I saw this on my way home from work yesterday. It was beautiful.
I saw this on my way home from work yesterday. It was beautiful.
In reply to NY Nick :
It's screaming mid 30's Packard to me but I'll let Trent, Shawn G, TurnerX19, etc. jump in. Many of those cars had custom / coach built bodies so it makes it a little tougher to be sure.
I passed a different car of the same era and quality on the way to work this morning, at the same intersection going the opposite way. I didn't get a pic though, happened too fast.
Google says 1931 Duesenberg Model J Victoria Convertible by Rollston.
Grill mascot says Deusenberg to me
Johndej nailed it. The engine in it was quite something: DOHC, 4 valve, 6.9 L straight 8. 265 HP naturally aspirated (Model J) with supercharged options of 320 and 400 HP. In the early 30's. The car in the picture has the non supercharged version shown below and is supposed to be capable of 116 mph.
Where did you find the 400hp figure?
I restored two of them, J-491X which now has a Heiss torpedo phaeton body and J-442 which now has a LaGrande dual cowl phaeton body.
I'm no expert but I've never read anything that claimed greater than the 310-320 hp figure for a supercharged car.
There are a bunch of reproduction superchargers out there that have dual carburetors but as far as I know, all the genuine blowers had only a single carburetor. Maybe the twin carb ones are how they came up with 400.
491X was originally supercharged but now it has a reproduction, dual carb blower on it and it was a bugger to get it to run without overfueling.
Also, you can't tell if it's supercharged without lifting the hood. You can put the external exhaust (right side only) on the naturally aspirated cars. J-442 has external exhaust now.
They all came with a muffler bypass and an exhaust cutout as well so you can have quiet, loud and really loud.
Bet it rides nice ....
In reply to ShawnG :
You're probably correct. Wikipedia mentioned the J at 265 HP, the supercharged SJ at 320 and an SSJ at 400 HP. No torque figures mentioned but I'm guessing that they were adequate. The wiki picture showed the exact car that NYNick saw and I believe the engine picture is also for that car from the notes.
Ahh, its not quiet correct.
There were two SSJ's
One belonged to Clark Gable (Or Gary Cooper, I can't remember) and im not sure about the other one.
SJ is Superchaged
SSJ is supercharged short wheelbase. Just a sportier version.
I heard the SSJ were warmed up a bit but i doubt ir was 90hp
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