As the Great Depression ground on, car companies started dropping like flies. Many historic brands like Pierce-Arrow disappeared forever, but innovative automaker E.L. Cord decided the time was right for a radical new approach. Company designer Gordon Buehrig was assigned to design a car that would come to be recognized as one of the most beautiful automobiles ever produced. And Cord was serious about innovation; that gorgeous sheet metal would rest atop an innovative, front-wheel drive chassis.