Back to back: good wood or real steel?

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It’s no exaggeration to say that Worldwide Auctioneers offer an eclectic mix of motorcars during their annual Auburn Classic sale, this year on September 5th and dubbed ‘the only live boutique catalogue sale remaining in 2020’ by the auctioneer itself. The auction takes place in Auburn, Indiana, rather than focussing on Auburn cars (there’s one though), but there are plenty of interesting pre-war vehicles, not in the last place because of the Eric McConnell collection being sold as a whole, with some real wacky racers based on pre-wars (that Topolino!).

But let’s focus on the slightly more down to earth offerings. We fell hard for this 1941 Chrysler Town & Country ‘Barrelback’. The car owes its nickname to its clamshell rear doors, a novelty at the time, but is of course also simply referred to as a ‘woody’ thanks to its body construction coming partly in white ash combined with grained Honduran mahogany for the panels on the doors and sides. The wood on this example looked to be in a fantastic condition while it is said to be original. The interior was retrimmed though (in the original heavy-duty leatherette) and the chrome re-chromed. One particularly other cool feature on this car is the ‘Highlander’ horn factory-programmed to play ‘The Campbells Are Coming, Ohio! Ohio!’. It is believed just 24 of these cars survive today.

But perhaps you are not a wood devotee and prefer a vehicle to be made of real steel. Then lot number 60 may well interest you as it’s for a 1936 Ford Deluxe Tudor sedan with its body originally fully built in stainless steel. It is believed to be one of six built by the Allegheny Ludlum Steel Corporation, as commissioned by Ford to demonstrate the durability of stainless. And 84 years after its conception there is no doubt that the material was durable! Of the six Tudor sedans built with bodies in this material, four are said to survive. After having been used as a demonstrator for 11 years, this particular car was sold to an Allegheny employee, who continued to use it as a family transporter for many more years, driving it everywhere from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada. He kept it until 1954 and by 1960 the car was bought back by his former employer, now to be used as a display vehicle together with two similar later vehicles. Another lovely car with a lovely story.

So… are you a woodworker or a man of steel?

Words by Jeroen Booij. Pictures courtesy of Worldwide Auctioneers.

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