For Sale at Auction: 1930 Auburn Phaeton in Peoria, Arizona

- Two eights offered in 1930--one with 125-inch wheelbase--Super Eight with 130-inch wheelbase - The former had 100 horsepower--latter 125 HP - This car--246 cubic-inch straight-eight Lycoming engine - Ground-up restoration years ago--stored inside museum since - New battery - Carburetor redone - Refurbished gas tank - Runs & a blast to drive - Historical narrative: - --The Eckhart brothers, who took over a carriage business from their father, built the first Auburn automobiles (named after their home town of Auburn, Indiana) in 1900 when they realized the future would not be horse-drawn. - --Some reports say they sold none of the four cars they built that first year because they were overpriced at $800. - --Auburn designed and built some successful cars but they were in financial trouble after World War I. - --They were taken over in 1919 by a group of Chicago businessmen headed by William Wrigley, Jr. of Wrigley Chewing Gum fame. - --In 1924, salesman E.L. Cord bought the company and the rest is history. - --The company became a part of his Auburn Cord Duesenberg empire, and built some of the most innovative and beautiful cars of the 1930s before falling victim to the Depression in 1937.