When you say the word Cord, most car enthusiasts think of the “coffin nose” 810/812 models, designed by Gordon Buehrig for the 1936 and 1937 model years. There was much about the ’36-’37 Cords that was revolutionary, or at the very least advanced for their day. Buehrig’s art deco masterpiece was E. L. Cord’s automotive swan song. His styling included hideaway headlights flush mounted in pontoon fenders, hidden door hinges, no running boards, and that distinctive one piece hood was hinged at the cowl and opened from the front, not from the sides as in most prewar cars. From a technical standpoint, what people remember about the ’36 Cord is that it had front wheel drive. Some mistakenly believe that the Cord 810 was the first front wheel drive American production car. Actually, the first front wheel drive Cord was the L-29, named for 1929, its year of introduction. The L-29 was not just the first Cord with front wheel drive, it was indeed the first American car with front wheel drive that was offered for sale to the public, beating the now obscure Ruxton to the market by a few months.
Recent Comments
CJinSD - I’ve driven 2002s and 320i’s in the snow too. They weren’t anywhere near as capable as FWDs with similar...
Onus - But now we have its ancestor as rwd. The lx. the sucessor i hear will go back to rwd or fwd in longitudinal layout.
Scoutdude - It should be called “Not Quite in Time 4wd”.
Scoutdude - There is the big difference the FWDs you are talking about barely had enough torque to open a beer bottle so they...
Prado - I bought a 99 CR-V new with the Realtime 4WD. It should have been called RealBad 4wd. A total crap ‘reactive’ and...
Kyree S. Williams - Gee…you’re right. There are hardly any midsized body-on-frame SUVs. The only ones left (that I can...
Chuck Goolsbee - The changes from S1 to S2 were to meet US Federal safety & emissions mandates, not because what buyers wanted....
Scoutdude - The original “Real Time” system was a big joke. It used a center clutch that was powered by a pair of...
NMGOM - Alex, Great article on a complex topic. Thanks. You obviously put a lot of work into it. To show you what a mess of misleading...
Scoutdude - Maybe from the big 3 but International Harvester offered factory installed 4wd starting in the 1955 on their 3/4 ton S-120...