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Cadillac Eldorado Brougham |
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Derived from a Cadillac concept vehicle exhibited during the GM Motorama of 1955, the Eldorado Brougham models of 1957 through 1960 were designed to showcase Cadillac's abilities as a maker of luxury vehicles.
The Cadillac Eldorado Brougham was an example the company's post-WW2 styling direction. 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. 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, more modern General Motors Technical Center in Warren, north of the Motor City. The moved was meant to symbolize a new, lighter, and brighter design scheme (similar to that of the new headquarter buildings) for Cadillac.
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 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 Sixty Special.
The Cadillac Eldorado Brougham is a rare automobile. 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..."
Its extravagant price tag (for the time) of more than $13,000 (roughly $88,348 in 2005 dollars) made it a low-production car, with 904 vehicles sold. Today more than half the total number built have survived and were mostly in the hands of enthusiasts and collectors the world over. The majority of these vehicles remain in good to very good condition, despite 40-45 years of age.
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