I think just by the title you may have already figured out Bruce has a very rare car.
There were 703 of these beautiful cars built by the Cadillac Division of General Motors and Bruce has two of them.
The Cadillac Eldorado has always been a top of the line coupe or convertible for Cadillac,
except in two model years when they offered the Cadillac Eldorado Brougham
in addition to the Eldorado Coupe and Convertible.
It was designed in 1954 to be the Cadillac Dream Car in the 1955 Motorama.
From its inception this car was designed to be a pace-setter and a very special vehicle.
It was designed and built by the Fleetwood Division of General Motor’s Fisher Body Division
and underwent two years of grueling testing before it was produced.
The Cadillac Eldorado Brougham had many firsts including four headlights, torsion bar front suspension and separate air suspension
at each rear wheel. There was a tubular center X-member frame.
Cadillac offered forty-five color and trim combinations. I think the Wimbleton Gray on Bruce’s
car might have been the most desirable. The brushed stainless steal top was standard.
Absolutely everything about this car was special and none of the parts were interchangeable with any other
Cadillac model. The engine was 365 cubic inches and produced 346 horsepower with dual four-barrel carburetors.
Air conditioning was standard and featured front and rear outlets.
They also had individual seat heaters. All four doors opened from the middle of the car for easy entrance and exit.
It was simply a very exciting car in the mid fifties and carried a price tag of $13,358.
I believe I’d buy as many as I could get at that price today!
Can you even imagine looking for parts for that car today?
Bruce has owned his car for fifteen years and does all his own work.
Next year he is planning on retiring after forty years on the job and following his dream of restoring cars full time.
For those that are interested, I’d like to take this opportunity to share another little known piece of information.
Did you know that Ford and Cadillac were nearly one and the same?
Had it not been for a lender that wanted only one person responsible for his loan,
Henry Ford and Henry Leland would have built cars together.
When the lender wanted only one principal party, Henry Leland split off from Henry Ford and started his
own car company. He named the company Cadillac in honor of the founder of Detroit.
And now you know the rest of the story!
The first Cadillac was produced in 1902. The first Cadillac was a Model A and sold for $750.
Cadillac soon became the largest producer of automobiles in the world.
The introduction of the Ford Model T in 1907 unseated Cadillac as the largest producer of cars.
