Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg Museum

On July 2nd we traveled the short 60 miles from the Elkhart County Fairgrounds in Goshen to Auburn in northeastern Indiana.  We checked into the Fireside Resort RV park and headed for the Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg Automobile Museum.  It was a dreary day, so looking at historical cars inside seemed like a great idea, especially to Tim.  This museum has been on Tim's bucket list.  Now it's checked off the list.
Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg Automobile Museum

Tim in front of Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum

Auburn sign on A-C-D Automobile Museum in Auburn, IN

The museum of over 120 cars and related artifacts in contained in the original world headquarters building for the Cord Automobile Company, which is a National Historic Landmark.  The building is truly historic, but lighting conditions proved to be more challenging for taking pictures.  We did our best.  We thoroughly enjoyed the museum and closing. Besides cars, artifacts detailing the history of E.L. Cord, the man behind the 3 automobile companies and many others.  He truly was a mogul during his time.

Pictures of Auburn, Cord, & Duesenberg's in the museum entrance

Lycoming Engines was a major supplier to Auburn, Cord, and Duesenberg.  Lycoming was also owned by E. L. Cord  Lycoming is a large maker of aircraft engines for the civilian market today.

Cut-away of Lycoming engine

Beautiful wired wheel spare tire

Hood ornament on Auburn

Duesenberg hood ornament

Auburn grille

Besides Auburn, Cord, & Duesenberg cars, other brands are shown in the museum collection.

Lincoln Zephyr

Mercedes Benz "gullwing" car

Crosley station wagon

Tiny, lightweight Crosley 4 cylinder engine

Thunderbird

Jaguar roadster

Cars are just not styled like these anymore.  Some of these cars are shown in art museums.

Cord retractable headlights

A-C-D car designers used unique methods to tool their new models.  Remember, there were no CADCAM in those days.  Car makers still use clay models today, but the skills are fading using this technique.

Sign explaining the "bridge" styling technique for clay models

Clay model with "bridge"

One of the last cars we saw in the museum was rather unique.  It is a Cord race car prototype.  It looks like it could take off and fly.

Cord race car prototype

Notice the plexiglass canopy of prototype

We had a great time at the museum and would highly recommend it.  July 3rd we had reservations for a couple of weeks in east, central Ohio near Linda's sister family.  We traveled from Auburn to Berlin, OH on July 3.  See future posts about our adventures there.