From The Classifieds: 1950 Cadillac convertible

Cadillac. Many famous car marques have managed to reach beyond their fundamental nature as mere machines that are designed to transport people -- but how many have been romanticised as much as Cadillac?

The brand is as much a part of American folklore as Jesse James or Bruce Springsteen, with a magic to the name that far exceeds the actuality (today’s actuality anyway).

Any half-decent American country singer worked a Cadillac into at least one of his/her songs, and a good many also owned a Cadillac or two. Brand new, or rusting away, it didn’t really matter. It was more a matter of what the brand represented than what it actually was.

Cadillac was a dreamed-of aspiration of many a young American boy -- and the brand is still dreamed of today by the odd Australian baby boomer who, though he  may not have had the wherewithal in youth, is today able to find the funds to purchase an example from the marque’s golden years.

In the 1950s, Cadillac was America’s undisputed king of luxury cars, representing everything that was good -- and bad -- about the land of the free. Caddies redefined the meaning of opulence, and were at once big, bold and outright brash.

Cadillac established itself not only as the premium US brand, but also as something of a fashion leader via its distinctive grille shape, proud V emblem -- and the pre-pubescent tailfins jutting from the rear mudguards that provided instant, unmistakable recognition.

On top of this, Cadillac in the early 1950s had an efficient and powerful 331 cubic inch overhead-valve V8 engine that proved not only more powerful than much of its US competition, but also more economical.
?Stock Cadillacs performed strongly in US drag racing, while in 1950 a near-standard model came home 10th outright at the Le Mans 24 hours in France.

Cadillacs were at the pinnacle of the luxury market in the dreamtime of the early post-war years, offering the utmost luxury -- including the Hydramatic automatic transmission that was standard on most models.

Today, it is difficult to imagine experiencing anything closer to a true Cadillac romance than this superb 1950 Series 61 convertible that lives in the Brisbane suburb of Arundel.

With a complete bodyshell-off-chassis restoration and a fully-rebuilt engine and transmission, the metallic black Caddy is about as good an example as you are likely to find. The owner says the cream-and-black interior is original apart from new carpet, and the wheels are brand-spankers Cadillac wire-spokes set off beautifully by the requisite white-wall tyres.

Registered with CADY50 plates and coming with a roadworthy certificate, the massive two-door, six-seat convertible is priced at the top-end of the scale with a tag of $160,000. It is possible though, to imagine that figure might seem a lot less significant a few years down the track as the car’s value appreciates . . .