1930 DUESENBERG MODEL J TORPEDO BERLINE CONVERTIBLE

• Engine

  420 CI
 

• Trans

  3-Speed
 

• Color

  Cream
 

• VIN/Serial

  J391

ESTIMATE

$1,400,000 - $1,700,000

HIGHLIGHTS

• ACD Certified Category 1 Original
• Coachwork by Murphy
• Engine J-391, Chassis 2315
• Used as a demo for the LA factory branch
• Formerly owned by actor Tyrone Power
• Sold new 1930 to rear admiral Gene Markey, the undersecretary of the Navy and movie producer
• Owned in the 1940's by Wilfred Graham Hudson, C. Allen Yeagle, Roger V. Shields, Lassiter Hoyle and James Talmadge the son of Buster Keaton and Norma Talmadge
• Talmadge traded the car to Tyrone Power for a new 1952 MG
• Power owned the car until his death in 1958 when it was sold to J.B. Nethercutt and then to Bill Harrah's Auto Museum in Reno, Nevada
• Sold in 1986 to Joseph Folladori of Indianapolis who restored it to its present color
• Sold in 1991 to the Imperial Palace Collection
• 420 CI DOHC straight-8 engine
• Standard 3-speed transmission

No American car even approached the grandeur of the Duesenberg Model J when it made its first public appearance at the New York Salon on December 1, 1928, an event for which trading was temporarily halted on the New York Stock Exchange. By then the company founded by Fred and August Duesenberg 15 years previous was the property of E.L. Cord, whose plan for his latest venture was to exploit the Duesenberg name and engineering expertise, their reputation already enriched with a win at the French Grand Prix and three victories in the Indianapolis 500, to produce “The World’s Finest Motor Car.” The Duesenberg J perfectly fulfilled Cord’s desire for an uncompromising luxury motor car that was also a technical tour de force. Its masterfully designed 420 CI dual-overhead-camshaft straight-8 engine was fitted with four valves per cylinder and produced an astounding 265 HP and 374 lb-ft of torque, enabling a second-gear speed of 90 MPH and a top speed of 116 using a 3-speed transmission.

America was in the grip of the Great Depression when this 1930 Model J Torpedo Berline Convertible, engine number J-391, chassis 2315, and body 952 was completed by Walter M. Murphy Coachbuilders of Pasadena, California, as a demonstrator for Duesenberg’s Los Angeles sales branch. Originally painted in Washington Blue, it was sold to Hollywood screen writer Gene Markey, who later became a highly decorated Rear Admiral after World War II. A series of owners in the 1940s included James Talmadge (son of Buster Keaton and Norma Talmadge), who in 1952 traded the car to actor Tyrone Power for a new MG. Power owned the car until his death at the age of 44 in 1958, after which it was sold to J.B. Nethercutt and then to Bill Harrah's Auto Museum in Reno, Nevada. It was then purchased in 1986 by Joseph Folladori of Indianapolis, who restored it and finished it in its present color scheme. In 1991 it became part of Las Vegas’ fabulous Imperial Palace Auto Collection, after which it was in the care of several short-term owners until its purchase by the prestigious John O’Quinn Collection. Furthermore, J-391 participated in March of 1998 as one of six Duesenbergs specially invited to the Geneva Automobile Show in Switzerland, was featured in the November 1952 issue of Road & Track and was more recently immortalized by Beverly Rae Kimes in "A Duesie's Dozen, The Ownership Ancestry of J-391." Presented in stunning concours condition, this unique Model J has been judged as an ACD-Certified Category 1 Original with the original engine, chassis and body