One of the Last of Its Kind

To most automobile historians, the story of the Auburn line of cars is well known and a bit sad. A high quality, expensive luxury line that began in 1900 as the Eckhart Carriage Company, Auburn was one of, if not the most successful companies at switching from horse drawn power to raw horse power.

Throughout its history the company maintained a very high standard but that came at a cost. The cars were expensive and quite exclusive. For that reason there weren't many of the cars made to be sold. With low sales and high overhead, Auburn went through a series of owners and mergers and ended up being part of a three-headed luxury company along with Cord and Duesenberg.

The last of the Auburns rolled off the line in 1937 but the year before that, in hopes of expanding their market, the company used the 1936 852 model as the basis for a number of different purposes from limosine to hearse to ambulance.

Shown here is a concours quality 1936 852 Supercharged Phaeton designed by Gordon Buehrig and is one of only 70 ever made. It was powered by a 280 cubic inch L-Head eight cylinder supercharged engine that produced 150 horse power.