01
Origins
The Auburn Twelve of 1932 offered something close to impossible: a 6.4-litre Lycoming V12 in a full-size, dramatically styled car, at a price undercutting many straight-eights — luxury-car specification at upper-middle-class money. The engine was smooth and strong, the Dual Ratio rear axle gave two final drives at the flick of a dashboard lever, and Twelve-powered Speedsters set a stack of American stock-car records to prove the value was not cosmetic. It was exactly the wrong moment for the gesture. In the depths of the Depression the buyers who could afford any twelve wanted the reassurance of a Packard or Cadillac badge, and those stretching upward had vanished. Sales fell far short, the Twelve was gone within a few years, and Auburn itself followed in 1937 — magnificent value having proved no defence at all.
1933 Auburn 12-161A Custom Speedster · Sicnag · CC BY 2.0
