THE LEGENDARY DERHAM TOURSTER Duesenberg’s staff designer, Gordon M.

Buehrig, created many spectacular bodies for the Model J, but he considered his favorite to be the rakish Tourster.

In his 1972 autobiography, Rolling Sculpture , Buehrig described his design with characteristic understatement, as a five-passenger touring car that was “severely plain in ornamentation and [having] the unusual virtue of being equally handsome with the top in the raised position or when it is lowered.” The use of the long 153 ½-inch-wheelbase chassis allowed Buehrig to move the rear seat ahead of the rear axle and the foot wells within the frame rails, providing more interior room for passengers while allowing the top and beltline of the body to be lower than on other phaetons.

Buehrig’s talent for subtle touches of genius was also shown in the rear windshield, which he designed to solve the problem common to dual-cowl phaetons of the era: the “dual cowl” itself, which could be cumbersome to operate.
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