[ last update: 10.07.2014 ]

The (new) Cadillac Database©

Photo Pages
Cadillac

1955


Return to The (New) Cadillac Database© Index Page
or go back to the Cadillac photo index page to pick another year

 

Unless otherwise specified all photos and illustrations are from Yann Saunders'
collection of Cadillac photos, advertisements and product catalogs,
reproduced courtesy of the Cadillac Motor Car Division and the Cadillac-LaSalle Club

 

The complement of merchandising literature for 1955 is overwhelming; apart from the regular, all-model, fold-out brochure and the luxurious prestige color catalog in its orange-tan presentation envelope, there are three superb, full-color "mailer" items entitles "A Trip to the Motorama", "Just Imagine it's yours" and "It's a Wonderful Year"; all these are a must for any serious collector of 1955 Cadillac memorabilia, as are also the small color card and 4-page folder on the "Eldorado Brougham" prototype shown at various venues around the country in 1955.  

Again, as in 1954, there were four basic series, presented in this order in the main catalog:  Sixty Special, Sixty-Two, Eldorado and Seventy-Five. That is also the order in which I have presented the illustrations below. The artist's drawings from the prestige color catalog, below, are mixed in with color photographs published in the dealer "mailers" that year; you will see that the artists continued to use a certain degree of license in order  to lower, widen and stretch these otherwise massive cars. 

Basic body shapes were basically unchanged from 1954, with the exception of the new Eldorado model that took on entirely re-designed rear fins.  The egg-crate grille spacings increased and became more rectangular.  The front bumper "bullet" impact guards were now shaped like large "shell" tips.   In the 1955 models the parking lights were repositioned in rectangular receptacles below the headlights. 

The simplest way to recognize a 1955 Cadillac is to look at the rear;  above the rear bumper are six vertical louvers.  Of course the widely-spaced egg-crate grille and the huge "Dagmars" (impact guards) also are a dead giveaway, although these were used again in 1956.

 

Distinguishing Features

  

  55fclp3.jpg (7282 bytes)     55fclp.JPG (6621 bytes)

55cdvb.jpg (6152 bytes)     5560srr.JPG (6664 bytes)
Front and rear clips of the regular 1955 models
the Eldorado had longer, more aggressive fins

    

 

 

Additional information on the 1955 models and the related sales literature may be found  in The (New) Cadillac Database© sections entitled "Descriptions and Specifications of Cadillac Cars 1951 - 1955",  "Cadillac and La Salle Sales Literature 1955 - 1959" and "Dream cars of 1954-1955".  Further recommended reading includes:

(a)   "Automobile Heritage's Illustrated Guide to 1950 Through 1959 Cadillac" by Roy Schneider, © 1978,  published by Automobile Heritage Publishing Co., Post Office Box 7, Temple City, CA 91780 [ISBN #0-917104-02-1] and

(b)  "Standard Catalog of Cadillac, 1903-2000" edited by James T. Lenzke, © 2000, published by Krause Publications, Inc., 700 E. State Street, Iola, WI 54990 [ISBN #0-87341-925-1, Library of Congress #91-61301].

 

The Series Sixty Special

 

 5560sad.jpg (9604 bytes)

5560sad2.jpg (9908 bytes)

55_60S3.jpg (26924 bytes)    55_60S2.jpg (22117 bytes)

55_60S.jpg (29448 bytes)    55_60S4.jpg (22766 bytes)
These four artist's views are from period ads
[ Z. Taylor Vinson collection ]

5560s2.JPG (9422 bytes)

5560s3.jpg (10281 bytes)    5560smra.JPG (7180 bytes)

5560s4.JPG (11242 bytes)

5560s5.JPG (11918 bytes) 

5560si2.JPG (6389 bytes)    55int1.JPG (7361 bytes)    5560sin3.jpg (6893 bytes)

5560slhs.jpg (9004 bytes)    55flt60s.jpg (6480 bytes)
Style 6019-X Sixty Special sedan; 18,300 units were built

5560slou.JPG (5262 bytes)


Nice survivors like this one are always welcome in these pages

 

 

The Sixty-Two Series


The Sedan

5562sd2.JPG (9095 bytes)     55beyv2.JPG (6402 bytes)

5562sd.JPG (10027 bytes)     5562sdi.JPG (5031 bytes)     5562sddr.JPG (3606 bytes)    55tail.JPG (9150 bytes)   
Style 6219 and 6219-X sedan [the latter with power-windows];
45,300 units were built, including 396 for export


This pretty surviving sedan has an unfortunate watermark

 

 

 

The Coupe

5562CPE.JPG (10270 bytes)

5562cpad.jpg (10257 bytes)

5562cp.JPG (7315 bytes)     55cpi.JPG (5646 bytes)

  55cp4.JPG (9370 bytes)    55-62Cpe.jpg (25521 bytes)
Artist's view (right) is from a period ad
[ Z. Taylor Vinson collection ]

55rr.jpg (8544 bytes)
Style 6237 and 6237-X hardtop coupe [the latter with power-windows];
27,879 units were built

 

 

 

The Coupe de Ville

5562cdv5.JPG (8762 bytes)

55cdvad.jpg (8792 bytes)

55cdva2.jpg (9718 bytes)

55cdv.JPG (10027 bytes)     55int3.JPG (6988 bytes)

55cdv3.JPG (13381 bytes)     55int5.JPG (6943 bytes)

55cdv2.JPG (11885 bytes)     55i.JPG (7586 bytes)

55cdvi.JPG (6136 bytes)     55cdvi2.JPG (5963 bytes)   
Style 6237DX Coupe de Ville [all with power -windows]; 33,300 were built

55cdvsrv.jpg (7212 bytes)
A survivor found on the Internet, 2008

 

 

 

The Convertible

5562cv4.JPG (8790 bytes)    5562cv2.JPG (7843 bytes)

5562cv.JPG (9980 bytes) 

55cnvi1.JPG (6153 bytes)     55cvi.JPG (8290 bytes)     55cnvi2.JPG (6059 bytes)

5562cvby.jpg (7076 bytes)
Style 6267X convertible; 8,150 units were built


This fine survivor turned up on Internet in 2014


55cvjudg.jpg (7788 bytes)
The pink car, below, appeared in a British advertising flyer for a well-known credit organization

 

 

The Eldorado

 

55el2.JPG (8351 bytes)

55el.JPG (9940 bytes)     55srv.jpg (5754 bytes)

55el3.JPG (8187 bytes)     55elrr.JPG (9768 bytes)     
55frmrma.JPG (12750 bytes)  
Style 6267SX Eldorado convertible; 3,950 units were built; the front clip (right)  belongs to the
Cadillac Eldorado "St. Moritz", a mildly customized show car that was on display at that year's auto salons
[ the lighting gives the car a violet hue; in fact the car was white ]

 

 

The Seventy-Five Series
sedan and limousine

 

55_75.jpg (7851 bytes)   

5575d.jpg (10040 bytes)    
The name Fleetwood was spelled out in script between the tips of the "V"

   
This illustration is from a period ad

55limoOrig.jpg (6862 bytes)
...and this one is from a postcard of the time

5575.jpg (7309 bytes)    5575i.JPG (5394 bytes)
The limousine, style 7533X, featured a glass partition between driver and passenger compartments; 841 units
were built; the sedan, style 7523X, had no division; 1,075 units were built;   interiors of the Seventy-Five cars
continued to be trimmed in gray (illustration) or taupe; the driver's seat in the limousine was black leather


 [ Photo: Internet ]

 

 

Mechanical and Styling Details

 

55engn.JPG (7866 bytes)

55foglig.jpg (5906 bytes)     55radio.jpg (8181 bytes)     55spotli.jpg (6687 bytes)
(Left) New fog lights, (center) signal[-seeking radio, (right) Spotlight

  55stcvrs.JPG (5621 bytes)     55auteye.jpg (6060 bytes)     55sabwl.JPG (6184 bytes)
(Left) Optional seat covers, (center) Autronic-Eye,   (right) cast aluminum "sabre-spoke" wheels

55featr.JPG (8080 bytes)
Power features for 1955 included: 1.  improved Hydra-Matic Drive, 2.  advanced
power steering, 3.  perfected air-conditioner and 4. finer power braking

  

          

Survivors       

 

55coup.jpg (8564 bytes)     55cdv4.jpg (9971 bytes)
(Left) Series 62 coupe;  (right) Coupe de Ville with optional sabre wheels
[ in fact, these gold finish sabers were available only from 1956 to 1958 ]

55rdsafa.jpg (8464 bytes)
Tad Pierson of Memphis, TN, operates the American Dream Safari
at the wheel of this 1955 Cadillac sedan; he takes his clients to the city's Blues hot spots

[ Article in Southern Living,  Spring 2002 - photo Art Meripol ]

 

 

 

 55all.jpg (9043 bytes)     55beyv.jpg (7314 bytes)
(Left) The new 1955 models at a public showing in Colorado (Broadmoor Hotel);
(Right) image excerpted from 1955 sales training slide film

 

 

Return to The (New) Cadillac Database© Index Page
or go back to the Cadillac photo index page to pick another year

 

© 1996, Yann Saunders and the Cadillac-LaSalle Club, Inc.
[ Background image:  1955 Cadillac front clip ]