1929 Duesenberg Model J Murphy SWB Convertible Coupe

Fred and August Duesenberg received a contract to produce Bugatti straight-8 engines for France during World War I. Intrigued by its performance, the brothers developed their own version.

Their straight-8 was great - Duesenberg was the first manufacturer to score three Indy 500 wins, the first American marque to win the French Grand Prix (1921), and two of its engines propelled Tommy Milton to an absolute land speed record. Yet its passenger cars weren't selling.

E.L. Cord acquired Duesenberg in 1926 on the condition that Fred uses his skills to develop an extravagant luxury car - the Duesenberg Model J. Fred was instructed to create an automobile that would have immediate elite status among the motorcars of the world. As introduced, the Model 'J' had a whopping 265 horsepower making it the supercar of the day.

Numerous coachbuilders created a remarkable variety of Duesenberg passenger cars of this era. Fenders, radiator, headlights, and instrument panel usually remained the same, but almost everything else received the designer touch.

The Walter J. Murphy Company created about 50 of these convertible coupes on the Duesenberg standard-wheelbase chassis. The windshield and back window sit at identical angles, imparting a jaunty look with the top-up.

This car has a 142.5-inch wheelbase making it a short chassis model. The coachwork is an 800 series convertible coupe body constructed by Walter M. Murphy Coachbuilders then located in Pasadena, California. As the 87th car built it retains some features of the early production cars like the exposed V-core radiator, concealed horn, and a single windshield wiper.

The original purchaser, Carolyn May Hoopes, wife of a Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, steel company executive was a person of discerning taste. When she saw the car for the first time she immediately sent the delivery driver back to the factory in Indianapolis to have the tan canvas top replaced by a black leather covering which, in fact, is the very top still on the car. A Packard luggage rack and trunk were installed at the same time.

The driver - a Duesenberg factory worker - later admitted he raced a train along Route 20 on his way to Pennsylvania.

Hoopes drove it sparingly for two decades, the last time to Battle Creek, Michigan, for tuberculosis treatment. In 1950, she gave it to her doctor's wife who then sold it to Dema Dyer of Climax, Michigan. Katherine Hepburn became the fourth female owner in 1961. When sold in 2015, there were just 33,000 miles on the unrestored car.