The 1959 Cadillac Cyclone

Nose cones and flip-up headlights

    
The rare B&W photos (immediately above) are from the Cadillac Styling Studio archives; they are reproduced here,
courtesy of GM/Cadillac and Floyd Joliet who enabled me (and my camera) to access that "shrine" in the Fall of 1994;
the photo (left) is a seating buck; it is dated Nov. 28, 1958; the one on the right is dated Oct. 27, 1959

   
The Cadillac Cyclone with the original white paint and the GM Air Transport logo on its towering fins;
RH photo shows bubbletop being retracted into rear compartment, where it rested on a special air bag

First public appearance, Daytona Beach, February 21, 1959

    
This photo (and enlargement):  Internet, 2015

This car was first shown on 21.2.1959 at Daytona Beach race track in Florida (above photo), where it was plagued with various malfunctions; the car was actually never finished, owing to Harley Earl's  retirement. The engine was a standard Cadillac 390 ci, rated at 325HP; brakes were power-assisted through the reserve tank of the air-suspension unit; there was a two-speed rear axle to allow a choice of six speeds through the standard 3-speed Hydra-Matic [it is not certain that this was ever hooked up, but the T-handle in the cockpit shows the positions "P,N,6,5,4,3,2,1,R"]; muffler and exhaust outlets were placed ahead of the front wheel openings. The car had 4 retractable headlights; front cones masked radar devices allowing the car to steer itself thanks to a tracking sensor placed under the front of the car that could follow a signal from a wire imbedded in the road; a test loop was set up at proving grounds to show the effectiveness of the system. A proximity warning device was supposed to prevent collisions but it was never tested in practice. The car had small openings cut in the doors for passing various materials in and out; there was a sound system to the outside world, through speakers located behind grilles in the front fenders, for use when the canopy was raised. This was a fair-weather car, not really designed for use with the top up, which made entry and egress very difficult. Its principal features were a bubbly top canopy and doors that popped out at the touch of a button, then could be slid back (a system popularized by Volkswagen on its minibus series around the same time). Built on a 104" chassis, the Cyclone is 197" long and stands only 44" tall; the body is made of steel (not fiberglass, like some experimental models); power is provided by the standard 325 HP engine fitted with a low-profile carburetor, a cross-flow aluminum radiator and two fans. The initial white pearlescent paint was replaced later with silver; at the same time, the GM Air Transport logo disappeared from the tall fins, to be replaced by an oblong, vertical Cyclone name badge placed at the extremity of each rear fender. The seats are silver leather.

    
It might be supposed, at first,  that the color photo (left) and the B&W photo (right)  were taken during the same photo shoot;
wrong. In the LH (color) photo, the Cyclone carries the GMAT logo on the inner and outer faces of the tail fins; however, in
the B&W photo (right), the former logo is gone, replaced by a rectangular, vertical Cyclone name badge, and the car has been
re-sprayed in a metallic hue. In addition, the Eldorado Biarritz in the color shot has the front bench seat, whereas the one in
the B&W shot has the optional bucket seats, an out-of-place trunk "V" and crest and regular Series 62 convertible side
trim; although not visible in this small, low resolution image, the interior trim is that of the regular Eldorado models

  
The photo on the left obviously was taken the same day as the preceding one (above, right) - you can just make out the
1959 Eldorado's ventipane and rear-view mirror at the far right of the photo; the gal in the photo is Anne Turnes
who can be seen also seated in the custom 1959 bubble-top limousine (1959 Dream Cars section - the two-tone shoes
and bobbed hair-do are a dead giveaway; obviously, therefore, the photos of the Cyclone and bubble-top limousine were
taken on the same day). Anne is wearing an overcoat so it is probably early in the year. The photo on the right shows
the modified Cyclone on display in a lavish showroom; a Sixty-Special sedan is in the background (far left)

 

The press first referred to the Cyclone in the afternoon papers on 20 February 1959. They said: DETROIT - Development of the Cadillac Cyclone, latest in a long series of General Motors experimental cars to test new styling and engineering ideas, was announced today by William L. Mitchell, GM Vice President in charge of Styling Staff. The two-passenger automobile has a clear plastic top which folds backwards beneath the surface of the trunk deck. Among its advanced design and engineering developments is a radar locating device which scans the highway and warns the driver of objects in his path. The Cyclone will make its first public appearance tomorrow in Daytona, Florida, where a week of automotive events is concluding. Driving the new car will be Harley J. Earl, who retired as GM Vice President in charge of Styling on December 1, 1958. Mr. Earl is now consultant to GM. The car is pearlescent white with a steel blue interior. Its overall length is 196.9 inches and wheel base is 104 inches. Its overall height is 44 inches at the top of the passenger canopy. The body is of steel. Distinctively Cadillac in styling with sweeping lines culminating in traditional Cadillac tail fins, the car was developed by GM Styling in cooperation with Cadillac Motor and a number of other GM divisions. Large, twin nose cones in the front of the car house the proximity sensing units. They electronically alert the driver with both an audible signal and a warning light of any automobile or other object which he is approaching. The pitch of the signal increases as he draws closer to the object. The one-piece, laminated plastic canopy fits snugly against the panoramic windshield to give the driver true 360 degree vision. Its top is silver-coated [on the inside] to deflect the sun's rays. The canopy is hinged at the rear and is power operated. It lifts to afford easy entrance for the passenger when either door is opened and disappears automatically beneath the rear deck for storage when not in use. Cyclone's doors are unusual, also. At a touch of a button on either side. the door moves outward from the car three inches. The driver then slides the door back along the side of the car for an easy entrance. The door moves smoothly on ball bearings. A standard Cadillac 325 horsepower engine is positioned in the nose of the car. It features a new low-profile carburetor, cross flow aluminum radiator and twin fans. The muffler and the exhaust system is located in the front engine compartment with the exhaust outlets just ahead of the front wheels. An experimental Hydra-Matic transmission and final drive assembly are mounted behind the passenger compartment. Front suspension incorporates standard 1959 Cadillac air suspension units. The power brake system uses an air servo instead of the conventional vacuum servo with the air supplied from the air suspension system. The steering system uses the Saginaw rotary valve power steering gear with variable ratio added. Front wheels and front brake drums are integral aluminum castings and feature improved cooling for increased braking power. Rear brakes are mounted inboard and are of conventional cast iron. The 14-inch wheels are cast aluminum. The passenger compartment has bucket seats and advanced passenger comforts. Instruments are clustered like an aircraft dashboard before and between the two passengers. An intercommunication system allows passengers to converse with persons outside the automobile without raising the canopy. Combined heating and refrigeration units are housed in the cowl sections on either side of the passenger compartment doors. Operated by a single dial, this system provides optimum weather conditioning and defrosting. The Cyclone will be used as a rolling laboratory to test its new features. It is the 38th experimental car built by General Motors since the original Y-Job was introduced in 1938. Besides Cadillac, GM's engineering staff cooperated on the Cyclone project as did the following GM Divisions: AC Spark Plug, Delco Appliance, Detroit Transmission, Fabricast, Harrison Radiator and Saginaw Steering. Another write-up appeared in Motor for April, 1959.

The Cyclone was remodeled a couple of times, first after its initial public showing at Daytona Beach, in February 1959, then again in 1960.  First the GMAT logos were removed from the tail-fins and the car was repainted a metallic color [I have seen no color photos of that first repaint but assume it was silvery-gray, just as it looks today]; a small, vertical, rectangular Cyclone nameplate was affixed to the rear fenders near the tail-light housings. The tall fins were later drastically cut down [1960] and some redesigning was done to the wheels and the rear end, including moving the tail lights from the rear panel on either side of the number plate to the outer, circular housings which previously had simulated rocket exhaust ports. The problematic air-suspension was replaced with conventional coil springs (as happened to many air-sprung Cadillacs of 1959 and 1960).  

    

    

            
Above three rows: the modified Cyclone with dramatically reduced tail-fins and remodeled tail-lights

The Cockpit, Instrumentation and Controls

       
Part of the Cyclone's instrumentation is located in front of the driver; the reminder of the gauges are mounted
centrally on the dash; in front of the driver are the speedometer (LH), oil gauge (center) and tachometer (right);
in the center vertical console are a clock-chronometer (at top, left), manifold pressure gauge (at top, right),  fuel gauge
(AT lower (left), ammeter (at lower, right).

         
Below the four gauges on the vertical panel are four "T" levers (center, upper block);  from left to right, these are :
the canopy control lever, the defrost lever, the air suspension adjustment lever and the hood release lever;
below that panel are three more switches: Cruise Control (left), ignition lock (center) and heater control (right);
to the left of the central console (transmission tunnel) is the hand brake lever (rd knob); on the right is the T-handled
shift lever for the automatic transmission. Radio controls and ash receiver are located at the rear of the console

In an article published in France in the late Eighties it was stated that the "low" fins represented the end of an era and appeared on some early sixties Cadillac models; in fact the car shown in that article is the modified Cyclone, with drastically lowered fins; the original 1959 Buck Roger's-type car had towering fins (taller in fact than those on the 1959 production car) with GM's Air-Transport Division logo [a stylized white aircraft on a red and blue background]. These reduced fins and the lower body skeg of the re-modeled Cyclone appeared in modified form on the 1961 Cadillac models. The tall fins were shaved down in 1960 so that they did not exceed in height the front fenders. At that time too, new wheels were added; these are dished, like the standard 1961 wheel discs but feature a center cap similar to that used on the 1957-58 Eldorado Brougham.

Tail-lights and reversing lights were removed from the rear panel and incorporated in the tail-light housings which were appropriately remodeled. The rectangular Cadillac name badge on the rear fenders was replaced by a new Cadillac wreath and crest; a new, horizontal name badge was designed for the front fenders.  The vacuum chrome coating on the underside of the canopy had peeled off early in the car's life. 

The modified car retains the blue and white medallion in the center of the steering wheel hub. It depicts St. Christopher (patron saint of travelers).

Photos of the car as modified in 1960 may be seen also in the book Voitures de Rêve, by Piccard (published by Edita, Lausanne). Other photos of this car may be found in SSA94, pp. 14-21; CS12, p.107 [modified 1960], SSA 1980, pp.12-13, CC&CC, 5/1987{***}.

The car is still owned by GM and is shown regularly at grand auto shows like Meadowbrook, MI, and Pebble Beach, CA. A close-up photo of the dash (taken at Pebble-Beach in August 2002) shows an odometer reading of 00904 miles, which I can readily believe is accurate, despite the car being (at that time) 43-years-old !

On display once again, this time at the 2013 Amelia Island Concours d'Elégance in SC