first
model year
The model year (sometimes abbreviated "MY") is a method of describing the version of a product which has been produced over multiple years. The model year may or may not be the same as the calendar year in which the product was manufactured.
...
, as the result of mechanical troubles.
Supercharging
In an internal combustion engine, a supercharger compresses the intake gas, forcing more air into the engine in order to produce more power for a given displacement.
The current categorisation is that a supercharger is a form of forced induc ...
was made available with a mechanically driven Schwitzer-Cummins unit.
Supercharged 1936 models were called 810S and 1937 models were called 812S. Supercharged models were distinguished from the normally aspirated models by the brilliant chrome-plated external exhaust pipes mounted on each side of the hood and grill. With supercharging, horsepower was raised to 170.
Early reliability problems, including slipping out of gear and
vapor lock
Vapor lock is a problem caused by liquid fuel changing state to gas while still in the fuel delivery system of gasoline-fueled internal combustion engines. This disrupts the operation of the fuel pump, causing loss of feed pressure to the carbur ...
, cooled initial enthusiasm. Although most new owners loved their sleek fast cars, the dealer base shrank rapidly. Unsold left-over and in-process 1936 810 models were re-numbered and sold as 1937 812 models. Total 810/812 production was 2,972 cars, including 205 convertible cabriolets, including the one-off prototype 1938 Custom Cabriolet, before the production ended in 1937.
Cord had planned some mechanical updates and cosmetic changes to the 1938 model, probably named 814. The production ended before the 1938 model could be launched. A single 814 prototype was built and kept in the storage for many years until it was discovered in 1989. The current owner was unaware of its provenance when he purchased it, and he used the factory archival photos and drawings to confirm it was a 814 prototype.
Aside from the small production of SAMCO Cord 8/10 (1964 to 1966), Cord 810/812 was the last American front-wheel-drive cars for almost thirty years until the introduction of
Oldsmobile Toronado
The Oldsmobile Toronado is a personal luxury car manufactured and marketed by the Oldsmobile division of General Motors from 1966 to 1992 over four generations. The Toronado was noted for its transaxle version of GM's Turbo-Hydramatic transmissio ...
in 1966 and
Cadillac Eldorado
The Cadillac Eldorado is a luxury car manufactured and marketed by Cadillac from 1952 until 2002 over twelve generations.
The Eldorado was at or near the top of the Cadillac line. The original 1953 Eldorado convertible and the Eldorado Brougham ...
in 1967. Both 1966 Oldsmobile Toronado and 1967 Cadillac Eldorado paid homage to 810/812 hidden headlamps. The second and third generations of Toronado had the hood design resembling 810/812 coffin nose and horizontal cooling grille.
The longitudinal layout of placing the transmission in front of axle and the engine behind the axle was never used again in the American front-wheel-drive vehicles to this day. The most common arrangement is transverse mount and, the less common is longitudinal mount with engine ahead of axle and transmission behind (a.k.a.
Eagle Premier
The Eagle Premier is a full-size executive car that was developed by American Motors Corporation (AMC) during the 1980s through its partnership with Renault. This model was manufactured in the then-brand-new Brampton Assembly in Canada. Chrysle ...
and
Chrysler LH, for instance).
British author
James Leasor
James Leasor (20 December 1923 – 10 September 2007) was a prolific British author, who wrote historical books and thrillers. A number of Leasor's works were made into films, including his 1978 book, ''Boarding Party'', about an incident from ...
owned two Cords, an 810 and an 812. One of the characters in his novels,
Jason Love, owns one, too. All of his novels that features Jason Love includes Cord.
Revival
The 810/812 design was re-marketed almost immediately, in 1940, as ailing automakers
Hupmobile
Hupmobile was an automobile built from 1909 through 1939 by the Hupp Motor Car Company of Detroit. The prototype was developed in 1908.
History
Founding
In 1909, Bobby Hupp co-founded Hupp Motor Car Company, with Charles Hastings, for ...
and
Graham-Paige
Graham-Paige was an American automobile manufacturer founded by brothers Joseph B. Graham (1882-1970), Robert C. Graham (1885-1967), and Ray A. Graham (1887-1932) in 1927. Automobile production ceased in 1940, and its automotive assets were acq ...
tried to save money, and revive the companies, by using the same body dies. Except for their similarity to the 810, their 4-door sedans, the
Hupp Skylark and the
Graham Hollywood, were unremarkable. Retractable headlights gave way to plain headlight pods, and power came from a standard front-engine/rear-wheel drive design. Only about 1900 were built before production ceased in the fall of 1940.
Between 1964 and 1970, two further attempts were made to replicate the original Buehrig design for limited production. Both
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with ...
-based companies soon halted production amid financial difficulties. The 1966 replica Cord 8/10 was powered by a
Corvair drivetrain (the "8/10" designation represented the actual scale of the car), while the 1968 through 1970 models were Ford and Chrysler powered.
The design of the Cord 810/812 remains one of the most distinctive of the 20th Century. In 1996, ''
American Heritage'' magazine proclaimed the Cord 810 sedan ‘The Single Most Beautiful American Car’. The ‘Classic Cord’
Hot Wheels toy car of the 1960s, a convertible
coupé, is one of the most valuable, and commands up to US$800 (2006) if still in an unopened package.
Specifications
![1937 Cord 812 Beverly - Flickr - exfordy](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/1937_Cord_812_Beverly_-_Flickr_-_exfordy.jpg)
* Length:
* Wheelbase:
* Width:
* Height:
* Weight:
* Ground clearance:
*
Horsepower
Horsepower (hp) is a unit of measurement of power, or the rate at which work is done, usually in reference to the output of engines or motors. There are many different standards and types of horsepower. Two common definitions used today are t ...
: 125 hp (170 hp w/ supercharger)
*
Brakes: hydraulic drums
* Front suspension: Independent with trailing arms, leaf springs and friction shocks.
References
Sources
* Malks, Josh B.
Cord 810/812: The Timeless Classic'.
* Wise, David Burgess. "Cord: The Apex of a Triangle", in Northey, Tom, ed. ''World of Automobiles'', Vol. 4, pp. 435–7. London: Orbis, 1974.
External links
Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg ClubAuburn/Cord/Duesenberg MuseumAuburn-Cord-Dusenberg Flickr GroupCordNet, a site for Cord enthusiastsHistory of second generation Cord Automobiles* Christoph Bauer
Vintage! Cord 812 SC DW-TV – ''Drive it!'' 24 January 201
(YouTube)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cord 810 812
Front-wheel-drive vehicles
Cord vehicles
Coupés
Sedans
1930s cars
Cars introduced in 1935