A fascinating might-have-been...

[John Barry [CLC17027]]

I just encountered this last evening, and many of you may already know this.

Anyhow: I learned that Gordon Buehrig, the genius who designed the iconic Cord 810 / 812, left Auburn in the earlier 1930s to go to work for Harley Earl before going back to do his signature work.

That's where it gets fascinating.  Suppose Earl made Buehrig an offer he couldn't refuse?  Then we may well have seen La Salle for 1936 and beyond looking much like those last Cords (or perhaps more accurately like the Graham Hollywood / Hupmobile Skylark, which were rear-drive adaptations of Buehrig's design).  Think about that: a La Salle with concealed headlights and no running boards--plus a leg up on the step-down design.  Add that up and you have a car that's distinctive enough so that it just might have yielded its own division, surviving the war and beyond.

And what, perhaps, of Cord?  Maybe Amos Northup or Alex Tremulis would have worked with E. L. Cord, and the 810 / 812 would more resemble a front drive version of the Graham Spirit of Motion...