TROG Duesenberg Racers

[Eric Macleod]

Some, or all, of this story may be fiction.

Duesenberg J 555 was backed out of the transporter well before sun-up. The transporter was elaborate, a heavy-duty 28-foot Atlas, fully enclosed car hauler behind a GMC 3500 Denali dually. Both were new. He hated to use a transporter to get the car to events as he preferred to drive it. Unfortunately, he could not drive the car on public roads. Not anymore. You can’t drive a car on public roads when you no longer have lights on it. They were jettisoned in the transformation process from Concours ready show-car to race ready TROG compliant car built for speed.

How did he get here? He was once a little boy on a red Schwinn bike riding home from a hobby shop with a Monogram Duesenberg scale model under his arm. Thrusting his arm in the air he exclaimed in delight “He drives a Duesenberg.” In time that proud scale model Duesenberg morphed into a shelf full of Duesenbergs. Later, as a teenager he volunteered at a museum and was eventually given an opportunity to drive a Duesenberg. Later during an apprenticeship in an upholstery shop he became intimately familiar with Duesenbergs under restoration. Finally, after decades of hard work he was able to buy the very car he found so stunning on the floor of the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum; J 555, a real Duesenberg but with a replica Weyman Torpedo Phaeton body built by Fran Roxas in the 1980’s. Though he now owned nine beautifully restored Duesenbergs, this one had been his preferred daily summer driver for the past five years.

One year ago today? Embarrassment; a feeling that rarely happens to a man who owns the Duesenberg of his dreams; a car he uses for his daily driver. Yes, he drives a Duesenberg, but a Duesenberg that required substantial changes to get ready for today.  Two years ago he drove J-555 to TROG-The Race of Gentleman as a spectator and he caught the speed bug. Driving home he decided to get this very car ready to run in the event the following year. He showed up with some weight saving measures such as a new set of fenders, protection for the headlamps and a modified carburation set up. He was told the car did not meet the criterion as he had not removed the fenders or the lights. Despite that, he was permitted to run in the exhibition run, next to a similarly prepared Model T Ford, probably just because people wanted to see the Duesenberg in motion. He folded down both windshields, opened the exhaust cutout and floored it…only to watch the taillamps of the little Ford leaving him in a spray of sand. Granted, the builder of the Ford somehow shoehorned an 80 horse flathead V-8 between the frame rails but it was an engine putting out 260 fewer horses than the Duesenberg.

Never. Again.

This year he showed up with a substantially modified J-555. There were the Hispano-Suiza sourced lightweight aluminum wheels, a straight pipe exhaust blowing out of a modified Monell exhaust manifold, high flow supercharger, ported dual carburetors, Franklin-sourced 4-speed Detroit transmission, the high speed ring and pinion gear set, high pressure oil pump, hotter ignition and on and on. Jettisoned were both windshields in favor of a tiny wind blocker. At home were the headlamps and tail-lamps, the stock radiator shell, most of the interior, the top assembly, all of the fenders, and even the beautiful Monnell exhaust manifold. He knew in a couple weekends he could re-install those parts when he decided to take to the streets again. Naturally, being a Duesenberg, and a fine one at that, he wasn’t going to take measures such as drilling holes in the frame or cutting down the wheelbase, not on this car, although such modified items were waiting for him at home in his spare parts pile as a precaution if disaster struck again and he experienced further humiliation.

He did not think that would happen. He was not arriving with an untested car this time. Being a man of substantial means he rented the 131 Raceway drag strip for testing of the car. Twice. His e/t last year was nearly 16 seconds @ 82 MPH. This was probably not bad for a nearly 90 year old car running nearly factory stock. But Duesenbergs were known to be fast, really fast, and he wanted to get the most out of this one that he could. Now the car was good for 11.8 seconds at 103 MPH, with the supercharger absolutely howling, in 3^rd gear. While he knew he probably wouldn’t win the event with a time and speed like that, he certainly wouldn’t be leaving with his head hung low.  Not this time.

As the flag girl approached the starting line to begin the race he knew over 475 BHP was about to send the rear wheels alight. The flag dropped at the same moment when he stood on the gas and released the clutch. And grinned.

As most of you can tell this is a work of complete fiction. I owe a nod of appreciation to Tom Woodruff and Dennis Lacy for steering me in the correct direction about the TROG rules. Inadvertently, they pushed me into building a second race car. I became discouraged with several aspects of the project, particularly the final details of the blue car. Thanks to Richard Mesner for his "bring our your dead" challenge which pushed me to finish a project that may have been relegated to the scrap pile of unfinished dead builds. And thanks to all of you on the forum, particularly David Watson, who have offered support through this project.

While I am typically a builder of replica stock models this project allowed some creativity that I have not utilized in some time. To say the project and back story were fun is an understatement. You will notice some fit and finish issues with each of the models. Despite that, I hope you all enjoy them.

Edited November 30, 2018 by Eric Macleod
clarification

[Yahshu]

Awesome 

[Gramps46]

"Enjoy them?"  Definitely do.  You have done a great job with them.

[misterNNL]

The mechanic under the car should learn to drop his tools closer to where he is working. Nice back story on the cars.

[vintagercr]

Great idea!

[Eric Macleod]

Thanks for the comments guys. Yes, it would be more efficient to keep the tools close!