1920 ReVere-Duesenberg, a four-seater with a unique engine, was featured in Jay Leno's Garage.

Jay Leno is a big Duesenberg fan. This car may seem like a new addition to the Duesenberg series that has been featured in "Jay Leno's Garage" for years, but that is not the case.

This 1920 ReVere-Duesenberg Four Passenger is a product of the long defunct ReVere brand. However, it is powered by an engine designed by brothers Fred and August Duesenberg before they started their eponymous car company, which sold its first car in 1921.

The 5.5-liter inline four-cylinder engine, badged Rochester Duesenberg, was an unusual "walking beam" design that Leno described as "a cheaper alternative to the dual overhead cam." Instead of moving the cam to the top of the engine to directly actuate the overhead valves, the Duesenberg brothers designed a rod that connected the cam to the valves. This reciprocating motion gave the walking-beam engine its name.

That was not the only unusual aspect of this engine. Because it was cast in one piece with no head, the valves protruded from the sides of the block. This eliminated the need for head gaskets and made them less likely to fail, but also made access to the engine internals more difficult than in previous engine designs.

The engine proved reliable in racing, and since the Duesenberg brothers had not yet built their own car, they used its performance on the track to sell the engine to other car manufacturers. Rivale was one of those companies. Rather than designing their own cars from scratch, Rivale assembled their cars with parts sourced from outside suppliers.

ReVere's top management appeared to have set up this company as a stock scam, but it produced several examples of remarkably good cars. According to Leno, the Duesenberg engine was a "torque monster" and quite fast for its time, and the aluminum doors and aluminum radiator shell were quite novel features. Nevertheless, it only had rear-wheel brakes.

Reno estimates that only four or five ReVere cars, of which about 200 were built, remain today, and by comparison later cars under the Duesenberg brand seem common. These cars, with their more sophisticated twin-cam inline-8 engines, are still considered by experts to be the best American cars of all time. And the Levare Duesenberg was a prequel to them.