During the short history of the Auburn Automobile Company, 16 different models were produced. One of the most popular models being the 1936 Auburn Boattail Speedster. Since the end of Auburn, people around the world have sought after these vehicles. To fill this demand, people like Glenn Pray, and companies like California Custom Coach and Speedster Motorcar have emerged. These companies have the experience and resources to craft replicas of these boattails unlike anyone else.
Glenn Pray
Here at St. Louis Car Museum & Sales we have three examples of these Auburn Boattail Speedster Replicas for sale. The first is an Auburn built by Glenn Pray. It is finished in Wimbleton White over Red interior and has 21,000 miles on its 460ci V8 engine since its completion in 1976.
On March 24, 2011 the world of Auburn, Cord, and Duesenberg lost a colorful member and enthusiastic promoter in Glenn Pray.
Pray was a schoolteacher in Oklahoma when he acquired the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Company in 1960. This firm had been established in 1938 by Dallas Winslow, a Buick dealer from Flint, Michigan, who purchased the remaining assets of Auburn Automobile Company and continued to offer parts and service from the original administration building in Auburn. Pray moved the remaining parts stock to a former cannery--the infamous "Pickle Plant"--in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, and went into business.
In the years to come, Pray acquired a reputation as one of the foremost dealers in Auburn and Cord parts, which he sold from the original parts bins in which they arrived in Broken Arrow. A visit to the “Pickle Plant” became a tradition for enthusiasts traveling west, who would spend time searching the bins for that elusive piece to complete their restoration. It is because of Glenn Pray that the original parts for our favorite cars were saved and became available to future generations, as they had been available in the 1940s and 1950s.
Pray’s other major contribution to the ACD world was the introduction of a new Auburn and Cord in the 1960s. These were the original “replicars,” although Pray himself disdained the term, preferring “second generation.” Arguably Pray’s "second generation” cars were the finest of their type, and while they were not a financially successful venture for him, they have built their own devoted following. Today, they are recognized alongside the originals of the Classic Era by the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Club, which refers to them, fittingly, as the Second Generation Cars.
Whether your favorite Auburn or Cord hails from the 1930's or the 1970's, Glenn Pray had what it took to keep it going.