1931 Duesenberg Model J Murphy Beverly Berline

Fred and August Duesenberg were born in Germany and settled in Des Moines, Iowa. They were self-taught engineers and began producing cars in 1913. Eddie Rickenbacker drove a Duesenberg to a 10th-place finish in the 1914 Indianapolis 500. The company moved to Indianapolis, Indiana in 1919 and eventually settled in Auburn, Indiana after E.L. Cord added Duesenberg to his group of car companies.

Model J's were powered by straight eight, 420 cubic-inch, four-valve per cylinder engines, which produced 265 horsepower. It rode on a 153.5-inch wheelbase chassis and is capable of 89 miles per hour in second gear, with a top speed of 116 miles per hour.

The body was finished on May 31, 1930, and was installed on the chassis in late 1931. This long wheelbase chassis carries one of the Gordon Buehrig-designed Beverly Berline sedan bodies built by the Walter M. Murphy Company of Pasadena, California. The Chicago Brand sold it to William Hibbard of Hibbard, Spenser, Bartlett & Company. The car has had 20 owners including the famous Duesenberg dealer John Troka who owned it twice.

Hibbard and Darrin designed convertible sedans that influenced the unique sloped windshield with triangular sidelights as well as the shape of the door windows, which create a vee section in the area between the doors. The built-in trunk has interesting styling elements with the sidebar trim and hinge design and the sidebar design is repeated inside the body on the cabinetry behind the driver's seat. Within this cabinet is a radio with a speaker and tuner hidden behind doors. The rear seat is the armchair type with a removable center armrest to create a bench seat.

The windshield design is unique to the Beverly, of which only eight Murphy-bodied examples were built. This is one of four that retain their original body, engine, and coachwork. The engine block, crankshaft, and rods have the original J-465 markings.