1937 Cadillac Series 90 Hartmann Cabriolet
In 1937 Cadillac built fifty of their most expensive Series 90 V-16 chassis, and all but two were bodied in-house by Fleetwood. This chassis was delivered to Lausanne, Switzerland, to be bodied by Carrosserie Willy Hartmann per an order by local resident Philippe Barraud, a wealthy paper mill heir and playboy of the 1930s. Barraud wanted an outrageous, bespoke automobile to suit his stylish lifestyle. Stretching 22 feet in length, the car was designed in the sweeping cabriolet style of the Delahaye built by Figoni & Falaschi for the 1936 Paris Auto Salon. The car soon suffered several accidents, possibly because its size was unsuitable for small European roads, and it was permanently parked in 1939. Then it was all but abandoned until the summer of 1968 when a second owner acquired it for just $925. Over the following 50 years, it changed hands many times and gained several non-original embellishments, but this unique and imposing Cadillac V-16 now has been meticulously restored to its original configuration and its original off-white paintwork with distinctive gray body stripe and fender skirts for its debut at the 2018 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.
This Cadillac is probably the most extreme cabriolet ever built. Wealthy playboy Phillipe Barraud personally commissioned this design through local Cadillac dealer in Lausanne, Switzerland on one of the finest chassis that America had on offer.
Phillipe chose the Cadillac V16 for its monstrous 452 cu engine and robust chassis that could support any coachwork that adorned it. Cadillac shipped a bare chassis, one of only two that year, around the world to Switzerland and there it was bodied in Lausanne by Willy Hartmann. Barraud wanted to body the chassis in his own home town so he could personally suprvise the work.
The final result was stunning. Stretching 22 feet in length Hartmann created a sweeping cabriolet that was almost too dubious to drive on regular roads. The design was accented in chrome and definitely mimicked the French masters Figoni et Falaschi which pioneered the trend from a painting by Geo Ham. It was orginally painted off-white with and orange body stripe and fender skirts.
Details included a new dashboard with center mounted gauges and a redeigned triangular Cadillac logo with the script ”Carrosserie Hartmann, Lausanne, Cadillac”.
Philippe Barraud was the heir to a brick-and-tile empire who wanted to turn up to Europe’s fashionable concours d’elegance in the “ultimate car” (and, it’s said, to draw in his pick of the women he drove by on the Swiss Riviera on the shores of Lake Geneva).
An in-period photograph of Jim Patterson’s 1937 Cadillac V16 when new; the car is to be displayed at the Art & the Automobile’s ICONS installation at the 2019 CIAS in Toronto.
Philippe Barraud, his new car, his Jack Daniel dog “Lila”, in Bussigny, Switzerland, August 1937; on the body sill (near “Lila” ’s head) you can just make out the coach-builder’s metal nameplate.
