How Front-Wheel-Drive Looked in 1930

Sports Car Market magazine's editors were free to attend the 2007 Meadowbrook Concours and graced us with a photo gallery of the cars on display. And what a concours it was, with, as SCM duly notes, "a tour, fashion show, and hangar party, along with the traditional RM Auction and the Sunday concours." I won't bore you with aircraft details, having already done so with blogs from our local open house, and SCM hasn't included photo captions. But here's one I recognise and I can assure you it's an L-29 Cord convertible sedan, circa 1930.

This luxury car has a significant place in automotive history, not as the first front-wheel-drive auto, which it wasn't, but as the first application of FWD to a modern production automobile, beating the Ruxton by a few months. Front-wheel-drive made for a lower silhouette and a number of connoisseurs consider this the best looking car of its period. The L-29's inline 8-cylinder engine produced 125 hp initially but was later bored out to deliver 132 hp. The depression unfortunately cut the L-29's lifespan to just three years but the Cord was revived in 1936 with designer Gordon Buehrig's magnificent 810. Posted by: Philip Powell    Source