Errett Loban Cord's career began in 1929 with the production of luxury cars. His name was already known to have been one of Duesenberg's technical managers. After the L29, the second model of the Cord was the 1936 812, which adopted a 4730cc V8 that could be equipped with a compressor. One of the technical features of the 812 was its electromagnetic transmission, which could be considered as the ancestor of the semiautomatic gearbox. The total production of the 812s saw 2320 units.