CarBrandLogos archive · Duesenberg · 1921

DuesenbergModel A

America's first straight-eight production car, and its first with brakes on all four wheels.

The story

A defining chapter in Duesenberg history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Duesenberg Model A, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

Fred and August Duesenberg came to road cars from racing engines, and the Model A shows it. Introduced in 1921 and built in Indianapolis, it was the first production car in America with a straight-eight engine — a 260 cubic inch overhead-camshaft unit derived from the brothers' competition work — and the first American production car with hydraulic brakes on all four wheels, at a time when most rivals braked the rear axle only and did it mechanically.

Duesenberg Model A · Rex Gray · CC BY 2.0

Stahls Automotive Collection December 2021 057

Design and engineering

That combination made it technically the most advanced car the country produced, and commercially a difficult sell. Duesenberg supplied the chassis, engine and running gear; bodies were built to order by outside coachbuilders, so no two cars were alike and none were cheap. The brothers were engineers rather than businessmen, production was slow, and the company was chronically short of money throughout the car's life.

Stahls Automotive Collection December 2021 057 · Michael Barera · CC BY-SA 4.0

In production

What the Model A did establish was a reputation. In 1921 Jimmy Murphy took a Duesenberg to victory in the French Grand Prix — the first win by an American car in a European grand prix, achieved with the same four-wheel hydraulic brakes the road car used. That credibility was the asset E. L. Cord bought when he acquired the company in 1926, and it is what he built the Model J on. Production of the Model A ended in 1926, with the short-lived Model X following as a stopgap.

At a glance

The facts that define it.

Produced

1921–1926

Engine

260 cuin OHC straight-eight enginesfn

Designer

Fred and August Duesenberg

Technical specification

The Model A, in detail.

Production: 1921–1926sfn; Mueller; 2006; p=52sfn; Robson; 2001; p=181
Class: Luxury car
Body style: by arrangement with coachbuilder
Layout: FR
Engine: 260 cuin OHC straight-eight enginesfn; Kimes; 1990; p=231sfn; Mueller; 2006; p=51
Transmission: 3 speed manualsfn; Posthumus; 1977; p=76
Designer: Fred and August Duesenberg
Assembly: Indianapolis, Indiana, United States
Manufacturer: Duesenberg