1961 Eldorado Concept Motorama Show Car

[Davidinhartford]

Nadeem,

    This photo just popped up on Facebook.   This four door 61 Fleetwood has its tailights on the rear fins deleted like on your Biarritz.     From the same time as your car was made?



Dave Smith

[N Kahn]

Incredible, David, one month later than my car, it actually looks kinda good, I imagine it might have been a bit floppy though. Can you imagine it turning up out of the blue?

[Ralph Messina CLC 4937]

David,

Very interesting photo. Sometime during 1960 there was a functioning prototype ’60 Fleetwood four door convertible built as a possible answer to the ’61 Continental convertible. There’s no record of that prototype other than a few pictures. Legend says it was scrapped. I wonder if Cadillac continued pursuing it by modifying the ’60 prototype with ’61 sheet metal? Was Cadillac serious enough about the four door convertible idea to invest in a second prototype?

Ralph

[N Kahn]

The wheels on the car look like Buick Skylark wires and those spotlights are really incongruous, they look like 1940s jobs, maybe Cadillac was going for a 30s-40s style look.

[Quentin Hall]

       I remember reading an article ( Collectible Automobile ?) on the 60 prototype 4 door conv saying that it was a small in house design team  ( I never said "skunkworks" hehe) that had come up with a new scissor mechanism allowing the top to fold into the small space left in the parcel shelf.  They built the prototype sure that they had a winner to rival Lincoln.  It got knocked on the head by management ( but then they obviously had another try a year later).  I must admit that having lifted my kids into their child restraint seats in both my old 57 and 59 Biarritzs that it was a lesson in contortionism to clamber in with the top up. I still put my bad back down to this.
        There was definately a culture of homage paid by the designers on many of the cars that eminated from the studios. Just as the 53 Eldo mimmicks the 31 roadster, and as the 71 Eldo mimmicks the 53 Eldo. The spotlights do look incongruous but there was a time in the early fifties where every custom car carried a pair.
        You Americans probably won't get the joke , but a 4 door convertible just screams Sydney Wedding Car to me. !!!!   Q   
 

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

       You Americans probably won't get the joke , but a 4 door convertible just screams Sydney Wedding Car to me. !!!!   Q     

Exactly.

Bruce.

[Ralph Messina CLC 4937]

Quentin & Bruce,

Okay, I’ll ask. Other than garish 50 foot stretched sedans and SUV’s what is the defining characteristic of a “Sydney Wedding “ ?

Ralph

[Quentin Hall]

G'day Ralph,
             Ok here goes. . .  so you go to the Lakemba Bunnings hardware store in your 4 door Cadillac sedan and you buy a cheap Chinese hacksaw. You cut the roof off your sedan in the carpark  meanwhile a storm is brewing  but luckily there is an Annaconda camping store next to the Bunnings . So you buy the most incongruous  (there's that word again) tent/awning/overhang/ thingy and drape it over your car and call it "a roof". Then before you can leave the carpark a dozen Greek/Croatian/Masedonian  brides-to-be  have cornered you to do their wedding in Parramatta next weekend matee.
      If I've left out anything I am sure that Bruce will add it.  Q

[Ralph Messina CLC 4937]

Quentin,

Hillarious! And here I thought strange behavior was only indigenous to the USA where the bigger the "Limo" the gaudier the bridal party.

Ralph

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

Good description Quentin.   Saw that once here with a '59 Chev 4 door Sedan, but before he cut the roof off, he plastered the roof with Fibreglass to make himself a roof.   There was some planning in this convertabilisation.

I actually saw the results of a similar happening whilst driving in Canada in British Columbia in '02.   There was a '77 Eldorado at the Gas Station where I was filling up my own car, and I thought it funny it being a Convertible.

When I asked the driver about the car, he said "it was a Coupe this morning, but as we were going to the party tonight, and the weather was nice, a quick go with the Saws-all, and now I have a Convertible".

To his credit, he did fill cover the jagged edges with foam using the pressure-pack contact cement.

Bruce.

[N Kahn]

Similar things were done in England too, but there was particular love for turning everything into a pick up truck.

[R Schroeder]

I guess they like to make pickups all over the world.

[veesixteen]

Now I see where the Japanese  toy manufacturer (Bandai) got the idea for his 1:12th scale tinplate "Golden Cadillac Convertible" of 1960+1963!
[ source:  Cadillac Database - http://cadillacdatabase.com/Dbas_txt/photoy60.htm ]

[76eldo]

It has a Pinin Farina badge on the front fenders.  Interesting.

Brian

[Davidinhartford]

It has a Pinin Farina badge on the front fenders.  Interesting.

Brian

But all 61 Fleetwood Sixty specials has that emblem on their front fenders.

[76eldo]

Did not know that.  I don't know a lot about the 61-62 stuff.  Way different than the 1960.  Huge differences between 60 and 61.

Brian

[Ralph Messina CLC 4937]

The Fleetwood picture with Eldorado trim I referred to earlier is on page 24 of Schneider’s Cadillac of the Sixties and it was a 1960 styling study. I believe the “Pinninfarina” badge mentioned above says “Brougham” as used on ’59 and ’60 Broughams. The badge on ’60 through ’62 Sixty Specials is nearly identical but says “Fleetwood”.

Ralph

[Ralph Messina CLC 4937]

Oops!. I just realized I confused two posting topics. My first sentence above about the Eldorado trim was meant for the “’59 Eldorado 6W” topic, not this one. The badge comments were meant for this topic……Instead of foolin’ around on the computer, I should probably do something constructive like work on my car.

Ralph

[N Kahn]

We had a wonderful thanksgiving, my daughter was here from Brooklyn, she's 22, graduated from SAIC in Chicago and has a real job for the first time, she took a photography class and is pretty good at it so she took some good pictures of the Caddy........finally, I thought I'd share them with you. I hope you all had a good thanksgiving too.

[okccadman]

Great photos of a great car!  Im so glad that car has found a good home.  Keep up the good work!