"AS ALWAYS - THE STANDARD OF THE WORLD!"

"AS ALWAYS - THE STANDARD OF THE WORLD!"

I was on a brief field trip to Connecticut when this ocean liner presented itself:

This is a 1953 Cadillac Series 62 sedan in (mostly) Black. Normally I would write that hood off as primer but I think it's the handsome factory color Court Gray. This car is basically a building.
I ran across the original salesman's booklet that Cadillac gave to their dealers so this post will be sprinkled with quotation marks. They copy was great!

Try to let it sink in just how much metal and chrome we're talking about here. The bumper is absolutely monumental! That V on the hood was originally gold in color. Those two chrome rockets jutting out of the sides are Dagmars named after a voluptuous actress of the same name who was basically a blonde Jessica Rabbit. Here she is singing on the Frank Sinatra show back in 1951. I always thought they looked a bit like cigars on the side of some old time gangsters snarl. 

There are styling cues here that will show up on other GM vehicles in the coming years. In particular this lidded headlights would be mimicked somewhat on the 1955-1958 Chevrolet Bel-Aire/Impala series. The Dagmars would appear in more modest form on the '57 Chevy.
What looks like turn signals are actually the newly optional fog lights bragged about in their sales brochure of the day. If the option wasn't chosen there would be a metal filler plate in that space with a small round turn signal in the center.

This stylized hood ornament is simply known as The Goddess.

When this beast was built it was the mountaintop for styling and engineering in a luxury car. Packard was still around and producing high end rides as well but there lack of innovation was starting to show. Chrysler was making Imperials and they were great cars but not produced on the same scale as Cadillac. If you were someone important or of serious means it was either a Caddy or a Rolls Royce.

The interior is nicely laid out and relatively free of flash for '53. A 331 overhead valve V8 engine mated to a 4 speed Hydra-Matic transmission was standard. I can't tell if this one is so equipped but air conditioning was available as an option for the first time. This one sports a clock and radio. Power steering was standard too. Check out the little crank for the vent window!

This funky little lens is mounted on the dash to the right of the steering wheel. It is the Autronic Eye! This device would sense oncoming headlights and automatically dim your brights for you. Remember that this was 64 years ago to get a feel for how futuristic this was at the time.

For an enormous vehicle this has great lines and nice proportions. The fins are still subtle compared to what was to come later in the decade. These smaller fins were first introduced in 1948 and were almost identical to these.

The exhaust comes out of those holes on the lower corners of the bumper. The brochure refers to the "big, husky rear deck" of the trunk which has a "luggage compartment of cross-country proportions."  

One of the coolest features of this ride is the location of the gas cap, which is hidden within the drivers side taillight! Press that small reflector button and the top lens pops up on a hinge, exposing the cap underneath. I explained this to a fellow gawker who was walking around the car barking out questions like "I wonder what this is?". I would answer each one of them and then I mentioned the gas cap. He pressed the button and it opened. I wouldn't recommend doing this without permission!

If this were the "magnificently luxurious" Fleetwood 60 Special there would be a series of chrome gills in front of the rear wheels. It's a shame the fender skirts are off the car because they add to the formality.

These hubcaps were optional in '53. Known as the Aerodynamic Wheel Discs, they were said to reduce wind noise and drag. I just think they're cool.

I'm including this interior shot because the floor is busy with switches. There is a headlight dimmer switch on the far edge and above that there ought to be the on/off switch for the Autronic Eye. There is yet another floor mounted button that's next to the brake pedal that activates the signal seeking Wonderbar radio. Again, in 1953 stepping on a switch to change the station was unheard of!

That vertical chrome bar at the front of the rear fender is marketed as a simulated air scoop gravel guard. Up close it does indeed have 10 little fins giving it the look of a huge intake.
"And here in this car is new massiveness, new strength, and new beauty for 1953" reads the copy of the sales book given to dealers for that year. Every page of that booklet boasts about the sheer size of the car, using the word massive at least 6 times.

10 minutes into Netflix and Chill the Caddy leans over and gives you this look.
This is where I respectfully back away from this majestic craft. Sales were fantastic for Cadillac in 1953, with a record-breaking 85,446 Series 62 cars sold. These heady times wouldn't be gone anytime soon as the prestige of the brand continued through the '70s unabated while other historical marques continued to fold. Hudson, Packard, Rambler, Nash, Kaiser, and DeSoto would all be gone by the turn of the next decade. Ford tried to crack into the luxury market with the Continental Mark II in '55-'56 but they lost money on each one and surrendered quickly. Imperial would become a stand alone brand from '55-'75 but the numbers could never quite compete and they, too, went back into their parent company. Somehow Cadillac soldiers on as the top of the heap in the domestic market to this day. 

Silver Anniversary Luxury Liner!

SILVER ANNIVERSARY LUXURY LINER!

I was somewhere between 4th and 5th Avenues in Brooklyn near Atlantic when I stumbled upon a duo of classics. I featured a '71 Caddy like the white one earlier this week, but how often do you see something this old in a regular spot?

Incredible!

This is a 1939 Dodge Luxury Liner in Black. The internal company name was the Dodge D-11, but all of the promotional copy says Luxury Liner. This is a 1 year only car built from October '38 through October '39 only. To encounter one 77 years after production on a Brooklyn street is amazing!

How long ago was 1939? When this ride was brand new sitting in an art deco showroom World War II was breaking out in Europe, Lou Gehrig gave his famous "Luckiest Man in the World" speech, and the rightfully maligned La Guardia Airport opened for the first time. 

This year was the Silver Anniversary for Dodge which started producing cars way back in 1914.

The hood opens up on each side with its hinges in the middle. This car is just as stately as can be in black with all that classy chrome. I found an original copy of the brochure online and the verbiage is great. They call this the "most stunning front ensemble" ever created, noting that the fenders "flow outward with the grace of an eagle in flight". Yes!

This was the first year for Dodge having their headlights on the fenders as opposed to hanging off of supports connected to the sides of the cowl. The luxury automaker Pierce-Arrow first moved their headlights to the fenders in 1914 and patented the move in a stroke of genius. From 1914 until Pierce-Arrow went out of business in '38 every other domestic automaker had to have their headlights exposed in their own pods, keeping them looking like they were much older than they were.

I love the milk glass turn signal lens and the thick glass headlights on this Liner.

From the side you can really see the prow of this ship jutting forward at full height. This actually looks like a luxury ocean liner slicing through the waves of the fenders.

Art deco streamlining accentuates every detail of this ride, right down to the awesome hubcaps. The brochure called these "whorl-style" caps.

This is a beautifully balanced design without a hard edge to be found. What the hell is that person in the background doing? I failed to notice when I was snapping pics.

It's easy to see from this angle that this is the era that bore the VW Beetle. The brochure brags about the fact that the luggage compartment is completely concealed as opposed to the former trunk style bump. This is the final step in evolution from actually having a steamer trunk held on to the back of the car with straps to being fully integrated. The origin of the name trunk is an actual trunk!

These were trumpeted as being "deep-cushioned, lounge-style, Chair-Height seats" though the upholstery was much different than this redo. It's kind of a shame because this car is so well appointed and restored that the owner should really pony up the extra cheddar to do the seats right as these are almost a phone-in job. Too harsh? Too bad! Nice headliner though FWIW.

That's right - if your car is 77 years old you can just park wherever the hell you want without fear of a ticket or towing license plates be damned.

Why is there a black garbage bag sticking out of the trunk? Who knows?

The 1939 brochure also states that daredevil Jimmie Lynch uses a new Dodge for all his antics. I found a short advertising film featuring Jimmie and his new Dodge from 1942 that shows him driving over railroad ties, climbing a staircase, and even jumping the car to show off its durability.

The gearshift is on the column for the first time for Dodge in 1939. The clutch was said to be an "Easy Pressure" version where only a touch of the foot was needed to shift gears. "Women particularly will like this new feature!" the brochure states! The brakes had a pressure equalization feature meant to reduce pulling to one side when stopping hard. The split windshield was said to have airplane-style visibility by wrapping around to the sides.

Well that's all I've got for this beauty. I had a 1947 Dodge that was remarkably similar to this because of the dormancy in auto production during WWII. This is the era where cars finally became what they would be like until the 1980s. Technology would change, safety and emissions equipment would develop, but for the most part a 1939 car and a 1979 car were more similar than dissimilar. 

These everyman cars from the pre-WWII era are not very valuable for the most part (convertibles and luxury editions notwithstanding). If you found one in decent shape and wanted it for a weekend driver I would recommend it. The maintenance and repair is so straightforward on these rides that you'll never look at a new car the same way again. In addition you're basically on parade every time you climb into your rig and drive down the street.  

Tomorrow at midnight this car will turn 78 years old so Happy New Year & Birthday Dodge!