Collection Item

Duesenberg Single Seater

Please note the Duesenberg  is currently on display at The Peninsula Hotel London. Read more about our partnership here.

The fourth-fastest car to lap the Brooklands Outer circuit, driven by Whitney Straight in 1934.

Count Carlo Felice Trossi, the president of Scuderia Ferrari, commissioned Fred ‘Skinny’ Clemons, an Indianapolis engineer, to build a car that would beat Maserati and Bugatti. Clemons used a 1927 Duesenberg single-seater chassis and a second-hand Clemons engine to create this racer. Completed in August 1933, and wearing Ferrari’s famous prancing horse logo, it ran in the Monza Grand Prix.

In 1934 Whitney Straight, a wealthy American, achieved the second-fastest Outer-Circuit lap at the time at 138.15mph. The car was later raced at Brooklands by a variety of drivers including Jack Duller, and Gwenda Stewart, the fastest lady ever to lap Brooklands.

Bequeathed to Brooklands Museum by the late Denis Jenkinson.