All Photos By Gail

The Ruxton is one of the rarest and most unique automobiles of the Classic Era, combining innovative front-wheel-drive engineering with bold, avant-garde styling. Today, nearly three-quarters of all cars sold are front-wheel-drive, but during the late 1920s and early 1930s this drive layout was a foreign concept to most, except for a limited number of engineers and racing drivers.

Ruxton advertised “Colorings created by Joseph Urban and exclusive fabrics by Schumacher” for their very stylish Art Deco Front Drive automobile.

The least expensive Ruxton sold for $4,500, or nine times the price of a new Ford and was priced 40 percent higher than the Cord L-29.

The car was a sensation when introduced but it lasted only one year, with only 134 cars being produced in total, making them by far the rarest of the high-end automobiles of the era. The Great Depression brought an end to Ruxton rather quickly, like many great auto manufacturers of the time.

Only 19 examples of this automobile are known to survive today. This beautiful Ruxton Sedan won First in Class and Best American Classic at Pebble Beach in 2006.

Photographed at The Nethercutt Collection in Sylmar, California.