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Dream Cars

The great Harley Earl who created Cadillac's Art & Color section in the late twenties, always tested new design ideas on Buick chassis.  Very often, the best of them ended up on production Cadillacs. A close look at the Buick Y-Job and Le Sabre prototype, below, should convince you whereof I speak.

       
Far left:  the restored car in its current (2008) garb

The following GM press release, which I have been unable to date but which I guess was published in 1964 or 1965, gives a good overview of the many "Dream Cars" which GM and especially the Cadillac Motor car division built in the Fifties.

"DETROIT - Many of the styling improvements on General Motors cars through the years might never have left the design studios without the auto industry's unique periscope on its own future - the "dream car".

Born in 1938 to give the stylist a tool for advanced research comparable to the laboratory and proving ground used by the scientist and engineer, the dream car has become a world famous symbol of the American public's ever growing fascination with the life it can expect in the future.

The dream car has always been far more than a gleaming automobile on a pedestal - it has brought tremendous benefits to every motorist.

It has made possible better looking, more advanced cars produced ahead of the time they might have appeared in normal evolution. Also, the dream car has given the motorist a positive voice in deciding the features he wants to see on his future cars. General Motors originated the concept of a "dream" or experimental car to test public reaction to design and engineering innovations.

In 1938, GM built the famous "Y-Job" [not showed publicly until 1940], which began a parade of dramatic GM experimental cars which have excited millions of people in America and abroad. Most recent members of the group are the GM-X, the Firebird IV and the Runabout, introduced at the New York's World fair.

The dream car stimulates the stylist to creative thinking because it allow him to build in three dimensions the futuristic ideas he conceives which are too advanced to be applied to the design of next year's model. This catches and brings to life for the motorist many ideas which might otherwise be lost.

Once built and exhibited, the dream car makes it possible to gauge public reaction to its new features, through customer research procedures. This evidence of acceptability encourages a manufacturer to spend the money to put an idea into production far sooner than he might if he had doubts about its acceptance.

The 1938 "Y-Job" had a host of "firsts" including the first electrically operated convertible top, first power windows, the first extension of fenders into the front doors, and the first concealed running board. After being shown across the country and tested extensively, it was "retired" to a GM warehouse. In 1964, it was brought out for public display once more when it was selected as one of America's 20 styling "milepost" cars for an exhibit at the New York Automobile Show.

The Le Sabre and XP-300 were the next GM experimental cars built in 1951. LeSabre came to be one of the most famous of all the dream cars. It featured the first panoramic "wraparound" windshield.

In 1953, GM began giving dream cars maximum visibility by making them the automotive stars of a new traveling show called the Motorama [two earlier shows, in 1949 and 1950, had been labeled "Transportation Unlimited" - none were held in 1951 and 1952, while war raged in Korea]. Five cars were built and exhibited that year including the Chevrolet Corvette - an immediate hit which was later placed in production as America's first fiberglass sports car.

The Motorama grew bigger in 1954, and GM built for it 12 special cars including the Firebird I, first gas turbine auto ever built and tested in the United States. Two dream station wagons, the Chevrolet Nomad and Pontiac Safari, became production cars the following year.

In 1955, seven new dream cars and a dream truck, the GMC "l'Universelle" starred in the Motorama. One, the Cadillac Eldorado Brougham, has now gone into production [1957].

In 1956, five more dream cars were exhibited in the Motorama, plus the Firebird II gas turbine passenger car. With the Firebird II, GM styling presented a concept of a safety electronic highway of tomorrow which delighted Motorama visitors.

In 1959 two space age cars were shown, the Cadillac Cyclone and the Firebird III, star of the GM Motorama.

It would be impossible to guess the total number of people that have viewed the three dozen dream cars and experimental cars created thus far by General Motors. The Motorama alone drew more than seven and three quarter million people in its four years of national tour [1953, 1954, 1955, 1956]. In addition, some of the cars are still being shown individually in local show and fairs both here and abroad. Others are now running on test tracks.

The myriad of styling and engineering features on current GM production cars has put yesterday's dream car into the hands of today's average motorist. And just as it has spearheaded progress in the past, the dream car will continue to search the future for automotive improvements symbolizing the limitless imagination of the stylists and engineers of the auto industry."

 

AHA [Andrew A. Hotton Associates] Manufacturing Co (Toronto, Canada)   

American Built Cars Inc. (San Francisco, CA, USA)

ACC [American Custom Coachworks] (Beverly Hills, CA, USA):  CLC member, Tim Stephens provided this information: I was acquainted with Jules Meyer the owner (now deceased), and in back-tracking my San Remo convertible, threads to him and his organization have become very complicated.  The "Beverly Hills" address was just that - an office.  He didn't own factories, but sub-contracted production, or set up "conversion" companies which ran for a couple of years, closed ... then re-started another one.  Most of this activity was in and& around Fort Smith, Arkansas, whilst the corporate headquarters were in Beverly Hills.   I am involved with the restoration of a 1978 "Paris" convertible, and the work was rubbish  [my emphasis]. The convertible top frames were early 1960's, second-hand frames, using bondo to make them agree with the cut-off windshields - the hollow upper just filled-in with fibreglass.    The survival rate of either "Paris" convertibles or pickups is amazingly low, given the claimed production numbers ... The same is true of the San Remo cars, also sold out of an office in California - actual builders unknown.   There was a lot of "smoke and mirrors" - A.C.C.'s 2" x 2" black and white newspaper advertising, or single-sheet "flyers" were very cheap promotion, compared to "Grandeur" or "Gucci" customs of the period.   I suspect we will never know actual numbers produced, nor the actual, physical places these conversions took place ...  This weekend, I inspected a 1976 "Mirage" pickup - rotted out floor in the bed, the old trunk floor was almost gone and the bed's 1" square tube supports had also rotted in part.   (there were no provisions for draining the bed ever built into the floor....)  Good from far, but far from good... 
Annheuser-Busch (USA)

A.R.M. (The Netherlands - no other details available)

Armbruster Stageway (Fort Smith, ARK, USA)

A.S.C. (Automobile Specialty Corp Inc. or American Sunroof Corporation) [Custom Craft Division] (Southgate, IL, USA) was founded in late 1963 by Heinz Christian Prechter, a German foreign exchange student who was attending San Francisco State College. Born on January 19, 1942, Prechter was brought up on his family’s Kleinhöbing, Bavaria farm. He was fascinated by automobiles from an early age and entered the automotive apprenticeship program at the local Berufschule (vocational school) when he was 13. After school Prechter worked at his uncle’s auto repair shop, and following the successful completion of his studies, he was accepted at the Nuremburg Berufs-Oberschule (upper vocational school) where he interned at Deutz (diesel engines & tractors), Faunwerke (trucks and military vehicles) and Siemens (electronics). ASC installed factory approved sun roofs on some Cadillac models of the late sventies. The body tags of these cars, like the 1978 Eldorado Biarritz, carry the letter "Z" or combination "Z3". After-market sun roofs that DO not have that letter were not covered under the factory warranty. There is an interesting article about the company, here.

Baker, Dick and Tony [see "Custom Coach"] (Lima, OH, USA)

Barkers (UK) built at least one custom cabriolet on a 1930-31 (?) Cadillac V8 chassis for the Hon. A.E. Guiness, the Irish beer baron [Barkers was founded in 1710; they had showrooms at 66-69 South Audley Street in Mayfair and a factory at Olaf Sreet, in Shepherd's Bush. They were closely associated with Rolls-Royce, being the preferred coach builder of Charles S. Rolls & Co. The British coac-buildiong form of Hoopers took over Barker & Co. at their liquidation in 1938]. 

Barnett Coach Company (USA), limousines and funeral cars ?

 

Barris, George (USA)  

Bayliff Coach Corporation (Lima, OH, USA)

Beverly Hills Coach Works (USA)

Binder (Paris, France)

Bohman, Frank (USA)

Bohman & Schwartz (USA)

Brantford Coach & Body, Ltd (Brantford, ON, Canada)

Breese Custom Limousines (Dallas, TX, USA)

Brewster (USA)

Bronkhorst (The Netherlands) Fa. J. Bronkhorst, Langestraat 87 Hilversum, Bronkhorst-carrosserie (since circa 1909)

Brunn (New York, USA)

Buhne, Heinrich (Germany)

Burke (PA, USA), circa 1970

Cadillac Custom Body Department (New York, USA)

Carrozzeria Rocco Motto (Turin, Italy) 1953-55 Cadillac "Elegante" sports roadster

Cantrell (Huntington, Long Island, NY, USA)

Casale, Dario (Italy)

Chapron, Henri (Paris, France)

Chicago Armor Co. (USA)

Coach Design Group Inc. (CA, USA)

Coachcraft Ltd. (Hollywood, USA)

Columbia, (USA)

Continental Coach Builders [North Miami, FL] - Eldorado Egidi

Convertibles, Inc. (Lima, OH, USA)

Cunningham (USA)

Custom Coach (Dick and Tony Baker, Lima, OH, USA)

Dansk Karrosserifabrik, (Denmark)

Darrin, Howard "Dutch" (USA)

Daytona-Wright (USA)

Derham (USA)       

De Villars (Paris, France)

De Wolf, Frans (Belgium)

D'Ieteren Frères (Brussels, Belgium)

Don Lee (See "Lee, Don")  

Dunham Coach, Boontown, NJ (USA) - Les Dunham

Duvivier, R. (Paris, France)

E & G (USA)

Eagle Coach Corporation (USA)

Eggli, S.A. (Geneva, Switzerland)

Elkington, (London, UK)

Empire Coach (USA)

Erdmann & Rossi (Berlin, Halensee, Germany)

(The) Eureka Company (Rock Falls, IL, USA)    [the "Chieftain" Series]   

(The) Eureka Company¹ (Rock Falls, IL, USA) [the S&S Series, formerly the initials of          
     Sayers & Scovill - see below]

Executive Coach Builders (USA)

Fleetwood³ (Pennsylvania and Detroit, USA)  

(The) Flxible Company (Loudonvill, OH, USA)

Franay (Paris, France)

Freyschuss, Adolf (Sweden)

Geiger (Münich, Gernmany)

Geissel (Philadelphia, PA, USA)

Ghia (Torino, Italy): Usually, the Ghia emblem sits over the company nameplate that reads Carrozzeria Ghia Torino   
 

Gläser (Germany)

Global Coach Corporation (Orlando, FL, USA)

Graber, Hermann (Wichtrach, Switzerland)

Grandeur Motor Car Corporation (Pompano Beach, FL, USA)

Gucci, Aldo (Italy / USA)    
     [the logo image is of the hood emblem from a "Gucci" signature Cadillac]

Gummarus Docx, Carrosserie  (Belgium)

Gygax (Biel/Bienne (?), Switzerland)
          (mentioned in the German monthly Motor for May 1930)

Harper, R.S. (Fraser, MI, USA)

Hartmann, Willy (Lausanne, Switzerland)

Healy [Col. William Mansfield] (New York, USA), subsequently bought out by Inglis Uppercu; Healy customized Cadillac limousines of the 20s with Rolls-Royce grilles)

Heuliez (France)

Heimburger, O. (Basel, Switzerland)

Hess & Eisenhardt  (USA)

Hibbard, Thomas (Tom) (USA)

Hibbard & Darrin (USA)     

Hillcrest Motor Co. (Beverly Hills, CA, USA)

Hofslageri AB  (Sweden)

Hollander and Merrill (Amesbury, MA, USA)

Holmes (USA)

Hooper (London, UK)

Hoover Wagon Co. (York, PA, USA)

Hooper (London, UK)

Inskip  (New York, USA)

Indianapolis Power Hammer Works (Indianapolis, IN, USA)

International Armor and Limousine Co, (Elgin, IL, USA)   

International Automotive Design (Miami, FL, USA)  '[[logo]]

Judkins (USA)      

Kellner, Georges & Fils (then Kellner Frères) (Paris, France)  

Kellner, Alexis (Berlin, Germany); the address was: Carosserie Kellner, Kellner, GmbH, Berlin S.W.61, Gitschiner Str., 13, Tel. IX.434. The cars of Alexis Kellner were flaunted as having "Exceptional ease of operation" and being the "Quintessence of premier luxury and comfort" (my own translation of a German-language blurb from 1928)

Kellner & Gygax (Biel/Bienne, Switzerland)
          (mentioned in the Swiss annual Automoboil Revue for 1932)

Keystone Vehicle Co. (Columbus, Ohio, USA)

Kimball, C.P. (Chicago, IL, USA)

Köng, W.E. (Basel, Switzerland)

Krystal Koach [Krystal Enterprises] (USA)     

Kurtis, Frank (USA)

Lancefield (London, UK)

LCW Automotive (San Antonio, TX, USA)    

Le Baron (New York, USA)

Lee, Don (San Francisco, USA)  

   
(Left) Interior of the Don Lee showroom, circa 1926-27; (right) this huge crest still, adorns the building today

 

Lehmann-Peterson, Inc. (USA)

Letourneur & Marchand (Paris, France)

Limousine Werks (USA)

Little, John C. (Ingersoll, Ontario, Canada)

McLain Leasing (Anderson, IN, USA)

(The) Meteor Motor Car Co. (Piqua, OH, USA)      
                                                                                    [logo from 1956 brochure]

Mijnhardt Brothers (Arnhem, NL)

Milan Coach Builders (CA, USA)

(The) Miller, A.J. (Bellefontaine, OH, USA)    

Miller, E.M. (USA)

Miller-Meteor (USA)       [1978]

Moloney, Chicago (USA)

Mosler (USA ???)

Mulliner, H.J. & Co. (London, UK)

Murphy (USA)

National Coach Distributors (Knightstown, IN, USA)

Nordberg, Gustaf (Stockholm, Sweden) 

Northern Pump Co. (Minneapolis, MN, USA)

Million-Guiet (Paris, France)

Owen (USA)

Papler Karrosseriewerk (Germany)

Philadelphia Specialty Mfg. Co. (USA)

Phaeton Coach Corp. (Dallas, TX, USA)

Pinin Farina (Italy)   [Pininfarina (in one word) after 1961]         

Pollmann, Conrad (Bremen, Germany)

Pozzi & Cie., Carrosserie (Lausanne, Switzerland)

Proctor Keefe Co. (Detroit, USA)

Ramseier (Carrosserie Worblaufen, Switzerland) [see Worblaufen, below]

Reinbolt & Christé (Switzerland)

Roberts-LeBaron (USA)

Rollston (amended to Rollson, in 1939) Company (New York, USA)  

Saoutchik, Jacques (Paris, France)  

(The) Sayers & Scovill Co. (Cincinnati, OH, USA)  

Sbarro, Franco (Switzerland)    

Schutte (Lancaster, PA, USA)

Schutter & Van Bakel [Carrosserie], Amsterdam  (Netherlands) - they built at least one custom 1928 cobvertible coupe

Schwartz, Maurice (USA)

Seaman (USA)

Silver-Knightstown Body Co. (Knightstown, IND, USA)

Smith (Springfield, MA?? / IL??, USA)

Spohn (Ravensburg, Germany)        This was his buisness card

Sodomka (Czechoslovakia)

Steinmetz (Germany) - custom engine tuning

Stengel, Peter (Hollywood, USA and London, UK)

Stevens, Brooks (USA)

Sunrise Automobile Corporation (USA)

Superior Body Company (Lima, OH, USA)

[renamed] Superior Coach Corporation²  (Lima, OH, USA)            This cloisonné badge is affixed to the firewall of "Superior" coaches 
                                                                                                      

Traditional Coach Works (Los Angeles, CA, USA)

Thrupp & Maberly (London, UK)

Tuscher (Germany) - built at least one custon 1938 convertible sedan

Uppercu, Inglis (New York, USA)

Van den Plas (Brussels, Belgium)

Vanden Plas (London, UK) Thanks to reader John Fobian for sending these conmments about the British afiliates: Van den Plas [British]: The correct spelling of the name, according to the Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Motorcar, Coachbuilding, is Vanden Plas. While originally affiliated with the Belgian coachbuilder Van den Plas, the British company has been a separate company since 1913, with a different format to its name.

Van Rijswijk (Carrossienfabriek B.T. van Rijswijk & Zoon, The Hague, The Netherlands) 

Vanvooren (Paris, France)

Versteegen (The Netherlands (Holland)

Vignale (Italy)  

Viking Coachworks (Sanford, FL, USA)

Visser (The Netherlands - Holland)

Waterhouse (Webster, MA, (USA)   

Wayne.... (USA) >>>>>

Weinsberg (probably Germany)

Wildanger, Jos. [NJ, USA]

Willoughby (USA)

Wisco Corp. (Ferndale, MI, USA)

Wolfington (USA)

Worblaufen (Carrosserie Fritz Ramseier, Switzerland)  

Zagato (Italy)
_________________________________________
Further recommended reading:
¹  Eureka - A complete History by Thomas A. McPherson, ISBN 0-9697879-1-X
²  Superior - The complete History by Thomas A. McPherson, ISBN 0-9697879-2-8
³  Fleetwood - The Company & The Coachcraft by James J. Schild, ISBN 0-9624958-9-1

 

Ce chapitre est consacré aux prototypes, voitures de rêve et autres Cadillac dont en général la fabrication fut limitée à dix exemplaires au maximum. On trouvera quelques exeptions parmi les Cadillac à moteur seize cylindres, ainsi que les véhicles de service, tels que les ambulances, corbillards et autres fourgons funéraires dont on sait que la production fut très limitée mais dont on ne connait pas le nombre exact.

En 1956, à l'occasion du Motorama¹ de l'année,  le patron du "styling" de la GM, Harley J. Earl, confiait à des journalistes:  Il fut un temps où  la GM était d'avis qu'il nous fallait modérer certaines de nos idées car le public n'y était pas encore préparé. Cependant, en exposant ces véhicles de rêve chaque année à l'occasion des seuls Motorama, nous nous sommes rendu compte que les idées du public étaient souvent en avance sur les nôtres.  Il faut dire qu'à ces occasions, plus de deux millions de visiteurs peuvent admirer nos modèles expérimentaux.  Ils en parlent; ils en disent ce qui leur plaît ou deplaît.  Et nous  y prêtons une attention toute particulière.

Lorsque ces Salons fermaient leurs portes, les patrons de la GM ordonnaient chaque année, pour des raisons de sécurité, que soit détruits la plupart de ces modèles uniques, ceux-ci n'étant pas conçus au demeurant pour prendre la route.  Habituellement les filiales obtempéraient  [Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick ...et Cadillac]. 

Le chantier Warhoops, dans la banlieue de Détroit, était chargé de la destruction des protos Cadillac.  Dieu soit loué, l'un des patrons de l'entreprise - un visionnaire - eut la géniale idée de soustraire à la déchiqueteuse et à la presse certains "Show Cars" Cadillac exceptionnels.   Furent notamment épargnés: le spider La Salle II de 1955, la berline La Salle II de la même année ainsi que la Cadillac Eldorado Brougham Town Car du salon 1956.   Cette dernière a fait l'objet d'une restauration minutieuse et se trouve aujourd'hui dans une collection privée à Détroit.

L'un des tableaux ci-dessus contient la liste des carrossiers ayant conçu une, voire plusieurs carrosseries spéciales sur chassis Cadillac.  Si vous en connaissez d'autres, faites-moi signe!

Par ailleurs, l'un de nous lecteurs, en Australie, nous a parlé de ces rares Cadillac avec conduite à droite.  En effet, pendant des lustres, le gouvernement australien a interdit sur ses routes toute automobile ayant le volant à gauche.  Cela n'a pas empêché nos amis collectionneurs de là-bas d'opérer la conversion de gauche à droite lorsque le modèle en valait la peine.   Si vous croisez un jour une Cadillac avec le volant à droite vous pouvez être quasiment sûr qu'elle est passée entre les mains de certain australien ingénieux!

La firme elle-même a construit très peu de Cadillac avec la conduite à droite (peut-être une vingtaine en tout et pour tout et ce dans les années vingt et trente). En revanche depuis 1999 la nouvelle Seville serait livrable sur demande avec la conduite à droite.

____________
¹   Les "Motorama" de la GM étaient une sorte de "salon de l'auto itinérant" où l'on présentait au grand public des principales villes des Etats-Unis les dernières nouveautés aussi bien techniques que stylistiques dans ce vaste domaine

 

Pick one   >

WW2 years