The famous "20 Grand" Duesenberg visited Jay Leno's garage.

Posted on March 18, 2023
Classic cars
The famous "20 Grand" Duesenberg visited Jay Leno's garage.

Any Duesenberg is bound to attract attention, but the car featured in this episode of "Jay Leno's Garage" always stood out from the rest.

The four-door was built as a show car for the 1933 Chicago World's Fair and became known as the "Twenty Grand" Duesenberg due to its then exorbitant price of $20,000. In the video, Leno states that the average car price in the U.S. at the time was less than $1,000 and the average house price was less than $2,000.

The one-off Twenty Grand was not the most expensive model in Duesenberg history; the new Duesenberg Walker Coupe in 1934 cost $25,000. Duesenberg repainted it black and brought it back to Chicago in 1934, where it was eventually sold to a wealthy buyer. It is now part of the Nethercutt Collection in California, where it is displayed alongside classic cars from such renowned automakers as Bugatti and Hispano-Suiza.

Like all Duesenbergs, the Twenty Grand is powered by an inline 8-cylinder engine based on the Indianapolis 500 racing engine. The car's engine displaces 421 cubic inches, is supercharged, and produces 320 horsepower. Like the price, these figures were staggering in the 1930s.

Due to its racing engine and its performance, the Duesenberg was considered a driver's car at the time, but the car was also designed as a chauffeur-driven car. The unique coach-built body was equipped with a partition and a set of gauges so that rear-seat passengers could monitor the driver's movements. This car gave new meaning to the term "backseat driver."

The car was restored in 1979 and has been frequently shown to the public since then, but because of its value, it is not driven much anymore. In other words, the driving portion of this video is little more than a bit of taxiing around the airport apron, but it is rare to see this unique Duesenberg in motion at all.

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