1909 Auburn Model G Touring

1909 Auburn Model G Touring

Much of Auburn’s history is dominated by the brief but glamorous period that followed in the wake of E.L. Cord’s takeover. The era that brought us the Auburn Twelve and the Supercharged 852 Speedster was undoubtedly a high point for the company, but it would be an injustice to the storied marque to allow the brief Cord era to overshadow all the cars that preceded it. Near the turn of the twentieth century, a former wheelwright named Charles Eckhart left his position at the Studebaker Corporation to branch out on his own in the carriage business. In 1874 he founded the eponymous Eckhart Carriage Company. In 1894, Charles retired and left the business to his two sons, who, in turn, built the company’s first experimental automobile in 1900. The name of the company changed to the Auburn Automobile Company after the firm’s home base in Indiana, and production began in earnest in 1903, with a single-cylinder, chain drive runabout.

The company built about 120 cars in 1903 and production rose gradually but steadily through the years. By 1905 they had added a two-cylinder touring car to the line. The engine was mounted under the body in the center of the frame, with the opposing cylinders facing fore/aft. Despite the layout, the cars looked rather conventional, with a pronounced hood (housing the fuel tank) and a steering wheel in place of a tiller. The robust and reliable twin-cylinder model served Auburn well through the next several years, with a four-cylinder engine joined the line beginning in 1909. This period was a formative one for the Auburn Automobile Company, and they established their reputation for building high-quality motorcars at a reasonable price point – and company literature touted the Auburn as “The most for your money.”

The 1909 model year saw the two-cylinder Models G, H, and K carry over mostly unchanged. Auburn’s model naming scheme was a bit of “alphabet soup” at this time, and the three models were all quite similar, sharing the same layout and 216.5-cubic inch, 24-horsepower horizontal twin. The primary difference was in the wheelbase length, and some offered the option of a runabout body. These high-quality cars competed with the likes of Buick, Overland, and EMF in the mid-price market, and sales continued to grow steadily with each year. By 1910, it was clear that the four-cylinder engine was the way forward, so the venerable horizontal twin was discontinued at the end of 1909.

Early brass-era Auburns such as this 1909 Model G Touring is quite rare and seldom appear on the open market. Auburn produced just 1,018 cars in 1909.

Descriptions & Pictures by hymanltd