1937 Cord 812 Phaeton
The Cord 810, and later Cord 812, was a luxury automobile produced by the Cord Automobile division of the Auburn Automobile Company in 1936 and 1937. It was the first American-designed and built front wheel drive car with independent front suspension. It was preceded by Cord’s own 1929 Cord L-29, and the French 1934 Citroën Traction Avant front wheel drive cars, but the 810 / 812 was commercially less successful than these.
The Cord 810 and 812 were also the first production cars to feature hidden / pop-up headlights. Additionally, the radical new styling of its nose completely replaced the traditional radiator grille, in favor of horizontal louvers, that curved all around the sides of the nose, earning the car’s styling the nickname of ‘coffin nose’.
A landmark ’30s design, the Cord 810/812 is recognized as a milestone in automobile history. This beautifully restored Cord 812 Phaeton is finished in characteristic Cigarette Cream with a black cloth top and burgundy leather interior. Equipped with outside exhaust and correct Cord fog lights. A fabulous car to show or drive.
The 812 body style with its louvered “coffin” nose, streamlined wings, concealed gas filler under a modern flap, headlamps that opened by means of hand-cranks on either side of the airplane-style engine-turned aluminum dash and the absence of running boards would prove immensely influential. The following model year, cars all over the world suddenly had horizontal chrome strips along the hood, squared-off grilles and more shapely side treatments. None however, could aspire to the clean, simple and timeless beauty of the original. A front-wheel-drive car like the L-29, the 810 differed from its predecessor by virtue of its more compact Lycoming V-8 engine and 4-speed, pre-selector electric gearbox, modeled on the French Cotal.
The many early and “first” design achievements of the Cord 810 and 812 are legion and famed: hidden door hinges, a one-piece alligator-hinged hood, “step-down” floor, and partially unibody construction. It is easy to forget the significance of the open models, the two-passenger Cabriolet and four-passenger Phaeton, in their own right. Both were among the very first production convertibles with a disappearing top, and the Phaeton was one of the first production four-passenger open cars with rear quarter windows, eliminating the vision-clouding blind spot of “convertible victorias” of old.
