Hot Wheels Redline History: The Classic Cord

ADAM GRAPES

Auburn-Cords-Doozie HISTORIAN

A second resin/acetate Classic Cord has also been found. This one features a fully painted body in white, a black roof and silver windshield/sidepipes/bumper details. The body details are slightly different than the raw version showing continued work on the final concept.

There is one brass Classic Cord known. The brass cars took 200-400 hours to make and were a combination of pantographed parts, production parts, fabricated parts and modified parts from other castings. They weigh approximately 20% more than their production counterparts. Mostly used for testing, they were often featured in early advertising and booklets. One piece in particular is the original club kit magazine, in which there are many brass casting shown in the pullout centerfold poster. Because perfect detail was not needed for these photo shoots, some details that would not be seen have been omitted.

The brass Classic Cord follows suit and includes a body that has many details omitted such as door lines and trunk details. The interior is a modified Vicky interior and the windshield and roof are fabricated pieces. The engine appears to be a standard production part. One interesting point worth noting is the assembly method. Where the production Classic Cord features two posts to spin for assembly, the brass piece utilizes one post up front and a hook in the rear.

Brass redlines are as rare as the patterns, as only one was made for each casting. Many have been lost through history but approximately 40 have survived in varying conditions. The Classic Cord shown was acquired from the Robert Rosas collection.