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DuesenbergSpecial-S

SPECIFICATION
Engine:
Duesenberg straight eight; 95.25 x 120.65 mm, 6876 cc; twin ohc; max power, 390 bhp at 5,000 rpm

Transmission:
Three speed manual gearbox.

Suspension:
Front; non-independent with semi-elliptic springs; rear, live axle with semi-elliptic springs.

Brakes:
Drum brakes

Dimensions:
Wheelbase: 142.5 in (362 cm);
Track: Front and rear 56 in (142 cm)


Max speed:
153.96 mph (247 kmh, see text
Duesenberg Special 1935



This Duesenberg was outstanding in an age when secondery records brought real prestige, and maybe sales if they were set by "specials" using stock parts. The US National Class B records that Ab Jenkins and others set with at Bonneville in the mid-1930s stood for decades, yet it was a two seater.

Stock origins

August "Augie" Duesenberg engineered the car on a standard SJ chassis and developed the straight eight to produce 390 bhp. with it's supercharger turning at 40,000 rpm. Driver Ab Jenkins had a hand in the design of the bulky streamlined body, and at Bonneville in 1935 he took his first records with it a notably 153.96 miles/247.77 kmh in one hour and 135.57 miles/218.17 kph for a 24-hour period.

Mormon Meteor

With a Curtis Conqueror aircraft engine, and a tail fin, it was renamed the Mormon Meteor in 1936, when Jenkins and Babe Stapp lifted the 24-hour record speed to 153.8 mph/247.5 kmh. As the Morman Meteor II it recorded 157.3 mph/253.1 kmh over 24-hours in 1937. It was then "retired" a Dusenberg engine re-installed and the body restored to it's original lines, for Jenkin's road use. In the 1960s it was restored to become a star at classic car meets.

The one-time Morman Meteor restored to its original Duesenberg Special form, as a duel-purpose road and records car.

Photo Autopresse
MCMXCI, Edito-Service S.A. D1 078 03-06

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