TBT…

If I have a grail car, it’s the 1937 Supercharged Cord 812.

The brochure is for 1936, but it’s the only complete one I found…

The one thing I remember (as a little kid) was the engine turned instrument panel! SHINY!!!

A family friend had one, sadly sitting in a garage over in Dallas. Her husband had it, and he’d gone to Love Field to fly to Chicago, had a heart attack on the plane, from what I remember. They car was parked and never driven again (that I know of). I was maybe 8 or 9 the one time I got to sit in it.

This is probably the best pic I could find of the dash… Gaudy as hell by today’s standards, but back in the day… 🙂

Wikimedia Commons

What’s your grail car, or truck?

Comments

TBT… — 33 Comments

  1. You know, I’d love to have another old school pickup from the 1970’s – 80’s. Nothing fancy – vinyl flooring, metal headliner, bench seat, plain jane easy to wrench on 318 engine. Something with an eight foot bed so that it ‘points’ rather than drives if you know what I mean. I had a ’76 Dodge Adventurer and put 180,000 miles on it. Just loved that old thing, had many young adult adventures in it. Bought it for $3200 in 1982 w/ pickup cap on the back, sold it for $900 when I was done with it. Married for a year and a child on the way, no room for a baby seat darn it.

    Its replacement was no slouch either. 1986 Suburban, it drank gas like crazy, but take out that 3rd seat and fold the back seats forward and you had space to camp out in relative comfort. I rolled out a sleeping pad and slept out in cold and rain and just laughed at the elements.

    I’m spoiled now with power windows and A/C but in south Texas – you GOTTA have A/C, its perspiration incontinence without it.

  2. I would love to just drive (and show my grandkids) a three speed, on the column shiftier. Car or truck.

  3. I’m a Ford guy at heart and a pickup truck driver by temperament. So, it smacks of sacrilege to say my grails are a 1970 Checy C10 short box or a 1970 Datsun 240z.

  4. JR- I remember those! BIG sumbitches!!! And I like Suburbans too! A 1936 or 37 Suburban is a close second on the grail!

    CP- LOL, yep and watch them freak out! Even better if it has a floor starter, and highbeam switch on the floor too! 🙂

    DH- Nothing wrong with EITHER of those! LOL

  5. Late 60’s,as a college student, lived over doctor’s offices in a converted house in exchange for caretaker duties. In the detached garage was a Cord one of the doctors was ‘restoring’. Never saw him working on it but I could examine it at my leisure.

    My late father spent a couple of hours going over it. As a desperately poor child of the Depression, the experience evoked emotions that generally stoic man seldom displayed. I’m grateful we had that shared experience.

    The doctor? May have been a great doctor but he was a dilettante born with a silver spoon.

  6. 1936 Graham Sedan. I had a great aunt that owned one. I have her picture around here somewhere standing next to it.

    I may be old enough now to handle the 68 RoadRunner I found for $800 back in 79, or the Super Bee that my buddy’s dad had for $500 (It had a spare 440 to go with it), stripped out for the 1/4 mile…..

    I was so poor back then, I couldn’t even THINK about buying them.

    The last was a 1946 Plymouth. The back seat was big enough for a dance hall. Big car, straight six, what a deal!

  7. That car used to be made in the town where I grew up and went to high school.

    The Auburn Cord Duesenberg museum should be on an antique car fan’s Bucket List for sure. Even better would be the ACD Festival every Labor Day weekend. 5 days of classic and antique cars…

      • The Auburn-Cord-Dusenberg guys make the Holy Pilgrimage to the concours event there.

        The ACD judging rules don’t favor garage queens; they like to see cars that drove there under their own power, grime, bugs, and rock chips be damned.

  8. Very cool. I have many favorites. I really would like a 1967 GTO. Please and thank you. Or an old Challenger. Or, or…as you can see the list goes on.

  9. Don’t laugh. Just don’t please.
    WW2 or Korea War era Jeep.

    • I’m right there with you. That’s what I learned to drive in on our ranch when I was eight. We also had a trailer to go with. When I was later stationed in (the former) West Germany, I was one of maybe three people in our unit who could back the combo in a straight line.

      2nd choice, yeah a box stock Chevy C10 that you can maintain with a socket set and a screw driver.

  10. Pickups have always been my favorites.
    But the model T that my FIL had restored for my SIL was sure sweet to drive. Wonderful how when driving it the 15 miles from the home ranch to town you really noticed changes in elevation and the air.

  11. that is a beauty, never heard of it surprisingly. I have a several ‘grail’ cars, so if you will permit me. My first 2 I have never seen in person just photos and are rarer than rare. Auburn Boat Tail Speedster and then the Dusenberg…Now those were cars. My other is a 1949 Merc with the suicide doors (but hot rod style, chopped etc.) and then the 1956 Ford F100. Pretty pedestrian but I see what they can be all tricked out, to an extent while being classy.

  12. I want a Checker Cab.
    With modern engine, brakes, suspension, AND air conditioning.

  13. Grail car? Hmmm…… ’69-70 Chevelle, Challenger, or GTO. Maybe a W30 Olds. Guess I haven’t grown up yet. Was saving my pay in ‘Nam for. ’69 Judge, but got busted up and sent home early, so there went that dream.

  14. If I had the money to pay somebody to keep it running (and I don’t), a 1927 Deusenberg SJ.

  15. My first vehicle was a 1963 step side Chevy pickup. Full of rust, a leaking main seal, and burning some oil were its problems, but it had three on the column, would get me to work, and led to my independence.It was mine, and nothing is as satisfying as owning your own car.

    In a perfect world, I’d have one in mint condition, in a climate control garage, and I could drive it on cool autumn days through the back roads around my home.

  16. Hey Old NFO

    I have a couple of them, that if I won the lottery, I would locate one. This will be by year, 1965 Ford Galaxie 500, 1965 Ford T’bird, a 1986 Mustang SVO and don’t laugh, a M151A1 utility 1/4 ton utility or the “jeep” the forerunner of the Hummvee.

  17. That Cord was definitely ahead of it’s time!
    My Grail? E-Type Jag (Ford running gear) or AC Cobra (Kit not original).

  18. All- Thanks, and glad I’m NOT the only ‘dreamer’ out there!

    Posted from my iPhone.

  19. I always liked the ’97 Mustang, red with a tan convertible top. And for giggles, I’d love to have Jo’s yellow truck from Twister. If the interwebs can be trusted, it was a J10 Jeep truck.

  20. Learned to drive in a ’49 Dodge pickup with the optional pilothouse cab. Hand throttle, too. That’s on the list.

  21. As far as old vehicles go, it would have to be the 1977 Datsun 280Z that we drove all over Germany. What a great car it was.

    But my grail auto probably doesn’t exist. The nearest would be for my 2015 F-150 Lariat (loaded) be combined with Spousal Unit’s 2014 F-350 King Ranch (really loaded).

    Until then, I’ll keep riding my grail motorcycle: 2014 Harley-Davidson FLSTFI (Fat Boy), highly customized into my perfect riding machine.

  22. 1965 jaguar XKE…
    1965 chevy c-10 long bed step side
    1949 Studebaker bulletnose..why?? don’t know, just think they look cool
    early 60’s VW van…hippy van…i’d be divorced, but happy
    flat fendered jeep..with 351 engine, dana 44’s and a winch

  23. If you ever get the chance, you should put the Gilmore Car Museum on your bucket list. It is in southern Michigan (Hickory Grove I think). It is the absolute most awesome museum I have every seen. Every brand has it’s own building, and the variety of vehicles is just amazing.

  24. MAJ- Not a 240? I’m surprised… And nothing wrong with a bike!

    Xtron- LOL, nice ‘selection’ there!

    Suz- Thanks! Will do!

    • Never had a 240, just the 280. Loved it, except for the air conditioner that never really worked.

      But I don’t have air conditioning on the Fat Boy, either, so what the heck…