The company that
kept the legends alive.

I · 1938

From the factory to the parts room.

The Auburn Automobile Company built its last cars in 1937. In the spring of 1938, Dallas Winslow bought what remained of Auburn, along with the parts, tooling and blueprints of Duesenberg, Inc., and formed the Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg Company. Instead of building new cars, the company kept the old ones on the road, selling parts and service to owners from the original factory in Auburn, Indiana.

II · 1952 TO 1956

A teacher with thirteen Cords.

Glenn Pray grew up in Holdenville, Oklahoma, and in 1952 began teaching automotive mechanics at Tulsa Central High School. His students learned on real cars, including a supercharged Cord that went up on the shop bench. By 1956 Glenn owned thirteen Cords, and that year his best supercharged Cord phaeton earned him his first trophy at the Indianapolis Auto Show.

III · 1960

The factory moves to Oklahoma.

In 1960, Glenn, a schoolteacher at the time, called Dallas Winslow to ask if his company was for sale. It was, and Glenn borrowed, bargained, and pre-sold parts to raise the money. That summer and fall, trucks hauled an estimated 700,000 pounds of Auburn and Cord parts from Auburn, Indiana, to an old pickle plant in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, much of it packed in used beer boxes. Glenn’s students even helped carry the boxes upstairs. The purchase also included the Auburn and Cord names and trademarks.

IV · 1964 TO 1966

The Cord, reborn.

No American front-wheel-drive car had been built since the last Cord in 1937, and Glenn set out to change that. Gordon Buehrig, the designer of the original Cord 810, urged him to style the new car after the original and sculpted the first clay model. Built in a secret room in the pickle plant, the Cord Sportsman 8/10 used front-wheel drive, Corvair power and a body of U.S. Rubber's new plastic. It was unveiled on August 8, 1964, and made the cover of Road & Track. Ninety-one production cars and six prototypes were built, and Buehrig received the keys to production car number one.

V · 1968 TO 1981

The Speedster returns.

Next to Cords, Glenn's favorite car was another Buehrig design, the 1935 and 1936 Auburn Speedster. He brought it back as the Auburn 866, built in Broken Arrow on a Ford chassis with Ford V-8 power. Glenn drove the first complete car to the ACD Club reunion in 1967, and on April 26, 1968, the first production Speedster was delivered at the factory, at a list price of $8,450. By the time production ended in 1981, 138 had been built.

VI · 1974

A design from the family.

The Auburn 874 dual-cowl phaeton began with a drawing by Glenn's young son, Doug. The first one was designed and built in forty days, just in time for the 1974 ACD reunion in Auburn, Indiana, and Glenn later received a U.S. design patent for its styling. Eighteen were built over the next six years.

VII · TODAY

Three generations of the Pray family.

In 2005, Glenn returned to Auburn, Indiana as Grand Marshal of the ACD Festival parade, riding in his own dual-cowl phaeton. After his death in 2011, his son Doug Pray took over leadership of the company. Today, Glenn's grandson Adam Pray leads ACD as its third generation. The shop on South Elm Place continues to restore and service Auburns, Cords and Duesenbergs, and to supply the parts that keep them on the road.

Drawn from Glenn Pray: The Man Who Brought Legends to Life by Josh B. Malks.