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The Brooklands ex-Whitney Straight Duesenberg


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#1 Simon Thomas

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Posted 23 November 2011 - 08:21

The car was donated by DSJ many years ago and still remains a non-runner. The body and running gear look to be in sound condition but I cannot comment on the mechanical side. Are there plans to run the car again? Surely this must be one of the original pre war racing cars? I have spoken with people who rememember the sound of the engine fitted to the Emeryson in 1948 and they said it was fabulous bettered only later by the V16 BRM. The engine was run then without a silencer/silencers.
Simon Thomas

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#2 Peter Morley

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Posted 23 November 2011 - 09:26

The car was donated by DSJ many years ago and still remains a non-runner. The body and running gear look to be in sound condition but I cannot comment on the mechanical side. Are there plans to run the car again? Surely this must be one of the original pre war racing cars? I have spoken with people who rememember the sound of the engine fitted to the Emeryson in 1948 and they said it was fabulous bettered only later by the V16 BRM. The engine was run then without a silencer/silencers.
Simon Thomas


Crosthwaite & Gardiner are apparently rebuilding the engine, and at the same time copying it for the Emeryson, so it looks like the intention is to get both of them running again.

#3 bill p

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Posted 23 November 2011 - 09:42

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At 2011 Goodwood Revival - looking forward to seeing and hearing the Duesenberg running

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#4 Ralf Pickel

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Posted 23 November 2011 - 09:51

The Duesenberg is already entered (provisionally) for the Montlhery Vintage Revival in 2013 (!).
So hopefully, we will be able to see it back running on a banked track !

#5 Simon Thomas

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Posted 23 November 2011 - 10:22

The Duesenberg is already entered (provisionally) for the Montlhery Vintage Revival in 2013 (!).
So hopefully, we will be able to see it back running on a banked track !

That will be worth seeing and hearing. When the engine appeared in Belfast with the Emery's I was told it was pretty tired with a number of cracks to castings. I wonder what gearbox will be fitted to the car to manage the horsepower? A big ENV perhaps? I still think the famous photo of the car with all four wheels off the ground at Brooklands in 1934 is awesome.
Simon Thomas

#6 Doug Nye

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Posted 10 February 2012 - 18:33

The block was a maze of cracks but new is in train and there is strong hope for the old lady's revival. I believe the gearbox was in fact very humble...something like a Model A Ford, primitive but robust. When the mood took him, and if a summer's day was warm and daylight long, DSJ liked few things more than to "do a bit of fettling on the Duesenberg". The problem was that the car would then be returned to dodgy storage in one of his sheds, and two years later (when the mood took him again) the fettled part would have deteriorated to the point at which it needed fettling all over again...

DCN