Sports Sedans

["John Hertzman" <johnhertzman@domain.elided>]

Adding to the Sport Sedan thread Richard Bies mentioned Duesenbergs and
Auburns before sliding into the Buicks, Hudson Hornets, Rocket 88s and
Chrysler 300s which are arguably more speed kings than sports machines per se.
One other notable make which he might have included was Stutz.

For many years the Gold Standard in competition for road cars was Le Mans,
contested by a genuinely international field, with the Mille Miglia
appreciably less international and sometimes barely multimake. At Le Mans in
1928 a Stutz was second, and Chryslers third and fourth, behind Barnato's
winning Bentley. In 1929 Stutz and Chrysler were fifth, sixth and seventh
respectively behind four Bentleys. In 1930 two Stutz DV32s, (a magnificent
twin-cam 32-valve straight eight) went out by midnight with mechanical
troubles shortly before the company itself went out with the darker midnight
of the depression, but they were splendid cars and the make was generally
splendid during the first thirty years of the twentieth century, endowed with
a distinct sporting tradition and ambitious technical specifications. Other
Yanks at Le Mans included DuPont, which ran well but DNF'd with accidental
damage in 1930, and Willys, which finished seventh overall in 1926; a Chrysler
had taken sixth in 1925. Probably none of the cars entered were sedans, but
all of them were production chassis which were bodied however the customer
wished, often with four-door sedan bodies.

In the Mille Miglia, which attracted few non-Italian entries, a LaSalle was
first in class in 1928, and Chryslers first in class in 1929 and 1930;
Chryslers had also finished well in 1928.

Yesterday I mentioned the Alfa 1750 Gran Turismo Compressore Berlina
Aerodinamica which took first place in the closed-car category in the 1932
Mille Miglia; it was also fourth overall, which is respectable in a field
which included dozens of other Alfas, several of them 8C 2300s; for a 1750
sedan to finish fourth when first is Nuvolari in a 2300 Spider speaks for
itself. In 1931 an unsupercharged Alfa 1750 Gran Turismo took first in the
unsupercharged category, first in the closed-car category, and eighth overall
behind six supercharged Alfa Spiders and one much larger-engined O.M., also in
my opinion justifying a "Sport Sedan" classification by any conceivable
standard.

John H.
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