1923 Duesenberg Model A Touring

At the turn of the last century, Iowa bicycle makers August and Fred Duesenberg tinkered with gasoline engines and by 1913 the Duesenberg Automobile & Motors Company was manufacturing cars. The company failed, but it developed an engine that did well in the Indianapolis 500. They used their experience building aircraft engines during World War I for the military to design their famous straight-eight engine.

Manufactured by the Duesenberg Automobile and Motors Company, the early Duesenberg was designed to be the ultimate road car, based on the extensive racing experience of August and Fred Duesenberg. The Duesenberg Eight-in-a-Row motor car was advertised in 1920 as an 'Automobile for the Connoisseur, Built to Outclass, Outrun and Outlast any Car on the Road.' Although now referred to as the Model A, the company only called it the '8 in a Row' or the 'Straight 8.' The Model A designation was coined by the public, after the Model J was introduced in the late 1920s. The Model A is the first car built by the Duesenberg brothers from 1921 to 1926. It was an extremely advanced automobile with prices starting at $6,500 for the chassis only. The engine was the first 'mass-produced' straight eight-cylinder engine in the United States and featured a single overhead camshaft and four-valve cylinder heads. It offered the first hydraulic brakes in a United States passenger car. It was lighter and smaller but more powerful than its competitors and the fastest car of its time. It won the Indianapolis 500 three out of four years it was entered and it was purchased by many celebrities including Rudolph Valentino. Only 650 Model As were built over the entire six-year model run.

This car was owned by a Minneapolis family for many years. They reportedly made a number of vacation trips to Florida in this car pulling a camping trailer. The restoration didn't include the trailer hitch. The restoration began in the late 1980s by a former owner who, unfortunately, never saw it finished. The current restoration was an eight-year process completed in 2010 by Jerry Smith.