The Auburn 851 Speedster: The First American Sports Car? - The Cheat Sheet
There was a time when classic cars weren’t the multi-billion dollar industry they are today. And even in those early days, few American cars looked at as reverently as the Auburn 851 Speedster, also known simply as the Boattail. Back then, the Boattail appeared seemingly out of nowhere, highlighting the engineering potential of American automakers years before the entire industry kicked into overdrive to aid the war effort. But mirroring the Depression itself, beneath its gorgeous good looks lay old technology that was brilliantly repurposed to create what could be America’s first true sports car. There was Studebaker in South Bend, Stutz and Duesenberg in Indianapolis, and in tiny Auburn, both Cord and the Auburn Automobile Company. Auburn had some success building cars until World War I, when they faltered in the postwar economy. In 1925, the company was sold to E. L. Cord, who quickly merged the company with Duesenberg, and later, started building cars under his name as well. By 1929, Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg were building some of the most formidable cars in the world. Source: www.cheatsheet.com
