Loewy's Cadillac Coupe de Ville of 1959

ONE-OFF = Great man behind the great works. We are back to discussing about the American car that received the touch of the great French-born American industrial designer Raymond Loewy's eccentric hand after some time ago we had discussed another American car used by Loewy as a means of realizing the dream cars for him and his wife, namely the 1941 Lincoln Continental.

1959 Cadillac Eldorado Coupe de Ville designed by Raymond Loewy with the bodywork done by Pichon et Parat in France. (Picture from: Sportscarmarket)

Raymond Loewy is known and appreciated for his legendary style of speed, beauty and simplicity. His motto "never leave well enough alone," that's exemplified through his life and made his one of the most famous stylists of the time. Then in 1959, he was also known to have designed the Cadillac Eldorado Coupe de Ville later to be used as one of his personal vehicles from 1959 to 1970.

1959 Cadillac Eldorado Coupe de Ville powered by a 390-ci 4-bbl V8 engine coupled with automatic transmission system. (Picture from: Carstyling.ru)

The car was purchased in new condition and after the design was completed it was immediately sent to Pichon et Parat, his favorite coachbuilder company based in Paris. At the coachbuilder workshop, the car would be redesigned and transformed into a stylish and elegant coupe, after its completion it was shown off fo the first time at the 1959 Paris Auto Salon.

1959 Cadillac Eldorado Coupe de Ville posed along with Raymond Loewy, its designer. (Picture from: Carstyling.ru)

This Loewy's Cadillac Eldorado Coupe de Ville designed to be appeared in a unique and unusual style, it clearly can be seen from the appearance of the car without a conventional grille in front, instead it's replaced by the small ventilation holes that are colored according to the color of the car body. It was very rarely applied to a car model at that time.

1959 Cadillac Eldorado Coupe de Ville designed by Raymond Loewy with the bodywork done by Pichon et Parat. (Picture from: Carstyling.ru)

After finished, initially the body of the Loewy's Cadillac Eldorado was painted in light gray metallic with the roof in white. Later, at some point of the car was repainted in metallic gold, perhaps it was done by Loewy himself.

1959 Cadillac Eldorado Coupe de Ville designed by Raymond Loewy with the bodywork done by Pichon et Parat. (Picture from: Carstyling.ru)

Conceptually, the car's appearance almost resembles a European sports car, but in general the simplicity of the lines of his car designing is contradicting to the executive class car at that time. But the interior, engine and platform remain unchanged, apparently Raymond has no complaints about these spare parts. As in other cars, not everyone likes the design results, this also happens to his Caddy appearance Loewy has no bother either.

The one-off Caddy was used for years by Loewy and his family in Europe, then shipped back home to the States, where it spent time in New York and Palm Springs, California and driven up to as far as 41 thousand kilometers such recorded on its odometer at the time. In January 1971 he sold the rare car to neighbors in Palm Springs, a car collector named Mimo Zaccuri. And for a moment the car had not seen by the public, until at the end, it's reappeared while auctioned by Barret-Jackson at the Scottsdale 2010. *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | JALOPNIK | CARSTYLING.RU | SPORTSCARMARKET | BARRET-JACKSON ]

Note: This blog can be accessed via your smart phone.

Kindly Bookmark and Share it: