It was followed two years later by another General Motors product, the Buick Riviera, whose GM stylists later stated they were trying to capture the "feel" of the Cord's design.

[2] The brainchild of former Miller engineer Cornelius Van Ranst, its drive system borrowed from the Indianapolis 500-dominating racers, using the same de Dion layout and inboard brakes.

Both stock cars and special bodies built on the Cord chassis by American and European coachbuilders won prizes in contests worldwide.

[1] It was powered by a Lycoming 4,934 cc (301 cu in) 125 hp (93 kW) L-head inline 8 from the Auburn 120,[1][2] with the crankshaft pushed out through the front of the block and the flywheel mounted there, driving a three-speed transmission.

[2] Still, the styling was lovely, and despite the 137.5 in (3,490 mm) wheelbase and steering demanding fully four turns lock-to-lock, handling was reportedly superb.

[2] The L-29 was priced around US$3,000 ($53,233 in 2023 dollars [5]), putting it in the upper tier of America's most expensive luxury automobiles alongside Cadillac, Marmon, Lincoln, Packard, Franklin, and Stutz, and below only Duesenburg.

Delays pushed hoped delivery to February 1936 - which still proved optimistic, with owners only beginning to get the first cars in April.

[2] The car's distinctively squared-off front end and pioneering, streamlined, horizontally louvered grille design earned it the durable nickname "coffin nose".

Early reliability problems, including slipping out of gear and vapor lock, cooled initial enthusiasm, and the dealer base shrank rapidly.

While Hupp Motor Company built a few prototypes in 1939 that gained them sales orders for the 1939 model year they did not have the resources to manufacture the car.

[8] In 1960, the rights to the Auburn-Cord name were purchased from Winslow by school shop teacher Glenn Pray, with financial backing from Chevrolet dealer Wayne McKinley.

Designed with the assistance of Gordon Buehrig, the car was based on the drivetrain of a rear-engine Chevrolet Corvair, albeit rotated around, allowing the new Cord to be front-wheel-drive.

[12] The plot of the David Niven movie Where the Spies Are features a rare Cord convertible as the incentive for the hero to undertake an espionage mission.

In the novel Live and Let Die, Felix Leiter drives a Cord of unspecified model when he and James Bond are in Florida.

[13] The original design for the Batmobile was a red convertible based on the Cord 812, which Batman creator Bob Kane considered one of his favorite vehicles and fitting for the millionaire vigilante.

A yellow Cord 810 is seen driven by young gangster Bobby Malto in the 1991 TV-Movie "The Return of Eliot Ness", which starred Robert Stack, reprising his title role from "The Untouchables" 1959-1963 TV series.

In the 1994 film The Shadow, Moses Shrevnitz (Peter Boyle) drives a 1936 Cord 810 Westchester that was stretched and custom-painted as a taxi cab.