THE DERHAM TOURSTER

The Tourster was Gordon Buehrig’s favorite Duesenberg. There is a lot to say about this handsome automobile, but the fact that, of all the creations that the master designer drew up for the Model J, he preferred the Tourster, speaks loudest of all.

In his 1972 autobiography, Rolling Sculpture, Buehrig designed the Tourster as being “severely plain in its ornamentation and [having] the unusual virtue of being equally handsome with the top in the raised position or when it is lowered.” The length of the chassis exaggerated the car’s lowered proportions, created by moving the rear seat ahead of the rear axle and the foot wells within the frame rails, which increased room for passengers while also permitting the top and sides of the body to be lower than on a standard phaeton.

With the Tourster, Buehrig also sought to solve a common problem with dual-cowl phaetons of the time. The second windshields used to protect rear seat passengers were mounted on a hinged tonneau, that had to be clumsily swung upward, out of the way, each time that a passenger entered or exited the automobile. Buehrig’s solution was a rear windshield that slid up and down out of the back of the front seat with the turn of a crank handle, providing a windbreak that also looked appropriately dashing—and it stayed out of the way.

The Derham Body Company of Rosemont, Pennsylvania, built eight original examples of the Tourster. Perhaps because of the great beauty of their design, all eight have survived, have been restored, and remained well-cared-for in some of the world’s preeminent private collections.

J-448

Car number J-448 bears body number 2324, making it the fourth of the eight original, authentic Derham Toursters. It was originally the sole example supplied new with a unique factory-designed hood, featuring an arrangement of 18 vertical louvers, rather than the curved louvers seen on nearly all other Model J Duesenbergs.

The car was delivered by the Philadelphia Factory Branch on 19 September 1931, to William M. Odom, president of the Parsons School of Design and a noted interior decorator, known as a specialist in French and Italian furniture. A part-time resident of Paris, in 1928 he was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour, in recognition of his critical and research work in fine art. The records of Duesenberg historian Ray Wolff indicate that Mr. Odom at one point offered the Model J for sale through dealer J.S. Inskip, but it apparently remained unsold until his passing in 1942. His estate sold it the following year to Lester M. Bonham of Buffalo, New York, who kept it for only a week before selling it to William A. Lester.

Lester subsequently moved with J-448 to Southern California, where it enjoyed several further short-term caretakers. In 1960 its owner of a decade, Art A. Flanders, sold it to Dan Lang, a prominent early Duesenberg enthusiast in Racine, Wisconsin. Mr. Lang retained J-448 for the rest of his life. It was sold from his estate in 1973 to Dr. Irwin Ginsberg of Buffalo, New York, a very active collector of the period, best-remembered for his Best of Show victory with an Isotta Fraschini at Pebble Beach. Ironically, Dr. Ginsberg lived just blocks away from where J-448 had once slumbered in its brief Bonham ownership. Dr. Ginsberg completed a restoration of the Tourster, with the flamboyant side exhaust as fitted to supercharged examples, and enjoyed showing it for over a decade.

In 1984 the Toursterr was purchased by respected collector John Mozart, from whom it passed to Clifford Heinz, an heir to the condiments fortune. Mr. Heinz later sold the Duesenberg to yet another colorful figure, Andy Granatelli, of STP and Indianapolis racing fame. “Mr. 500” retained the car in his small private collection until 1996. It was soon acquired by longtime Duesenberg enthusiast John Groendyke, then in 2001 by Margie and Judge Joseph Cassini III of New Jersey.

Respected collectors who twice won Best of Show at Pebble Beach, among many dozens of other honors in competition at concours nationwide, the Cassinis enjoyed showing and driving the Duesenberg with its Ginsberg restoration for a decade, including piloting it on the first Pebble Beach Motoring Classic in 2005. They then undertook a complete fresh restoration with RM Auto Restoration, in which the car was refinished to its present striking soft yellow with green leather upholstery. RM’s technicians recount that nearly all of the original body wood and aluminum coachwork remained in excellent condition, and were able to be preserved during the restoration—testimony to the quality of the car. Further, the car retained its original, numbers-matching body, chassis, firewall, and engine, complete with numbered crankshaft 448.

J-448 went on to become among the most successful Model Js in modern concours competition, befitting the Cassini standard—led by Best Duesenberg and Best of Show at the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Club National Reunion in 2011, and, the following year, Best in Class at Amelia Island, and both Best in Class and a nomination for Best of Show at Pebble Beach. It was judged American Best of Show at the 2013 Concours d’Elegance of America, and the following year as Best of Show at the Stan Hywet Concours in Ohio. After a substantial freshening, including new chrome trim, top, and carpeting, it returned to Amelia, winning an Amelia Award, then once more to the Concours d’Elegance of America. Simply put, for over a decade, the Cassinis’ Duesenberg was “the car to beat,” and it became well-known and identified by many enthusiasts with those much-loved collectors.

When the Cassinis parted with their prized Model J after over two decades in early 2022, the car was acquired by Ray and Bonnie Kinney, meeting their desire for an excellent touring Duesenberg (and as a birthday present to Ray from himself). Ray Kinney dearly loved this automobile, as much for its driving capabilities—and roomy interior, well-suited to a taller driver—as for its beauty on a show field. In the Kinneys’ care, it saw both, being exercised around Dallas and also an award-winner at the 2025 San Marino Motor Classic.

Still a beautiful car and ready for further show appearances—and, significantly, now over a decade from its last competition at Pebble Beach—J-448 stands as one of the finest examples of the famed Derham Tourster, and thus in the first rank of Model Js.