page_title: August Duesenberg
section_title: Death and legacy
hierarchical_section_title: August Duesenberg / Death and legacy
caption_attribution_description: The winning Duesenberg Type 183 race car from the 1921 French Grand Prix (at Le Mans) and the 1922 Indianapolis 500 at the museum at w:Indianapolis Motor Speedway. This is the first race car with four wheel hydraulic brakes.
context_page_description: 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. He also 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.
  In 1913 the brothers founded the Duesenberg Motor Company, Incorporated, which was subsequently sold, and in 1920 joined with other financial investors to establish the Duesenberg Automobiles and Motor Company, which manufactured passenger cars in Indianapolis, Indiana, from 1921 until 1937. Augie Duesenberg initially worked as the plant manager, while Fred Duesenberg was the chief design engineer and later in the 1920s served as the company's president. The Duesenberg Model A, the brothers' first, mass-produced vehicle was manufactured between 1921 and 1927.
context_section_description: Duesenberg died of a heart attack at his rural home near Indianapolis on January 18, 1955, at the age of seventy-six. His remains are interred at Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis.
  Augie Duesenberg and his brother, Fred, were cofounders of the Duesenberg Motor Company in 1913, and the Duesenberg Automobiles and Motor Company in 1920; however, Augie was not involved in the Indianapolis-based automaker's production of luxury passenger cars. Instead, he focused on the Duesenberg Brothers racing business and hand-built American race cars. 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 (1924, 1925, and 1927), as well as setting one-hour and 24-hour speed records on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah the 1935.
caption: 1922 Indianapolis 500 and 1921 French Grand Prix-winning racecar
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