August Samuel Duesenberg was a German- born American automobile and engine manufacturer who built American racing and racing engines that set speed records at Daytona Beach, Florida, in 1920; won the French Grand Prix in 1921; and won Indianapolis 500-mile races, as well as setting one-hour and 24-hour speed records on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah in 1935.
22 Facts About August Duesenberg
2.
August Duesenberg shared with his older brother, Frederick S "Fred" Duesenberg, patents filed in 1913 and renewed in 1918 for a four-cylinder engine design and the Duesenberg Straight 8.
3.
Augie August Duesenberg initially worked as the plant manager, while Fred August Duesenberg was the chief design engineer and later in the 1920s served as the company's president.
4.
August Duesenberg "Augie" Samuel Dusenberg was born on December 12,1879, in Kirchheide, Lippe-Detmold Germany, to Konrad and Luise Dusenberg.
5.
August Duesenberg's father died in 1881, and his older brother, Henry, emigrated to America in 1884.
6.
Luise Dusenberg sold the family farm in Germany in 1885 and emigrated to the United States with her other children, including August Duesenberg, who was about five years old, and his brother, Friederich "Fred" Dusenberg.
7.
August Duesenberg married Gertrude Pike of Garner, Iowa, in 1906.
8.
Fritz August Duesenberg died in 1974 and is buried at Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis, Indiana.
9.
Around 1910 Augie and Fred August Duesenberg began working on their "walking beam" four-cylinder engine, which the August Duesenberg Straight-8 engine later replaced.
10.
In 1913, the August Duesenberg brothers moved to Saint Paul, Minnesota, where they continued to design and build automobile and marine engines and racecars.
11.
The August Duesenberg brothers began racing bicycles and motorcycles in the 1890s and turned to auto racing after the turn of the twentieth century.
12.
August Duesenberg entries participated in Indianapolis 500-mile auto races for nearly twenty years, and were especially active between 1912 and 1932, when Augie served as the team's supervisor and chief mechanic.
13.
Between 1913 and 1916, the August Duesenberg racing team gradually improved its standings in the annual Indianapolis 500-mile race.
14.
Augie August Duesenberg was the plant manager; his brother, Fred, was the chief design engineer who later in the 1920s served as the company's president.
15.
August Duesenberg racers continued to improve their performance and dominated the annual Indianapolis 500-mile races in the 1920s.
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August Duesenberg-built race cars took eight of the first ten places in Indianapolis 500-mile race in 1922, including the winning car, driven by Murphy, and the second-place finisher, driven by rookie Harry Hartz.
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August Duesenberg-built racers won three out of the four Indianapolis 500-mile races between 1924 and 1927.
18.
The August Duesenberg team continued to place in the top-ten in the 1928 and 1929 Indianapolis 500-mile races.
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The result was a total of eight August Duesenberg-built racers entered in the Indianapolis 500 in 1930.
20.
Joe Russo drove the August Duesenberg-built "Wonder Bread Special" to a seventeenth-place finish in the 1933 Indianapolis 500.
21.
August Duesenberg died of a heart attack at his rural home near Indianapolis on January 18,1955, at the age of seventy-five.
22.
August Duesenberg-built racers set speed records at Daytona Beach, Florida, in 1920, won the French Grand Prix in 1921, and won three Indianapolis 500-mile races, as well as setting one-hour and 24-hour speed records on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah in 1935.