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CUSTOM CORNER
Notorious
Restoration By Rick Francoeur
Gary Morgan, the vehicle’s owner, with the restored 1937 Huey Long Cord. The vehicle possesses distinctive styling and boasts technological advancements that wouldn’t be seen in many vehicles until the 1960s.
A famous one-of-a-kind 1937 Cord reappears in Canada
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ome vehicles gain notoriety for engine innovation or revolutionary design. Others become famous because of their owners. In those cases the cars can become almost as legendary as the owners themselves. This is the situation with a one-of-a-kind car that played a part in the political history of the American Deep South, seemed to vanish into thin air, and then reappeared 80 years later in Canada.
because of its moneymaking possibilities. In 1924, when he was just 30 years of age, Cord took over the day-to-day operations of the Auburn Auto brand. Rather than focus on the conservative designs of the day, Cord focused on cosmetics. Almost overnight, Auburns were transformed into some of the best-looking cars on the road. They were technical and styling masterpieces. By 1929 Cord was looking to expand the
“This particular Cord had been commissioned to be bulletproof.” Understanding the importance of this mystery car means first understanding the history of the man, and the manufacturer, that created it. In the roaring ‘20s in Auburn, Indiana, a man named Errett Lobban Cord was drawing notoriety as part-promoter, part-visionary. He was a flamboyant salesman and business tycoon who was drawn to the car-making business
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company to include his own name on the roster. Thus the brand regarded by many auto experts as the coolest and most revolutionary brand nobody’s ever heard of, the Cord Automobile Corporation, was born. At the same time as Cord’s star was rising in the automotive world, 800 miles to the south in Louisiana one of the most outspoken and