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The ACD Festival (Auburn - Cord - Duesenberg) is happening again this Labor Day weekend, August 29th - September 1st. Auburn, Indiana, located just 20 miles north of Ft. Wayne was the home of these incredible automobiles that put the US on the car makers map. The Festival is free, and after the parade (Saturday at 1:00 PM) the cars are parked around the court house square for spectators to look at them more closely. There is also an auto auction. (It was 1976 when, for the first time, I saw a car auctioned for over a million dollars! It was a custom-bodied Duesenberg SJ.) There are also vendors who have most anything related to automobile memorabilia.
If you enjoy cars you should be familiar with these three marques. The Duesenbrg is still considered an example of the finest in automotive engineering. How many of you have heard the phrase, "It's a Duesey!" ? The Duesenberg SJ (supercharged 12 cylinder engine) was truly the class of its day, even making the Mercedes cruise in its shadow. The Cord was one of the prettiest cars of the Art Deco era. But it also had engineering innovations. It was the first large scale (for the time) front wheel drive car ever produced. Remember when the Corvette Sting Ray came out with those way cool folding headlights? Cord did that in 1936. Then there was the Auburn. In the 1920's you could buy an Auburn Speedster and be guaranteed the car would exceed 100 miles and hour - directly off the showroom floor! There are many other antique cars on display, but the spotlight is on the Auburns, Cords, and Duesenbergs. If anyone is interested I can relate more history, but if you really love cars, this is an event that should be on your bucket list.

(No affiliation with the festival, just very proud that my father was instrumental in starting this great event back in the 50's.)

I was just sick to find out that one of our family trips when I was a kid passed within a stone's throw of that. I still remember it all these years later. I saw an Auburn Boattail Speedster once, and there was a yellow and brown Auburn sedan that used to drive in the Cotton Carnival parades back when the festival was still being held in Memphis. Like the rest of Memphis, its dead now, but it rivalled Mardi Gras for many years, and that old Auburn was there every year. When I was a boy, I thought it belonged to the Cotton Carnival.

For a great look at some gorgeous Doozies, watch the movie, "Sunset" (Bruce Willis and James Garner). Great movies, and Tom Mix had some great Doozies.

If you do go to Auburn allow yourself plenty of "museum time"; In addition to the ACD there is also NATMUS (National Automotive and Truck Museum of the United States), Kruse's Military and Car museum (used to be called the WWII Victory Museum), a new Ford V8 museum on the same property, an aviation museum at the airport and a local railroad museum. ACD is in the old Auburn factory office/showroom building and NATMUS is in another factory building just behind. All are well worth the time. Auburn can get a bit hectic at festival time but worth the visit. We only live 20 minutes away so I've gone "a few times". :shifty: