...Say what?(Duesenberg)

Byline: BILL McGUIRE

Okay, you got us. There is no such thing as a 1959 Duesenberg. Such a car was simply the conceit of the late Mike Kollins of Detroit, and now we've bought into it, too.

The last real Duesenberg had been built more than two decades before 1959, something Kollins considered a crime too horrible to let stand. Imagine if Duesenberg had not gone out of business in 1937, but continued to build the Model J into the 1950s, around the same magnificent twin-cam, straight-eight engine, but with up-to-date chassis and contemporary bodywork. That was what Kollins envisioned.

Kollins, who worked in engineering at Packard and Chrysler, was a racer, historian and consummate car guy. He crewed for Frank Brisko at Indy as a teenager, falling in love with the Speedway and with the Duesenberg legend. But by the time he could afford his own Duesenberg, they were obsolete.

So back in 1950 Kollins had started building his own, convinced that with some updates, his Duesy could still run with anything on the road. He bought a 1930 J with a Judkins four-passenger coupe body (2358/J-333), and setting aside everything but the engine, transmission and accessories, erected his creation on a brand-new 1950 Packard Super convertible bare frame, adding a reinforced K-member to support the weight of the massive Duesenberg eight.

The two-place, full-convertible body with folding top was fabricated by an unsung collection of Detroit body men: A brass badge on the right front fender celebrates the hypothetical carrozzeria "Kollins Le Grande.'' (Le Grande, spelled various ways, was Duesenberg's in-house coachbuilder label, but the actual work of Central Manufacturing, Union City or Walker.) Clearly, the major challenge in Kollins' self-penned design was hiding the straight-eight's considerable size inside modern package dimensions.

To slim down the engine a bit, Kollins installed four Carter side-draft carburetors and relocated the distributor from the cam ...