[ben72227]

This week brings yet another update. Hopefully you guys will find this one a bit more interesting??? It is a classic model; this week (December 6, 2005) the history topic will be....(*drumroll*)....

The Eldorado Brougham!

Derived from a Cadillac concept vehicle exhibited during the GM Motorama of 1955, the luxurious, limited edition Eldorado Brougham models of 1957 through 1960 epitomized luxury car styling and technical/mechanical innovation of the late fifties. Cadillac continued to carve out its high reputation as the makers of the "The Standard of the World".


The Cadillac Eldorado Brougham was the company's post-WW2 styling coup de force. While no single Cadillac stylist may be credited with the final design, the latter began on the drawing boards of Bob Scheelk, a new recruit to the GM Styling Section, the new name for the former Art and Color. Bob's work was supervised by Charles "Chuck" Jordan (who had taken over from Ed Glowacke), and by Chuck's assistant, Dave Holls.


On September 15, 1955, the Cadillac Styling Section moved from its old quarters in downtown Detroit to the new, ultra-modern General MotorsTechnical Center at Warren, north of the Motor City. From that day forward, Cadillacs adopted a new, lighter, brighter look, like that of the new buildings where they were being designed.
The Eldorado Brougham was the product of several years of engineering and styling development. It was preceded by a number of experimental models, concept vehicles and so-called dream cars including, principally, the Cadillac "Orleans" (1953), the "Park Avenue" (1954), the "Eldorado Brougham" prototype (1955), the second Eldorado Brougham prototype and Paris show car (1955-56) and the "Eldorado Brougham town car" (1956).


The first production Eldorado Brougham (car #3) was shown at the New York Salon in January 1957. This car was featured also in a factory promotional film set in New York's Central Park, where it stole the limelight from another, specially-appointed Cadillac Series Sixty Special, the "Director", that was all decked out as a mobile office.


The Cadillac Eldorado Brougham, often described as "the ultimate in personal transportation", is and always will remain a rare, superior and beautifully elegant automobile. It typifies in a way the excesses of post-WW2 American automobile flamboyance. In his authoritative "History of Cadillac", author Maurice Hendry of New Zealand said. "the biggest news for fans of mid-fifties gimcrackery and engineering innovation was the Eldorado Brougham..."


It's astronomical price tag (for the time) of more than $13,000, did not deter the 904 wealthy Cadillac patrons who bought one. The "Eldorado Brougham" certainly was a high quality automobile, considering that in the early part of the new millennium 2001, more than half the total number built had survived and were in the hands of enthusiasts and collectors the world over, the majority being in good to very good condition despite 40-45 years of use.