The 17th Annual Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance will impress classic car enthusiasts with an outstanding vehicle: the Supercharged Cord 812 that once belonged to famous cowboy movie star Tom Mix. Auburn Automobile Company only produced 196 examples of this special model, also known as “the coffin-nose Cord”.
Built in 1937, the convertible was capable of over 100 mph, which was a very rare thing in its time. Unfortunately, Tom Mix did not have too much time to enjoy the car: he passed away in a tragic accident, approximately three years after the convertible was made. He was driving the beautiful vehicle at 80 mph when he unintentionally passed by a warning sign on the road, and crashed in a construction zone. The sign said “BRIDGE UNDER REPAIR”.
The car’s firs restoration took place in 2010, after Bob Whyte of Scottsdale, Arizona had bought the car at an auction in 2010. The “frame-off” restoration revealed damage from the 1940 accident, but the restoration team managed to make it look exactly as it did before the crash. “Our biggest challenge has been determining what it looked like in 1940 and then reproducing those parts because everything had to be handmade.” Now the famous Tom Mix Cord is ready to awe the world at the 2012 Amelia Concours.
