Category: Cadillac

1954 Cadillac 62 Sedan

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The ’54 Cadillac was a major body style change from the 1953 and represented a physical change as well. The wheelbase was increased by 3 inches and the car sat lower on the road.

THIS IS A BIG CAR.

For several years this particular car often parked around and near Deboce Street in San Francisco. I have not seen it lately.

The car had many other features as indicated in this article.

Many appearance improvements marked the 1954 Cadillacs. They included

* a lower, sleeker body,
* a new cellular grille insert,
* inverted gull-wing front bumpers
* tapered dagmar style bumper guards.

Round, jet-style dual exhaust outlets were incorporated into the vertical bumper extensions and the rear bumper was entirely redesigned.

More Information, click here

© Fred Winograd copyright 2011

1948* Cadillac Sedanette (Fastback)

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*Addendum

I got the following correction and updated the post. The original post titled this as a 1949.


lars Says:
March 13, 2011 at 10:02 am e
This is a -48, you can see that in the frontgrille and parklights, it is more chrome in the front on a -49. Also the 3 chrome moldings under the rear lights is -48, -48 should have only one backup lamp also, but this one have two, probably series 62

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I took this picture about seven years ago and it stayed in my archive until today. Today, I started to research the car and started looking for a similar car on-line. I could not find one exactly like his one. The taillights on the 49s I found were much simpler. The three chrome strips below the taillight are the unique feature I can not find other examples of. I’m pretty sure it’s a 1949 but am not sure of the model. If you know, please leave a post I’d love to know more about this car.

If you know more about this car, please post and let us know. This, to me , is an amazing car that’s over 60 years old and still looks pretty good to me.

I Broke My Own Rules, But What A Car!!

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This Website is all about cars you don’t see everyday. It’s done, for the most part, as I walk around San Francisco getting some exercise and taking some pictures along the way. In fact, I have a rule that I don’t post pictures of cars in organized car shows, this time I violated that rule. I think you will be glad I did.

A friend of mine was the organizer of a great little Car & Boat show in Marin County just north of our home. I decided to visit the show and took my camera along. After seeing the collection and seeing which car won the “Best In Show”, I decided it is clearly a car you don’t see everyday and what a fine car it is. It’s a prime example of a red 1941 Cadillac convertible, owned by Al Engel of Richmond California, I hope you like it.

Also, I posted some other pictures here, Click-To-View

© Fred Winograd copyright 2010

P.S. I saw this picture on a site recently and, to me, this 1938 Buick inspired the look of this 1941 Cadillac. What do you think?

Have a look, click here
copyright 2010

1987 Cadillac Allante

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This car was unique. It was built in two places in the world, the chassis was built in Michigan while the body was built in Italy at the Pininfarina plant. Here is a quote from Wikipedia.

The body of the Allanté was designed and built in Italy by Pininfarina (of Ferrari fame)[1]. The completed bodies were shipped 3,300 miles from Italy in specially-equipped Boeing 747s, 56 at a time[1], to Cadillac’s Detroit/Hamtramck Assembly plant. The bodies were then mated to the chassis[1]. This led to a few interesting nicknames, such as “The Flying Italian Cadillac” and “The world’s longest assembly line.”

More Information, click here

Also, I found another article with a conflicting story.

Interestingly, the Allante chassis was put together in Detroit, Michigan and then flown to Italy where the body was then mounted to the chassis! After this was completed the cars were put back on planes and shipped back to Michigan to be completed. Of course, being a luxury automobile made the Allante expensive, but the price tag rose because of the long assembly to about $54,000 the first year. This was the most expensive Cadillac ever. Because the Allante had to make two trips just to be put together there were only 21,000 units ever built.

More Information, from a Allante club click here

Either way, this seems like a lot of trouble to build a car.

© Fred Winograd copyright 2010

1956 Cadillac Series 62

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The cost of chromium during the 1950s must have been really inexpensive. This 1956 Cadillac Series 62 two door sedan is verification. Cadillac in 1956, updated the same basic car it introduced in 1954 but used a lot of chrome in the grill and elsewhere. I found this car last week in lower Pacific Heights in San Francisco.

At his point in time (1956) Cadillac was selling a great deal of cars to the luxury audience.

Despite an all-new ’56 Lincoln and revitalized ’57 Imperial, Cadillac remained America’s luxury sales leader by far. Combined Lincoln/Imperial volume never exceeded 40,000 cars a year in this era; at Cadillac, that was good quarterly output.

More Information, click here

© Fred Winograd copyright 2010

1939 Cadillac, Series 61

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This is the car the elite drove before World War II. It was modified version of the 193-1938 models. I snapped this one walking home from work in 2001 right outside of the UPS terminal in San Francisco. It could use a good paint job but seems to be in great shape.

Briggs The Series 60 was replaced by the 126-inch-wheelbase Series 61, offering the same body types and many of the Sixty-Special’s appearance features. Common to all 1939 Cadillacs were a:
* redesigned dashboard,
* newly optional vacuum-operated radio antenna,
* rubber rear fender protectors,
* and something called “Controlled-Action Ride,” a reference to a higher rear axle rotation center claimed to enhance ride comfor

Follow this link for full details. More Information, click here
Cadillac would produce cars through late 1941 before switching to tank production until 1948.

© Fred Winograd copyright 2009

1950 Cadillac 62 Sedan

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Cadillac was THE car after the war. In fact the only competitor was the Lincoln Continental. In 1950, Cadillac redesigned its 1949 by changing the front grill and simplifying other body details. It also powered the car with a, for the time, powerful V8 engine. The following came from a web posting I read:

Briggs Cunningham, entered a near-stock 1950 Cadillac in that year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans in France. Driven by Sam and Miles Collier, it finished 10th overall — a performance unmatched by any other production luxury car — tearing down the Mulsanne Straight at around 120 mph and averaging 81.5 mph for the entire event. Cunningham himself drove a streamlined Cadillac-powered special that the French called Le Monstre. He went even faster than the Colliers, but lost top gear and finished right behind them. Perhaps most impressive, a British-built Allard J2, powered by the same Cadillac V-8, finished third.

Follow this link for full details. More Information, click here
This car was in very good shape for a street car.

© Fred Winograd copyright 2009