The many early and “first” design achievements of the Cord 810 and 812 are legion and famed: hidden door hinges, a one-piece alligator-hinged hood, “step-down” floor, and partially unibody construction. It is easy to forget the significance of the open models, the two-passenger Cabriolet and four-passenger Phaeton, in their own right. Both were among the very first production convertibles with a disappearing top, and the Phaeton was one of the first production four-passenger open cars with rear quarter windows, eliminating the vision-clouding blind spot of “convertible victorias” of old.

These sporty styles grew even more so when equipped with the 812’s optional supercharger, which came in partnership with a modified firing order, lowered compression ratio, a more extreme camshaft grind, and a unique larger Stromberg AA-25 carburetor. It exhaled through functional side exhaust, long a signature of the Cord Corporation’s supercharged automobiles.

The supercharged phaeton offered here has a known history back to 1970, when its earliest known owner, E. Ericson of California, was recorded by the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Club. At the time the car was noted to have the current engine, no. FC 2284, a replacement unit installed earlier in its life, and to be missing its serial number and body number tags. The present serial number tag properly coordinates with the frame number and bears a “3” prefix, correct for a supercharged car, and the body number tag is correctly stamped for a Phaeton. Given the numerous factory upgrades made in-period to fit supercharged engines to Cords, it cannot be proven that this particular example was originally delivered as a supercharged Phaeton.

Later enthusiast owners were Jay Robinson of Altoona, Pennsylvania, and David Cotton of Bay City, Michigan. The car was restored in this elegant and correct combination of black over red with a black top, and in this form was submitted by Mr. Cotton to the ACD Club and received its Category 1 Certification in September 2014. Three years later it was acquired by the current owner, a longtime collector and enthusiast, who has maintained it nicely within his private stable while occasionally showing it, including at the 2017 Greenwich Concours d’Elegance.

The Cord is proudly offered with seller's proceeds to benefit the Hope for Poor Children Foundation, dedicated to helping the very poorest children and their families in the developing world with basic health care and basic education. It thus offers a wonderful opportunity to acquire a nicely restored supercharged Cord, one of the finest, most modern Classics, for an excellent and worthy cause.