Gorgeous Gordon Buehrig-Designed Duesenberg Wins La Jolla Concours

There was quite a field of Duesenbergs at the La Jolla Concours d’Elegance last weekend, spread out between two classes. Consider that a good number of these classic American cars live in the Southern California area, and that their owners are happy to bring them out to shows like this, and you see that the competition among them was strong this year.

And yet it was fairly clear to almost all present which car should win: the William Lyon family’s 1931 Duesenberg Model J Weymann “TaperTail” Speedster.

“It’s pretty stunning in person,” said the concours’ co-emcee and local television newsman Dave Kunz. “The whole place erupted in applause when it rolled up as we announced it as Best In Show.”

“It’s a lovely car,” said author, historian, and museum curator Ken Gross, when he was forwarded a photo.

The Lyon Family Duesenberg Speedster is one of two speedster designs by Gordon Buehrig , done for the Weymann coachbuilding firm of Indianapolis.

“Hired by Duesenberg in 1929, Buehrig designed the signature ‘J’ model Duesenbergs and spearheaded a new era of autotmotive design, of dramatic and sweeping lines—replacing the prior, Edwardian/gothic ‘carriage’ ornate ‘box’ genre, and the 1931 Speedster is arguably the most stunning and pioneering example of this new aesthetic,” said industrial designer and automotive photographer Royce Rumsey, whose photos you see here. “Based on the shorter of two Duesenberg chassis (in this case, chassis #2450) Buerhig jettisoned both the running boards and step plates and shaped a teardrop form flowing from the cowl that he dubbed the ‘taper tail’ (assisting in the taper was a single-passenger rumble seat instead of the usual two-seat rear rumble). The dramatic addition of the vermillion sweep panel completed the jaunty and powerful/sporting aesthetics that became a signature tone for the Duesenberg marque.”