Cord 812 – the Luxury Car That Hid Its Headlights and Broke the Rules
Gordon Buehrig’s bold styling met V8 power and front-wheel drive
With its low body, hidden headlights, and a transmission that let the driver select the next gear in advance, the Cord 812 looked as though it came from another era. The 1937 model year marked the end of a brief but remarkable chapter in American automotive history.
By Lars EkströmEditor-in-chief · Vintage cars and automotive historyTranslated from Swedish with the help of AI.
At the New York auto show in November 1935, the public encountered an American luxury car without either the usual tall radiator grille or substantial running boards along its sides. Its headlights were nowhere to be seen, either. This was the Cord 810, predecessor to the 1937 Cord 812. Its styling drew immediate attention; getting the advanced car to work reliably in customers’ hands would prove more difficult.
The focus here is the 1937 Cord 812 Beverly sedan: a four-door luxury car with a naturally aspirated V8, built by Auburn Automobile Company in Indiana. The same model family also included open body styles and supercharged versions. This article does not concern any particular surviving car, so there is no individual chassis number or restoration condition to report.
Buehrig’s low-slung American luxury car
Gordon Buehrig and his team were responsible for the design. Their assignment was not simply to decorate a chassis. They created a cohesive body whose proportions set the car apart from contemporary American luxury models: a broad hood, rounded fenders, and a front end with horizontal bars that continued around the corners.
The nickname “coffin nose” captures the hood’s almost furniture-like shape. Where other manufacturers used an upright radiator as a focal point, Cord gave its car a low, architectural front end. The hidden headlights were housed in the front fenders and raised using hand cranks inside the cabin. This was not some electrically powered showpiece mechanism, but a hands-on solution that required the driver’s involvement.
Front-wheel drive was crucial to the proportions. With no need to send power through a driveshaft to the rear wheels, the floor and body could sit lower. Together with the chassis design, this made traditional running boards unnecessary. There was no longer any need to step onto an intermediate platform to get inside.
Cord had already used front-wheel drive in the L-29. With the 810 and 812, the technology took on a much more modern visual expression. What was unusual was how the engineering and styling worked toward the same goal.
A V8 with two different temperaments
Under the hood sat a flathead V8 from Lycoming, which, like Auburn, was part of E. L. Cord’s business empire. The engine was compact compared with the straight-eight still found in many American prestige cars. The transmission sat ahead of the engine and drove the front wheels.
The standard engine made the 812 a lavish highway cruiser rather than an outright sports car. For 1937, a centrifugal supercharger was also offered, forcing more air into the engine and increasing power. That version appealed to customers who wanted to combine the distinctive styling with greater performance.
The external, metal-clad exhaust pipes along the sides of the hood became the supercharged cars’ most recognizable feature. But the pipes alone are no guarantee of authenticity on a car that may have been modified over nearly nine decades. When buying one, the engine specification and the car’s documentation must agree. A regular 812 should not automatically be described as supercharged simply because it wears these eye-catching details.
The next gear was selected in advance
The cabin carried the same technical ambition forward, with a comprehensively instrumented dashboard and a small gear selector beside the steering wheel. Cord used a four-speed preselector manual transmission with electric and vacuum-assisted operation.
The driver selected the desired gear in advance. The actual shift then took place when the clutch pedal was depressed. This was not an automatic transmission: the clutch was still part of the process. The driver did, however, avoid having to move a long floor-mounted lever through a conventional shift pattern.
The idea suited the luxury car’s mission: less manual effort and a tidier driving environment. The system depended on correct adjustment, and early problems, including those with the shifting system, damaged the model’s reputation. For today’s owners, functioning vacuum systems, electrical contacts, and correctly adjusted mechanical components are therefore just as important as beautiful paint. Our editorial team has not test-driven the car; the distinctive qualities discussed here lie in its engineering and intended use.
A short life, a long legacy
Production ceased in 1937 when Auburn stopped building cars. The Cord 812 thus became not the beginning of a long model line, but the conclusion of a bold attempt to redefine the American luxury car.
Today, originality and documented restoration are central to its collector value. Body style, supercharged specification, history, and mechanical condition can lead to major price differences; any universal valuation would be misleading. A properly restored shift mechanism can matter more to usability than fresh chrome.
That is also where the car’s appeal lies. The Cord 812 is not merely an unusual sight. It shows what happens when designers and engineers dare to rethink things at the same time—and the shop then has to make the future work.
Sources
- Gordon M. Buehrig och William S. Jackson, Rolling Sculpture: A Designer and His Work (1975)
- Beverly Rae Kimes och Henry Austin Clark Jr., Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805–1942 (1996)
- Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum, Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum
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