NY Nick
NY Nick SuperDork
11/8/24 6:24 p.m.

I saw this on my way home from work yesterday. It was beautiful. 

11GTCS
11GTCS SuperDork
11/8/24 6:39 p.m.

In reply to NY Nick :

It's screaming mid 30's Packard to me but I'll let Trent, Shawn G, TurnerX19, etc. jump in.   Many of those cars had custom / coach built bodies so it makes it a little tougher to be sure.

NY Nick
NY Nick SuperDork
11/8/24 7:03 p.m.

I passed a different car of the same era and quality  on the way to work this morning, at the same intersection going the opposite way. I didn't get a pic though, happened too fast. 

johndej
johndej UltraDork
11/8/24 7:05 p.m.

Google says 1931 Duesenberg Model J Victoria Convertible by Rollston.

Trent
Trent UltimaDork
11/8/24 7:54 p.m.

Grill mascot says Deusenberg to me

11GTCS
11GTCS SuperDork
11/8/24 8:16 p.m.

Johndej nailed it.   The engine in it was quite something: DOHC, 4 valve, 6.9 L straight 8.  265 HP naturally aspirated (Model J) with supercharged options of 320 and 400 HP.  In the early 30's.  The car in the picture has the non supercharged version shown below and is supposed to be capable of 116 mph.

ShawnG
ShawnG MegaDork
11/8/24 8:59 p.m.

Where did you find the 400hp figure?

I restored two of them, J-491X which now has a Heiss torpedo phaeton body and J-442 which now has a LaGrande dual cowl phaeton body.

I'm no expert but I've never read anything that claimed greater than the 310-320 hp figure for a supercharged car.

There are a bunch of reproduction superchargers out there that have dual carburetors but as far as I know, all the genuine blowers had only a single carburetor. Maybe the twin carb ones are how they came up with 400.

491X was originally supercharged but now it has a reproduction, dual carb blower on it and it was a bugger to get it to run without overfueling.

Also, you can't tell if it's supercharged without lifting the hood. You can put the external exhaust (right side only) on the naturally aspirated cars. J-442 has external exhaust now.

They all came with a muffler bypass and an exhaust cutout as well so you can have quiet, loud and really loud.

 

914Driver
914Driver MegaDork
11/9/24 7:56 a.m.

Bet it rides nice ....

11GTCS
11GTCS SuperDork
11/9/24 9:34 a.m.

In reply to ShawnG :

You're probably correct.  Wikipedia mentioned the J at 265 HP, the supercharged SJ at 320 and an SSJ at 400 HP.  No torque figures mentioned but I'm guessing that they were adequate.   The wiki picture showed the exact car that NYNick saw and I believe the engine picture is also for that car from the notes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duesenberg_Model_J

ShawnG
ShawnG MegaDork
11/9/24 1:05 p.m.

Ahh, its not quiet correct.

There were two SSJ's 

One belonged to Clark Gable (Or Gary Cooper, I can't remember) and im not sure about the other one.

SJ is Superchaged

SSJ is supercharged short wheelbase. Just a sportier version.

I heard the SSJ were warmed up a bit but i doubt ir was 90hp

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