The Duesenberg Model J: When American Cars Made Europeans Pay Attention
Share
Quick Takeaways
- The Duesenberg Model J, introduced in 1928, was the most powerful and most expensive American production car of its era — and arguably of any era until the muscle car period.
- The twin-cam straight-eight engine produced 265 horsepower in standard form and 320 in supercharged SJ trim, at a time when most competitors were producing a fraction of that.
- Duesenberg owners included royalty, heads of state, film stars, and industrialists on multiple continents.
- The Model J was as much a statement as a car — and it made that statement in a way that hasn't been replicated since.
What “Duesie” Actually Meant
The slang term “It's a Duesie” — meaning something is exceptional, the finest of its kind — entered American English in the late 1920s and stuck. It came directly from the cars. The Duesenberg was so thoroughly superior to its contemporaries that the name became shorthand for the concept.
Fred and August Duesenberg had built racing cars before they built road cars, and it showed. The Model J's 6.9-liter twin-overhead-camshaft straight-eight engine was designed with a level of precision normally reserved for competition machinery. Four valves per cylinder. Hydraulic brakes on all four wheels, at a time when many manufacturers hadn't committed fully to four-wheel braking at all. An instrument panel that monitored oil pressure, battery charge, and brake fluid, and lit up at service intervals.
The chassis was sold to coachbuilders — Derham, Murphy, LeBaron, Rollston, and others — who then built the bodies to customer specification. No two Duesenbergs were quite alike. The customer chose the coachbuilder, the body style, the upholstery, the paint. The car that arrived was, in the truest sense, bespoke.
The People Who Bought Them
The Model J's price in 1929 started at around $8,500 for the bare chassis — before the body was added. Completed cars regularly exceeded $15,000 to $20,000, at a time when a Ford Model A cost less than $500. King Alfonso XIII of Spain owned one. Greta Garbo owned one. Clark Gable, Gary Cooper, and Mae West each owned one. William Randolph Hearst purchased several.
European royalty, who were accustomed to the finest coachbuilt cars their own continent could produce, acquired Duesenbergs and reportedly found them impressive. That last part is worth dwelling on — in the 1920s and 1930s, European luxury car manufacturers genuinely did not expect to be matched by American engineering, and the Duesenberg matched them.
The End of the Company, and What Remained
Duesenberg was acquired by Errett Lobban Cord in 1926, and the Model J was developed under Cord Corporation ownership. When the Cord Corporation collapsed in 1937, Duesenberg went with it. Total production of the Model J and SJ combined was approximately 480 cars. Most survive — the cars were too expensive and too significant to be discarded.
The surviving Duesenbergs appear regularly at the major concours events, where they typically win. Not because the judging is sentimental, but because the engineering and coachwork genuinely hold up against everything that has come since. There are very few cars from any era that can be evaluated against modern standards and found not wanting. The Duesenberg Model J is one of them.
Bottom Line
The Duesenberg Model J wasn't the best American car of its era. It was the best car in the world, built in America, at a moment when that combination surprised everyone who encountered it.
