# Twenty Grand (Duesenberg)

The Twenty Grand is the name given to the one-off custom 1933 Rollston Arlington Torpedo-bodied Duesenberg SJ ultra-luxury sedan. The design's initial price tag of US$20,000 ($485,810 in 2024 dollars) during the height of the Great Depression infamously gave it its nickname of Twenty Grand. It is widely considered to be the most famous Duesenberg ever built and its design was the pioneer of the ultra-luxury car. It is one of most valuable cars in the world and the single most valuable American car ever made; estimated at around US$50 million dollars.
The Twenty Grand is the most valuable and flagship vehicle of the Nethercutt Collection and the family's car collection, where it was fully restored by J.B. Nethercutt and painted in its iconic silver. It won Best of Show at the 1980 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance.
The unprecedented 320-horsepower engine output made the Twenty Grand one of the most powerful American-built road cars for several decades, long after its construction. Jay Leno described the Twenty Grand as the 20th-century equivalent of the Bugatti Veyron in regards to the unprecedented engine power and prominence of each of the vehicles relative to their times.

## History

Luxury brands Duesenberg and Rollston contracted automobile designer Gordon Buehrig for a ultra-luxury one-off design to be the leading automotive "Dream Car" display representing the progress of the United States automotive industry at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair.
Once completed in Indianapolis, the finished automobile's set price was an astronomical $20,000 during the middle of the Great Depression where cars typically cost around $600–800 ($19,432 in 2024 dollars) and houses $2,000 ($48,581 in 2024 dollars), leading onlookers to infamously nickname the vehicle The Twenty Grand. Ultimately because of its unprecedented price tag, it was proven too expensive for the American wealthy and foreign dignitaries at the World's Fair.
Due to the further deterioration of the economy from the Great Depression, the Twenty Grand was untouched for a year until it was sold to Shreve Archer in the following 1934 leg of the same fair for $20,000, making it the second most expensive Duesenberg ever sold new. Later the Twenty Grand would go on to have several other owners where it was altered with a modernized interior, fenders, and was painted black and green.
In 1979, cosmetics entrepreneur J.B. Nethercutt purchased the Twenty Grand for $130,000 ($563,214 in 2024 dollars), making it one of the then-most expensive vehicle purchases up to that time. He gave it a complete original restoration at the Nethercutt Collection, changing the exterior color from black to a metallic silver and reverting the interior to its original 1930s opulence. Once the restoration was completed, Nethercutt entered it into the pinnacle Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance in 1980, where it ultimately won Best of Show. In the late 1980s the Twenty Grand was selected to be exhibited in Essen, Germany as one of “The Ten Most Beautiful Cars in the World.” It won Best of Show at the 2011 Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance and at the 2022 Las Vegas Concours d'Elegance.

## Replica

In 2012 a 1:1 fan-made replica vehicle was constructed as tribute to The Twenty Grand that included a supercharged Ford V8 engine. The replica was auctioned off in Scottsdale, Arizona for over $100,000.