1959 Cadillac Eldorado

1959 Cadillac Eldorado Sedan Deville

Fraser Martin
26 January 2010

In 1959, Cadillac announced the third generation Eldorado DeVille, which in the incarnation of this Sedan DeVille – a pillarless four-door, as opposed to the infamous two-door Coupe DeVille of Elvis Presley fame – saw the ‘Battle of the Tailfins’ finally won by General Motors over the Chrysler Corporation, with the inclusion of these outlandish 107cm monsters!

The tailfin war had been raging between Virgil Exner (Studebaker, then Chrysler) and Harley Earl, in the design studios of both Chrysler and GM. Both designers had been heavily influenced by the introduction of the Lockheed P-38 Lightning aircraft, references to the design of which can be seen in this month’s featured car.

Namely, the wraparound windscreen, the thin hardtop roof and the outrageous ‘afterburner’ tail-lights flanking the huge vertical fins. From the next model year, a whopping 15-centimetres were lopped from the Cadillac fins across the range, reduced accordingly in the cars of every other manufacturer, and were never to be seen again in such splendour.

These Cadillacs will always be remembered as the zenith of American car design – a stratospheric leap into the future of the American Dream and the epitome of all that represented – unchallenged power, supreme self-confidence and shameless optimism. It didn’t matter that the two-tonne weight, six-metre length and 1.8-metre width rendered these cars virtually undriveable – if you arrived in a Cadillac Eldorado, you had indeed arrived.

Jamal Salam’s pristine six-window example came to Dubai in 2006 from California, having spent most of its life in hot, dry conditions – one of the main reasons that the car still looks as good as it does today. With a cross-frame separate chassis and acres of steel cladding, there’s a lot for the demon rust to get its teeth into.

However, before leaving the States, the originally white Cadillac was subject to a bare-metal respray in its correct 1959 Seminole Red and retrimmed in matching red and white upholstery. Dubai J15382, sitting on huge crossply tires and complimentary whitewalls, looks good enough to eat.

A key feature of this model was that the rear panel of the car reflected the design of the front. The full-width grille is echoed at the back with a false unit hiding the petrol filler neck, above the number plate. Heavily chromed front bumpers were subdued for 1959, compared to the outgoing ‘Marilyn Monroe’ over-riders on the ’58 cars, but as you can see, they are not particularly subtle, as they wrap all the way back to the opening of the front wheelarches.

Click next to read more

Rate this article...

Average rating:

(votes 415)

User Comments

Comments

First Name *
Last Name *
Email *
City *
Country *
Subject *
Comments *
Type the verification code shown *

Refresh verification code if not clear.
	Signup for CAR ME newsletter
	Remember me