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The (new) Cadillac Database^©

The Cadillac Vee-Sixteen
1934-1937

Part 4a

A story about a 1937 Roadster
by Hartmann of Lausanne, Switzerland

Return to The (New) Cadillac Database© Index Page
or return to the "Miscellaneous Cadillac Stuff" index page
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Unless otherwise specified all photos and illustrations are from Yann Saunders'
collection of Cadillac photos, advertisements and product catalogs,
reproduced courtesy of the Cadillac Motor Car Division and the Cadillac-LaSalle Club, Inc.

(résumé en français en bas de page)

 

In 1937 Cadillac built only two convertible coupes on the sixteen-cylinder chassis, type 37-90. The incredible roadster described in these pages was built on one of only two V-16 chassis/engine units released by Cadillac to independent coach builders that year. The engine is #5130328, identifying the car as the twenty-eighth out of a mere fifty V-16 units built that year.

The chassis was ordered from Detroit through the Edelweiss Garage - being the local Cadillac dealer in Lausanne, Switzerland - by Philippe Barraud, son of a wealthy businessman who had "built" his fortune in bricks and roofing tiles.

Abandoned by its owner in the mid-sixties and found - aged 31 and derelict - in a field, about 20 miles from my former home, in the summer of 1968, it was acquired shortly thereafter by the second owner for just 4000 Swiss francs (the equivalent, at that time, of approximately $925).

To my knowledge, it has changed hands about six times since then and has been frequently and deliberately advertised - falsely - as being a unique creation by Figoni and Falaschi.

Restored three times (once too many, in my opinion) and owing to the false Figoni and Falaschi label, the alleged value of the Hartmann roadster has soared out of all reasonable proportion, multiplying more than three-thousand-five-hundred times in just twenty years.

As I said above, the Hartmann car  was sold in the late sixties for just under $1,000.  Since then I have seen it advertised by Tom Barrett III for $1'000'000, [October, 1987], $1,250,000 [April, 1987], $2,500,000 [April, 1989] and even $3'500'000 [date not recorded but I still have a copy of the ad]!

According to the most recent information at my disposal, the Hartmann V-16 was acquired by Ken Behring, in January 1990, at Scottsdale, AZ,  for the Blackhawk collection, for a "mere" $1.4 million... 

*** This is the true story of that preposterous automobile ***

In Search of a Car - In Search of a Dream

In August 1937, near Lausanne, in Switzerland, a young man was snapped beside the car of which he had just taken delivery. It was a "monumental", special-bodied 1937 Cadillac V-16 roadster. The youthful owner’s name was Philippe Barraud. He was a dashing and wealthy young playboy in the thirties. In his youth, he had as many cars as he could care for. Money was no object. But there were other young men from wealthy families that lived along the fashionable Swiss Riviera that stretches between Lausanne and Montreux on the shores of Lake Geneva. What kind of car could Philippe possibly buy that would put to shame all their fancy Delahayes, Delages, Talbot-Lagos and other flashy sports cars?

       
Philippe Barraud, his car, his Jack Daniel dog in Switzerland, August 1937
[ Photo: © 1937,  Bouboule, Lausanne, CH ]

In the lower photo you can almost make out the shape and the extremely modest
dimensions of the two-bar rear bumper, in the style favored by Figoni & Falaschi
[ all sepia-colored shots in this section are by Mr. Luthard, aka Bouboule, August 1937 ]

 

One day in the latter part of 1936 Philippe had visited the Edelweiss Garage, on Avenue de Morges, in Lausanne. This was the showroom of the local Cadillac dealer.  There he picked up the latest Fleetwood sales portfolio. Two V-16 models were illustrated: a sober limousine, Fleetwood style #5875, and a dashing convertible sedan, Fleetwood style #5880. Both were built on the longest ever production Cadillac chassis, with an incredible 154-inch wheel base.

Now HERE was a car of imposing proportions! Philippe could readily imagine how puny a Delahaye or a Hispano-Suiza would look parked next to it! He inquired of the Cadillac dealer if it might be possible to order only the chassis and then to have a body of his own choice built on it. He was told this would pose no problem whatsoever.

Philippe could have chosen any one of a dozen independent and popular coach builders of the time (Franay, Million-Guiet, Vizcaya, Letourneur and Marchand, Van den Plas or even Figoni and Falaschi). But like all young men he was impatient. He had to have his new toy quickly. And he had to have it built close to home so he could supervise the work and keep a close check every day on the progress being made.

There were a few independent coach builders in Switzerland in the late thirties but only one in the immediate vicinity of the Barraud home in Bussigny, above Morges. His name was Willy Hartmann. His workshop was located only a few miles away, in the Laborde area of Lausanne.

Willy had earned a reputation "customizing" stock European models like the Opel and Ballot. In 1932, he had built also a prize-winning convertible on a Isotta-Fraschini chassis for the Countess of Varax.  All in all he built around fifty car bodies between 1928 and 1939; after that he worked only on specialty vehicles for the Swiss armed forces. When I spoke to him in 1987, Willy said that he had burned most of his records after WW2 "to make room for more projects"!

So Philippe went to Hartmann and asked the young customizer if he would design and build for him something really exceptional and glamorous on the Cadillac V-16 chassis.

Hartmann drew a few sketches. Philippe immediately set his heart on a streamlined roadster proposal featuring fully enclosed fenders front and rear.

 

The Influence of Erdmann & Rossi

Streamlined designs like the one drawn by Hartmann had been seen first at the Barcelona [Spain] and Berlin [Germany] Motor Shows, in 1935. On the stand of Erdmann [almost a phoneme of Hartmann] and Rossi were two such streamlined convertibles: a 2.9-liter Mercedes and an Opel, both featuring fully enclosed fenders, front and rear. Later that year the German company was commissioned to build an almost identical body on a turbo-charged, 5.4-liter Mercedes 540K [order #2698 of 5 December 1935, engine #123705] for no less a client than King Ghazi of Iraq¹.

In 1933, at the age of 21, Ghazi had succeeded his father on the throne.  Unfortunately, the reign of the young king was short-lived; he died in a motoring accident only six years later in 1939. It is not known what car he was driving at the time.

   
The Mercedes 540K with body by Erdmann & Rossi.  I saw this car in Baghdad,  Iraq,
in March, 1983;  in my opinion, it is worth a million dollars ...if  perchance it survived¹
the last two Iraqi wars; note the huge overhang from the radiator front to the headlights

   
King Ghazi's custom Mercedes 540K on display in Germany, in 2007-08 (?)
[ Photos:  courtesy Oliver Kossatz ]

 

King Ghazi’s car had single headlights as opposed to the stacked pair on the German Motor Show car. On completion of the body by Erdmann & Rossi, the car, designated as a Sport Cabriolet, was delivered to the Daimler Benz headquarters for onward shipment to their illustrious client.

I was privileged to see that incredible machine and even to photograph it through the dusty showroom-type window of a small, heavily-guarded but derelict auto museum in Baghdad’s Fawzah park, in 1983, shortly before hostilities broke out with Iran. The Mercedes was one of sixteen old cars of state, some of which once had belonged to the royal family. It was painted cream with dark green accents.
________________________________________
¹   Late Extra: I found out in January 2002, that King Ghazi's car had miraculously survived. Here is an excerpt from an article about Erdmann & Rossi's design chief,  Johannes Beeskow, entitled:  Mercedes-Benz 5,4 Liter Kompressor 1935, All rights and © by: ArTeG]

Mercedes commissioned a show car from us [Erdmann & Rossi]   for the 1935 Barcelona exhibition. One of the visitors was the King of Iraq. He expressed his desire to buy the car but the Mercedes people said he could not have it because it was only powered by a 2.9 liter engine; however, they added that he could have an identical car powered by the 5.4 liter motor with compressor [the renowned 540K]. The King accepted their offer and so we rebuilt the same car but with the 5.4 liter engine. The Kings coat of arms was painted on the doors before it was shipped to Iraq. The car was still there, in a museum, in the seventies [I saw it there and photographed it in March, 1983]. When the Gulf war broke out, I thought to myself there can be nothing left of the car now.  To my great astonishment the car surfaced again; in the interim, it had gone to Jordan, at a time when the two countries were on friendly terms. King Hussein of Jordan, an auto buff, had it stripped of its paint then shipped to Germany in 1986 for a full restoration. In 2002, the car was believed to be back in Jordan, looking just as it did back in 1935. In 2008, Oliver Kossatz, an admirer of the Hartmann car, told me that King Ghazi's custom Mercedes 540K was on display in a German Mercedes dealership [I'm hoping for confirmation and further details].

 

...and that of Figoni & Falaschi

In the footsteps of Germany’s Erdmann & Rossi, France’s "Italian" duo, Figoni and Falaschi, also were among early exponents of fully enclosed fenders. Their prize-winning design on the Type 165, 12-cylinder Delahaye for the 1937 Paris Salon featured the same boomerang motif on the enclosed fenders as had been seen two years earlier on the German cars.

Giuseppe Figoni, an Italian emigrant - who changed his name to Joseph after he settled in France - had entered into partnership with another Italian, Ovidio Falaschi, in 1935. The Delahaye 135MS roadster they built for the Paris Salon of October 1936, based on a drawing by automobile artiste Geo Ham, brought the pair early renown. There had been some legal wrangling about the design until it was agreed that the cars (11 of them, including the Paris show car) would carry two "designer labels" [body plates], those of F&F and that of Geo Ham. Ham was born George Hamel in 1900 and acquired early fame as an artist by drawing catalog illustrations for a small aeroplane builder and, subsequently, action-filled scenes from Paris' Montlhéry automobile race track.

It has frequently been rumored - and you can see why - that Hartmann was inspired by the F&F design [check the illustrations, below, of the Paris Salon car and a couple of survivors among the 11 units built; see also TQ 1-2/84, pp.16-17 and  The Classic Car, summer 2006, pp. 20-21].

   
The original 1936 Paris Salon Delahaye that was acquired on the opening day by the Aga Khan

   
Eleven of these streamlined Delahaye 135 roadsters were built by Figoni & Falaschi,
this is one of them; note the paired, tear-drop lights (detail, right); it is believed only three have
survived; this is not the Paris Salon/Aga Khan car; it was bought originally by an Austrian
diplomat; today it belongs to Delahaye enthusiast, Jacques Hargindeguy in the USA

For the historical record, the F&F Delahaye said to have inspired Hartmann was purchased on the opening day of the Paris Salon, in 1936, for 150’000 French francs, by the Aga Khan III, spiritual leader (from 1885 until his death in 1957) of the Ishmaelite sect of the world’s Moslem (Muslim) population. In 1936, Aly Khan (his down-to-earth name) literally was worth his weight in gold. Indeed, in the course of decennial celebrations, begun in 1936, his followers would "pay" their respects by showering on him his own weight in precious metals and stones; in 1936 it had been gold, in 1946 diamonds and in 1954 platinum! In these conditions, the Aga Khan could well afford to buy the Delahaye and to have the French coach-builders fit stronger bumpers as well as repaint and re-upholster the flamboyant automobile a less ostentatious color. He chose burgundy red.

   
As acquired (and repainted maroon) by the Aga Khan, soon after the Paris Salon

 

Another, similar (identical?) Delahaye found its way to the USA where it was owned for some time, before and after WW2, by the late Bob Grier, a member [President?] of the now defunct Sports Car Club of New York. I have a photo showing that the original color scheme was reversed at one time and that the car was fitted also with a very ornate but delicate front bumper. This opne is opwned today by American, Malcolm Pray

Another F&F streamlined ropadster after a first restoration in the USA

Today (2006) it belongs to Malcolm Pray, also in the USA, who got it in 1964 from Long Island, NY.  F&F  expert, Richard Adatto,
and French historian André Vaucourt don't believe this to be the Salon car either; it may be the one shown at the NY World's Fair,
although that assumption has not been effectively documented. This is the car owned later by Bob Grier of the Sports Car Club
of New York; this bumperless survivor resembles also closely the original 1936 Paris Salon Delahaye
[ Photos: © 2005 and courtesy Malcolm Pray and CCCA ]

[ photo ]

[ a replica body was mounted  on chassis #800220 by Peter Agg (UK) ]

In those days, everyone seemed to be copying everyone else. The great Harley Earl himself is said to have borrowed heavily from European marques such as the Hispano-Suiza and Isotta-Fraschini when he created the beautiful LaSalle in 1927. Hartmann was no exception. His design for the 1937 Cadillac V-16 could be considered as an upsized replica of a roadster designed by Figoni and Falaschi on the 6-cylinder Delahaye Type 135 for the 1936 Paris Salon.

Yes, in those days, what would result today in a lawsuit alleging infringement of copyright, was merely fair game. There were no ill feelings on either side. In fact, the Franco-Italian duo pulled a similar fast one on Hartmann, two years later, by borrowing from him for another of their creations on the Type 135M Delahaye chassis, the broad body stripe which the Swiss coach-builder had used on the Cadillac V-16.

Here is a Delage D8-120 bodied by De Villars with that same central rear fin treatment
[ Photo: the late Dave Holls' collection ].  Paris' Henri Chapron used the same central
fin design on a 1939 Delahaye MS135

F&F borrowed Hartmann's curved "V" body stripe on this Delahaye 135M
convertible coupe they built in 1939-40.  Anyone who has viewed an F&F body close-up
will agree that bumpers were not their "strong" points (no pun intended)

 

Hartmann Dresses a Cadillac

Philippe’s V-16 chassis arrived in Lausanne in April 1937 by rail from the GM facilities in Antwerp, Belgium. Work on the roadster body began immediately. It was completed in the Fall. The basic Cadillac components used were the chassis, engine and firewall. Hartmann retained also the banjo steering wheel (used on Cadillac models that year for the first time), the dash instrumentation and the "V-16" emblem which he mounted at the top, RH side of the modified radiator grille. The glove compartment was deleted and the instruments relocated from the left of the dashboard to the center. The ash-receiver, with its winged-emblem on the lid, was omitted also to make room for the rear-view mirror. The triangular "Cadillac" badge located between the radio knobs on stock 1937 Cadillac models was redesigned and moved to the far right of the panel. It carried the Cadillac crest at the top and the words "Carrosserie Hartmann, Lausanne, Cadillac" below. In shape and size, this dash plaque is very similar to the one used on Cadillac-LaSalle models of the same period.

Above, left:   the standard instrument panel badge found on the  La Salle models of 1937;
Above, right:  the modified instrument panel badge on the 1937 roadster by Hartmann
[ These two drawings:  © 1983, Yann Saunders ]

 

Other changes to the dash panel included the ignition switch being moved from the center to the left of it, locating it closer to the driver. Some knobs and controls located in the center of the dash on stock Cadillac models, between 1934 and 1937, were moved to the right and left of the instrument board.

Just like the Figoni and Falaschi Delahaye built for the 1936 Paris show, the V-16 roadster was painted off-white with a broad, contrasting orange body stripe. The fully-enclosed fender skirts, front and rear, featured an ornate and raised panel painted the same color as the body stripe.

 

First Registration

The Cadillac was presented to the Swiss licensing authorities for inspection on 25 August 1937. There was some doubt as to whether it could be registered as a private automobile owing to its sheer size. It was some 22 feet long ! It took some convincing on the part of both the owner and the coach-builder to have the authorities agree that the Cadillac was in fact a passenger car and NOT a truck.

Finally the car was issued the certificate of conformity and got its first set of license plates (tags) #VD2264.

Later that same afternoon, Philippe first drove his new "toy" to all the fashionable haunts around Lausanne. Naturally, the car caused quite a stir.

 

Early Photos

The earliest photos of the Hartmann car were taken in the Fall of 1937 by a local Swiss press photographer nicknamed Bouboule (the "little ball") on account of his short, chubby build.  Mr. Luthard (Bouboule’s real name) took the pictures near the Barraud home in Bussigny-sur-Morges, soon after the Cadillac had been delivered to its proud new owner.

         
Left: the original Hartmann front clip, with bumperettes and inboard, tear-drop road lights; these were omitted
during the various, subsequent restorations (if I owned the car,  I certainly would want to make it as original as possible again)
[ Photos: © 1937, Bouboule ]

 

Sadly, Bouboule passed away in the seventies. Mr. Baumgartner, his successor in Pully, near Lausanne, tells me that his daughter disposed of all her father’s belongings (including the contents of the photographic studio), shortly after his death. Hence, all the original photos and negatives were either lost or destroyed.

Gigantic... but nonetheless graceful!
[ Photo: © 1937, Bouboule ]

 

Spring Returns - Repaint #1

Philippe used the car regularly for the next two years until war broke out in Europe, in September 1939. Thereafter, and late into the forties, it became increasingly difficult, even when one had plenty of money, to find gasoline in Switzerland for a thirsty, sixteen-cylinder automobile. And so the huge Cadillac roadster was laid up for the next almost ten years.

In the Spring of 1949 a young man’s fancy turned again to thoughts of... a huge Cadillac roadster, lying under inches of dust in the family coach-house. Philippe took the car out into the sunshine. It looked shoddy from the years of neglect and the thick coating of dust. He decided to have it repainted. He retained the original color for the body but changed the color of the broad, lateral stripe and the fender skirt panels from bright orange to pale-blue.  According to copies of related documents in my possession, the car was licensed again from April 21, 1949.  The new tags were:  VD19044.

The V-16 had been plagued with overheating problems and its owner decided to accept the suggestions of a mechanic friend and to have two additional vent doors installed horizontally on either side of the grille shroud.

   
You can see the new hood vent in the closed
position (left) and open position (right)

 

Philippe used the Cadillac only sporadically over the next 10 years. Many new and more modern automobiles had taken its place at the Barraud home. In fact, the gigantic Cadillac had had to be moved to another storage location some distance from the Barraud home to make room for the newer cars.

 

Repaint #2

In the mid-fifties, following a collision in which the front of the car suffered considerable damage, Philippe had the V-16 repaired and repainted for the second time. This time he chose a light, (Swiss?) milk-chocolate color for the body, while the wide lateral stripe and lower fender skirts were repainted a dark brown hue.

The specially cast tear-drop inner road lights had been all but destroyed in the collision. Their remains were discarded and new, bullet-shaped headlight units initially designed for a smaller, European car were purchased off-the-shelf and mounted on specially-made brackets on either side of the grille housing. These were painted to match the stripe and lower body color. New, hexagonal-section Batain-type bumpers were installed front and rear.

   
"Bullet" road lamps replace elegant tear-drop kind; remains of initial
bumperettes appear to serve as impact guards on new Batain bumpers

 

The Car Goes into Storage Again

Philippe stopped using the car altogether in the early sixties. It lay idle in the Eichenberger warehouses in Ouchy, down by Lake Geneva. Owing to preparations being made for the EXPO SUISSE (the Swiss National Exhibition of 1964), Philippe was asked one day, in late 1963, to move the Cadillac out of the warehouse where it was taking up precious room needed for exhibition props.

The Cadillac had begun to show signs of age. Philippe realized also that the storage bills he was having to pay each month were completely out of proportion with the market value of the car at that time. He decided to place it in the care of a mechanic friend by the name of Marcel Blaser who ran a used-car lot in the village of Gilly, in the Jura foothills, about 10 miles from the Barraud home.

      
The "milk-chocolate" roadster in Blaser's yard at Gilly, in Switzerland
(note in this photo the new styled road lights and bumpers that use parts
from the original bumperettes as impact guards.
[ Both photos: © 1965 and  courtesy J.-J. Belet ]

 

News of the presence of the strange-looking roadster soon got around and Mr. Blaser started to be harassed by many callers, amateur photographers and just plain inquisitive passers-by who wanted to know everything there was to know about the huge and exceptional roadster.

Mr. Blaser kept the car on his lot in Vinzel, a small but charming village located a stone’s throw from Gilly and overlooking Lake Geneva.

 

The Second Owner

The Hartmann V-16 was re-discovered in the summer of 1968 by Mr. Jean-Jacques Belet, a member of the Veteran Car Club of French-speaking Switzerland (the VCCR). By that time the replacement road lights had disappeared, although the support stanchions still remained in position.

What was amazing was that the ornate "V-16" grille medallion should have escaped for so long the nimble-fingers of the many car buffs who must have eyed it with envy!

    
This is how the V-16  looked when Jean-Jacques Belet bought it in
April 1969; even the interior was "over"grown by "under"growth
[ Both photos:  © 1969 and courtesy  J.-J. Belet ]

 

Some twenty years later, while Gita and I were walking the dog, after a tasty meal of Malakoffs in Vinzel, we chanced upon the very spot where the Hartmann V-16 had lain, sadly neglected, for five years. I suddenly realized that the traditional Swiss farmhouse we were admiring, in the distance, and the woods behind it (identified as the Bois de Beaulieu), was exactly the house in the background of an early photo I had of the Hartmann car [B&W photo, above, left].

   

 

Chatting to some of the local village folk I was able to glean more information about Marcel Blaser (who, they said, had died in the early seventies) and about Mr. Belet, whom I learned had bought the car from Blaser in 1969.

 

The V-16 is Saved

Back in the summer of 1968, when Mr. Belet realized that the car was a Cadillac and that furthermore it was powered by an engine with 16 cylinders, he recognized immediately that despite its poor condition (it had lain outside for five years with a damaged canvas top), it was definitely a collector’s item worth buying and attempting to restore. He made inquiries about the possibility of finding the spare parts that might be needed for its restoration then returned to Gilly in early 1969 to talk business with Mr. Blaser.

How could the latter possibly refuse Belet's offer of 4000 Swiss francs ($925 at the time) for what he (Blaser) considered to be just another old, second-hand car in very poor condition and - in his opinion - worth no more than $200? So, the car changed hands on February 4,1969. Mr. Blaser handed Mr. Belet a scribbled receipt in exchange for four, crisp, new, one-thousand franc bills (the highest denomination among Swiss bank notes).

Although he was not the rightful owner, Blaser was convinced that Philippe Barraud would be pleased to learn that the Cadillac had been sold and that it had commanded such a high price!

It must be remembered that old American cars came cheap in Europe in the sixties. They had not yet acquired collector status. No rational-minded motorist would have wished ever to own (even less to BUY) one ...except Cadillac-crazy me, perhaps [I remember buying my first car at Xmas 1966 for the equivalent of just under $390! It was a beautiful and nice-running 1956 Cadillac Sedan de Ville; remember that gorgeous 1956 ad The Xmas they'll never forget ? Certainly it was a Xmas I have never forgotten!]

It turned out, nonetheless, that Philippe was very upset that the car had been sold without his prior consent. So upset was he, in fact, that he filed suit against both the vendor (Blaser) and the buyer (Belet). In the ensuing legal battle, both parties claimed they had acted in good faith. The car was old and in visibly poor condition. The owner had neglected it for years. Mr. Belet had made what Blaser considered to be a very reasonable offer for the car and so he (Blaser) had not hesitated to sell it.

When I talked with Mr. Belet in 1987, he showed me copies of correspondence exchanged with Mr. Barraud’s lawyer. The latter contended it was common knowledge that his client had had no intention of ever selling the Cadillac. He had been approached often but had refused consistently all offers ever made for the car. The case went to court. I have a copy of the subpoena issued to Mr. Belet, requiring him to appear at the Courthouse in Rolle, Switzerland, on October 16, 1969. The judge found that there were no reasonable grounds for prosecution. The case was dismissed and Mr. Belet was allowed to keep the car.

 

First Major Restoration

He told me how difficult it had been for him to retrieve the Cadillac from the undergrowth that had engulfed it. A jungle of wild shrubs and bramble bushes held the V-16 a prisoner in their prickly grasp.

Mr. Belet, who owns a Mitsubishi franchise and body repair shop in Mont-sur-Lausanne, began restoration work almost immediately. He entrusted the delicate task to one of his young apprentice mechanics. Unfortunately, he was not able to obtain any pictures of the car when it was new [Mr. Barraud was so infuriated about losing the court case - and the car - that he refused to give Belet any information about it]. So the restoration work had to proceed by sheer guesswork. Mr. Belet did not know, for example, that Barraud had damaged severely the front and rear bumpers early in the car’s life. The latter had been unable to stand up to frequent bashing against various stationary obstacles which must have been almost invisible beyond the car's very long hood and tapering rear section. He had had to replace the flimsy original bumpers with stronger, hexagonal-section steel bars much like the French, Batain type consisting of a single rhombic (diamond)-section welded steel bar.

The debris from the original bumpers were used as over-riders for the new unit. These over-riders too had been destroyed long before restoration work began in 1969. Indeed, Philippe also had given the new bumpers a rough time with his own particular style of touch-and-go driving. Not only had the original front, tiered half-bumpers (or bumperettes) been destroyed after a rather more severe collision, but also the tear-drop road lights mounted inboard of the huge front fenders had been smashed and put out of commission for good. Philippe realized it would have been very costly to have Hartmann manufacture a new pair of to match the unique tear-drop units cast specially for the Cadillac, back in 1937, so he simply had them replaced with a pair of bullet-shaped headlights off a smaller, European car.

During this initial restoration/repair work, the grille was probably dismantled and repaired too. On rebuilding it, the "V-16" medallion was repositioned on the LH side of the grille, and much lower down.

 

Non-Original Front Ensemble

By 1968, there was little left also of the original front clip. The original grille had consisted of three horizontal and thirty-one vertical bars; a new "egg-crate" unit was made up from the remaining debris. The "V-16" medallion remained in the new position in which it had been placed after the major repairs done to the car in the early sixties. The resulting front ensemble lost much of the dignity of the original Hartmann design. It began to look more like a traditional Cadillac egg-crate grille.

Also missing were the Hartmann body tags, located originally on the sill plate below each door. These had been removed and not replaced when the Cadillac was repainted by Barraud for the second time.

 

Rebirth

The first major restoration was completed by the second owner, Mr. Belet, in the spring of 1970. It included the addition of a modern radio, mounted on the part of the instrument panel directly in front of the driver, as well as an equally modern telescopic antenna mounted on the right-hand side of the cowl. To meet new requirements of the Swiss technical inspectorate, the original clock and speedometer were reversed to place the latter closer to the driver. Round, red reflectors were added above the rear bumper. Also removed were the stanchions above the LH and RH tail lights. The one on the left had carried the car's rear license plate while that on the right bore the acronym "CH", which is the country code for Switzerland [from the Latin, Confaederatio Helvetica, the Helvetic (i.e. Swiss) Confederation].

   
Top: restoration of the Hartmann V-16 nears completion in spring 1970
Above: outing of the Veteran Car Club of  French-Speaking Switzerland, 7/1970
[ Photos: © 1970, courtesy J.-J. Belet ]

 

Mr. Belet pointed out to me, in 1987, the poor workmanship that had gone into building this otherwise exceptional automobile. Only when the body was removed from the frame during restoration did he discover what kind of a "Mickey-Mouse" job Hartmann had done of building it.

Between 1970 and 1972, Mr. Belet used the car only occasionally for outings of the Swiss Veteran Car Club. Some photos of the car were taken during one of these outings by Mr. G.N.Georgano, Head Librarian of the National Motor Museum in Beaulieu, England. Two of them appeared in the readers’ column of Special Interest Autos No 2 (February, 1982) where, incidentally, the Cadillac was described - in error - as a 1935 model.

The Third Owner

It was on the occasion of such an outing that Jean-Jacques Belet met fellow car-collector, Patrice De Witte, from France. Patrice had turned up at the meet in a superb Hispano-Suiza. Each of the two auto enthusiasts had fallen for the car of the other. By the day's end, the pair had agreed to exchange their cars. The trade took place in the early summer, 1972 and the Cadillac was driven the 100 or so miles from Lausanne, in Switzerland, to Mâcon, in France, by the young mechanic who had restored it.

Mr. De Witte owned a stately home (....needing major repairs!), called the Château de Montvaillant, located some 20 miles west of Mâcon, where he kept an interesting collection of British classic and French antique vehicles in various hangars, garages and other storage premises in the vicinity of the château.

Picking up the Trail

It was about this time that I picked up the trail of the car through both Eddy Strebel, an acquaintance and journalist for the Swiss weekly Automobil Revue, and Christian Vaney, a young admirer of Cadillac automobiles who had not hesitated to ride his "moped" (a 15-mph motor-bicycle) 100 miles just to have a closer look at this fantastic car!

I made the trip to Mâcon/Clermain more comfortably, in my VW Variant station-wagon, in the fall of 1973. Needless to say, during this initial visit, I photographed the Cadillac from every possible angle.

       

       

       

Left: the V-16 roadster looked like this when I saw it for the first time in 1973;
center: Chateau de Montvaillant in France, home of the late Patrice DeWitte;
Right: beautiful, bulbous front fenders of the Hartmann V-16
[ All three photos: © 1973, Yann Saunders ]

 

News of the Special V-16 Leaks to the USA

The snap-shots I took in Mâcon [above], and a short article about this V-16, were published later in the Self-Starter, monthly newsletter of the Cadillac-LaSalle Club, Inc. (February, 1974). They were reprinted, later, in Torque, the magazine of the Michigan Region Classic Car Club of America (July-August, 1974), and a third time in Antique Automobile, the magazine of the Antique Automobile Club of America (March-April, 1975). Two of my pictures were used also in Roy Schneider's authoritative book, Sixteen-Cylinder Motor Cars.

The story and pictures of the Hartmann car aroused considerable interest in the United States. As a result, I made many new friends among Cadillac enthusiasts in America. Some of them flew specially to Switzerland just to have a closer look at the rare V-16. Among them were Ron Van Gelderen, twice President of the Cadillac-LaSalle Club, Inc., Jack Tallman, a well-known Cadillac dealer and collector of Decatur, IL, one of the founder members of the CLC, and Ray and Dorothy Radford of the Classic Car Club of America.

 

Straight from the Source

Much of the story material in these pages was still missing in 1973. At that time, I was sure that both Philippe Barraud (the first owner) and Willy Hartmann (the coach-builder) had passed away long ago. I was pleasantly surprised, therefore, to find out, in mid-1987, that both gentlemen were still alive and in good health. I was fortunate to be able to talk to both of them and to obtain from the source, so to speak, the real facts about this exceptional roadster and to dispel once and for all the various myths that surround it.

When asked what the special V-16 roadster had cost, neither Philippe nor Willy could remember exact prices although both of them put forward from memory the approximate figures of 30,000 Swiss francs for the chassis (around $6000 in the late thirties) and 12,000 francs more for the body (circa $2400).

 

Was Hartmann First?

Willy Hartmann had gained recognition four years earlier with a prize-winning phaeton design on an Isotta-Fraschini chassis. So, despite the fact that the Delahaye was on display at the Paris Salon, in October 1936, two or three months before work was begun on the 1937 Cadillac V-16, Hartmann insisted that the likeness between the two cars is pure coincidence. If anyone could claim to have been wronged in the deal, Geo Ham is that person.  Nonetheless, in my opinion, considering that the phaeton body which Hartmann designed in 1932 for the Countess of Varax, is an almost identical replica of a 1929 French proposal for the Voisin 12-cylinder model, I think Hartmann might well have been a habitual "borrower" of designs from the competition!  Many of these designs and design proposals were published in a trade magazine of the time called La Carrosserie Française, which was readily available to anyone closely or indirectly connected with the building of automobile bodies.

Willy Hartmann designed the body of this 1932 Hispano Suiza

 

The Figoni & Falaschi Myth

It has been said that Hartmann "borrowed" his design from Figoni and Falaschi, in Paris. Mr. Hartmann denied this vigorously. He claimed that both he and other European coach builders like Erdmann and Rossi in Germany had been working on designs like this already for a couple of years. He agreed, nonetheless, that there was a marked likeness between his design for the Cadillac and the F&F Delahaye designed by French artist Geo Ham for the Paris Salon, in 1936.

The striking resemblance between the Hartmann Cadillac and the Figoni and Falaschi Delahaye was one of the reasons why a rumor spread in the mid-eighties that, in fact, the car had got a genuine body by the Italo-French coach-builders. That story was blown up and propagated by the popular French monthly car magazine Nitro, which added (to compound the myth) that the car had been specially built for South-American tin magnate, Simon Patiño.  The latter mis-information later was deformed and re-cast as the incomprehensible Betino Tin Magnet (???) in a Tom Barrett III ad published in April 1987.  Barrett's many ads published through 1989 frequently misrepresented the car and mis-spelled the F&F names; rarely was the (then unknown) coach-builder, Willy Hartmann, ever mentioned. These are excerpts from the Barrett ads (spelling errors included): (i) Fagoni-Flaschi designed, (ii) Figoni and Falaschi body, (iii) body by Figoni & Falaschi, (iv) design by Fagoni/Falaschi,  (v) body by Figoni and Falaschi or (closer to the truth) (vi) body by Hartmann, design by Fagoni/Falaschi.

By comparison, the "Ph...ph... phony and Fff...ff... flashy" Delahaye was just a fraction of the size of the Cadillac and had RH steering (the Cadillac has LH steering). Also the belt-line of the Delahaye roadster dipped considerably, just aft of the doors (a bit like the 1953 Cadillac Eldorado), whereas the belt-line on the Hartmann V-16 is perfectly straight. Furthermore, the forward edge of the rear fenders on the Delahaye were fitted with a courtesy light for the convenience of occupants entering or alighting from the car at night, whereas there are none on the Cadillac.

On the other hand, the design of the fully-enclosed fenders front and rear and the dorsal fin running down the center of the tapering rear section of both cars are a perfect match.

 

Hartmann Production

The Swiss coach builder estimated, in 1987, that he had customized or built from scratch a total of approximately fifty automobile bodies in the eleven years from the time he set up shop in 1928, up to September 1939, when W.W.II broke out in Europe. He told me how he had burned most of his records, in the Fall of 1939, to make room for new business at the outbreak of the war, when he had been commissioned by the Swiss government to build special vehicles for the army.

 

Hartmann V-16 Handling

In the mid-seventies, while the car was owned by Patrice de Witte, I was able to drive it. At that time it had severe distributor problems. By comparison with some other V-16s in which Gita and I were honored to be driven during our regular visits to the USA, this one sounded and handled like a truck! Considering the prices quoted for the car in the eighties, I sincerely hope that both the ride and handling have been improved!

 

Fourth Owner

In February 1977, Mr. de Witte - who passed away shortly thereafter - sold the V-16 to another French collector, Mr. Michel Payet of Lyons, in France. He it was who added the tall flag-staffs at the outer ends of the front bumpers, to fill the holes left there when the non-original acorn-shaped, orange turn-signal indicators were removed during the Belet restoration. Mr. Payet said these tall markers helped him to gauge the outer limits of the huge automobile while steering it through city traffic.

The fourth owner was discreet about the price he had paid for the car; he admitted only that it had cost him about the same price as a good, second-hand Mercedes-Benz (...call it $20,000).

   
This is how the Hartmann car looked when Michel Payet got it from
Pat De Witte, shortly before the latter's death in the late seventies.
At the left is an interesting bird's-eye view with Michel at the wheel
[ Photos: © and courtesy M. Payet ]

The two long flag-staffs  were fitted by Michel to help him
gauge the car's width while driving France's narrow roads 

The Veedol Star Parade

The V-16 was loaned by Michel Payet to the organizers of the Auto-show der Superlative and Veedol Starparade that toured major cities in West Germany between May and October 1982. That event had been organized by Swiss businessman, Prosper du Bois-Reymond in partnership with Roman Weyl, a German car collector. On that occasion, the 1937 Cadillac had shared the limelight with the following other "super-cars" (inter alia):

1927 Rolls Royce Phantom (formerly owned by silent-screen star, Greta Garbo)
1935 Auburn Speedster
1936 V-12 Maybach Zeppelin
1941 Chrysler (Indianapolis Pace-Car)
1949 Talbot Lago roadster (with body by Saoutchik, Paris)
1955 T-Bird roadster (former owner: Marilyn Monroe)
1956 "Psychedelic" Bentley (former owners: The Beatles)

Mr. Payet reported that before the show went on the road, the organizers invested a few thousand French francs in minor mechanical repairs and some cosmetic work to the car. A full report on the German show appeared in Classic and Special Interest Cars, in the summer of 1982.

The Hartmann car on show in Berlin, in May 1982 (the
sign in the background reads Pininfarina, Michaelangelo
of the Automobile; equally apt, perhaps, would have been:
Willy Hartmann, Rubens of the Automobile

 

Unfortunately, the show appears to have been mismanaged and many of the private collectors who had loaned their beautiful cars found that they were required to bear a part or all of the cost of having them shipped back home. So it was for Mr. Payet and the V-16!

 

Retro-Lyon,1983

From December 9-12, 1983, the V-16 was exhibited again at Retro-Lyon, a now popular annual event in Lyons, the provincial capital of France. A report on the 1983 meet was published in the French monthly magazine Nitro (equivalent to America's Hot Rod). As I mentioned before, it was Nitro that propagated the myth about the car having been designed by Figoni and Falaschi and built for South-American tin millionaire Simon Patiño, a long-time resident of Geneva, Switzerland.

All the fun of the Fair serves as a
fitting backdrop to a rare automobile

 

Retromobile, Paris, 1985

The Cadillac was seen next in public in Paris, from February 8-17, 1985 at the annual Retromobile show. At that show, whether by accident or design, it stood next to a 1938 Talbot-Lago roadster with a genuine body by Figoni and Falaschi. You will see in the photo at the right, below, that the car still carried the two long flag staffs installed by Michel Payet.

       

       

   
Left: in this photo are plainly visible the two long flag-staffs that were fitted by
Michel Payet.  Right: the upholstery was restored by Jean-Jacques Belet, in 1970. 
In a later restoration, the original biscuit and button design was changed to pleats

Fifth Owner

During the Retromobile show, in 1985, Mr. Payet was approached by a wealthy Iranian-American, Mr. P.A. Parviz, a classic car collector, resident of London, England. He made an interesting offer for the car and a sale ensued. Mr. Payet would not divulge the price paid by Mr. Parviz, the fifth owner. He said, nonetheless, that it was equivalent to the cost of "three or four" new Mercedes-Benz models [my estimate, at that time: $150,000].

 

Second Major Restoration

Immediately after he acquired the car, Mr. Parviz placed it in the capable hands of the most renowned of all French auto restorers, André Lecoq of Paris. Mr. Lecoq informed me by letter that the restoration work had taken eight months. While he was adamant to quote any figures, I assume that labor charges alone must have amounted to close to 400'000 French francs (approximately $65'000 at that time).

Mechanical work, he said, had been limited to checking out the various components (engine, transmission, etc.), adjusting the brakes and rewiring the car completely. The Lecoq workshops put a lot of effort into upgrading the body and interior. Mr. Lecoq stated that the body was completely stripped down and new metal welded into the spots where rust had taken over. It was then re-sprayed with a nitro-cellulose lacquer.

A non-original metal panel, complete with central fin to match the existing fin on the rear body, was fashioned to cover the top boot when the car was used in the open convertible mode. Press studs were installed to hold the soft top in place in inclement weather. The original Chevrolet truck tail-lights were replaced with more streamlined, chromium-plated bullet tail-lights similar to the kind used on the Cadillac V-16 models of 1932 and 1933. The circular, red reflectors were removed also during this second restoration.

The Lecoq workshops also replaced the original light tan upholstery with new, black leather. Seat and seat-back were fashioned in 3-inch, tufted piping that replaced the original Hartmann design that featured large biscuits and buttons. The original, large map pockets on the inner door panels were deleted and these panels were dressed with a sun-burst design, a popular trade-mark of Paris’ Jacques Saoutchik in the thirties.

Mr. Lecoq removed also the unsightly antenna from the RH side of the cowl, as well as the modern radio from the dash. The instrument panel was restored and finished in black lacquer in lieu of the original cream color. Simultaneously, some knobs and switches were replaced and the windshield wiper motor housings were chrome-plated. An ornate plaque was placed in evidence in front of the driver, in the spot where the radio had been.

The most unsightly part of the second major restoration was, in my opinion, the non-original chrome-plating of the lower front and rear fender covers. Although European coach-builders such as Figoni & Falaschi and Saoutchik often used such extensive expanses of chrome-plating on their more lavish, Salon creations in the thirties, its gleaming presence on this huge American automobile looked completely out of place and somehow anachronic!

It is most unfortunate that neither Belet nor Lecoq had access to the original, early photos of the car nor any contact with either Willy Hartmann, the designer, or Philippe Barraud, the first owner. As a result, the front ensemble, lateral design and interior of the restored car now differ quite radically from the original car.

   

     
Quality restoration was done for Mr. P.A. Parviz of London, UK,  by André LeCoq
of Paris, France.  Mr. LeCoq modified considerably the interior, including
the design of the seat, seat-back and inner door panels

         
Intricate detailing included pinstriping the various body moldings and openings painstakingly by hand

 

There has been already so much myth, inaccuracy and hype surrounding this car that I would not be surprised if I saw it advertised for sale again, in a few years time, for $5,000,000. It might well be described as a V-16 Cadillac "...designed by Figoni et Falaschi, with an interior by Jacques Saoutchik and custom tuned engine by Hartmann, Switzerland ...a car  with the precision of a Swiss watch !

 

The V-16 Roadster Goes "Back Home"

In September, 1985, the V-16 roadster returned to its native America, following almost a half century spent in the olde worlde (35 years in Switzerland and 15 years in France).

In January, 1986 it was offered for sale at the annual Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale, Arizona. It was named the V-16 roadster by "Von Hartmann".  I assume that name was copied from the Veedol Star Parade  program, written in German.  In that language, "von" simply means "by".  In other words, this was not the "Von Hartmann" roadster but simply the "roadster by Hartmann". Yes, Barrett apparently does have a problem with foreign names and phrases!

Auction results published in February 1986 show that the car was bid up to $475'000, which, in my opinion, was about $200’000 more than its intrinsic worth at that time. It did not find a buyer. Presumably the owner's reserve was much higher.

Later that same year the V-16 was shown at the annual Pebble Beach Concours d'Elégance where it was greatly admired. There was a brief report on that event in Old Cars Weekly for September 18, 1986. At that time, the owner of the car was still identified as Mr. P.A. Parviz of London. Perhaps he had a lay-away arrangement with Mr. Barrett.

Tom Barrett II with two cars in his collection;
Left, a 1934 La Salle; right, the Hartmann V-16

 

The Sixth Owner-Speculator ...and a lot of hype

Although I have found no record of the transaction, I assume that Mr. Parviz eventually sold the car in late 1986 or early 1987 to  well-known collector-auctioneer, Thomas Barrett III. I caught a glimpse of it, in mid-1987, in a magazine called The Duesenberg Experience; on page 20 was a picture of the new owner standing amidst what was described in the caption as a part of his vast car collection. Clearly visible in the background, on the right of the photo, was the huge Cadillac V-16 roadster in its latest incongruous and gaudy garb.

Considering the number and wording of the various ads run in the specialized press immediately after the last-but-one owner acquired the car, in my opinion he bought it merely for speculation, probably hoping to cash in on the Figoni-Falaschi myth.

 

The Myth is perpetuated

The car was regularly advertised for sale  in the mid to late eighties, by Thomas W. Barrett III, in various hobby publications, but principally in Hemmings Motor News; it was described variously (and sometimes untruthfully) as:

- a 1937 Cadillac V-16 Fagoni-Flaschi [sic] designed 2 passenger roadster [wrong spelling of Figoni et Falaschi and untruthful assertion that they designed this car].

   
In these two views it is not easy to see that the raised "teardrop" shapes
on the front and rear fenders have been chrome plated (!)

 

- a 1935 Cadillac V-16 Roadster [wrong year], body by Hartmann [correct!], design by Fagoni/Falaschi [again, the name Figoni spelled incorrectly].

- a 1937 Cadillac V-16 two-place roadster with a one-of-a-kind body by Figoni & Falaschi [untruthful  assertion but correct spelling of the coach builders' names]. Built for Betino Tin Magnet [what the copy writer presumably meant was built for Simon Patiño, the tin magnate]; this, again, is a false assertion since the car was effectively built for Philippe Barraud, a Swiss roofing tile manufacturer.  Stored in Switzerland for most of its life [the word "stored" is incongruous considering that the car lay in an open field for three years]. 155-inch wheelbase [in fact, 154 inches]. Largest Cadillac V-16 ever built, 21 feet long. Price $1,250,000  [this ad appeared in April, 1987].

- a 1937 Cadillac V-16 Roadster, Figoni & Falaschi body [once again a false claim but correct spelling of the coach builders' names], 22 feet long, one of a kind, price $1,000,000 [the price was knocked down by a quarter-million dollars in a six-month period; this ad appeared in October, 1987].

- a 1937 Cadillac V-16, Figoni and Falaschi body [false assertion again]. Newly restored. Price $2,500,000 [this ad appeared in April 1999]; are we to believe that the "new restoration" cost all of $1.5 million dollars ?

- a 1937 Cadillac V-16 two-door convertible, body by Hartmann [at last, the whole truth and nothing but the truth!] Price $3,500,000  [this classified ad was part of a three-page Barrett-Jackson spread; unfortunately, two photo captions were inverted and a Mercedes 600 Pullman limousine of the sixties was pictured where the V-16 should have been; I guess the vendor thought that nobody in the USA had ever heard of Willy Hartmann and so the ad asserted that this V-16 was built on a "...design by Fagoni/ Falaschi" [more incorrect spelling]. That "designer label", it seems, was enough to hike the price up by a further million dollars over the previous ad! 

- a 1935 Cadillac V-16 Roadster [wrong year again], body by Hartmann [correct], design by
Fagoni/Falaschi [spelling problems continue]; this classified ad appeared in January, 1990.

In spite of these attractive ads, the car did not sell. Potential buyers presumably were baffled by the corrupted rendering of the myth about the car having been built for Simon Patiño, a "tall story" that had been spread, initially, by France's Nitro magazine.

The repeated, untruthful assertions about the car having a "...one-of-a-kind body by Figoni & Falaschi" probably was a deliberate attempt by the vendor to artificially boost the roadster's potential value as a rare collectible automobile.  Indeed, nobody in America had ever heard of Willy Hartmann in the eighties; on the other hand, collector cars with authentic F&F bodies were selling in the eighties for six and seven figures. 

On October 22, 1987, I wrote to the Barrett-Jackson organization and made a point of correcting the myths that were being propagated about the car. I provided ample documentary and photographic evidence (1) that the Hartmann V-16 did NOT have a body by Figoni & Falaschi and (2) that it had NOT been built for Simon Patiño. My letter was never acknowledged. The auction people were not about to publish the real facts about the car ...and thus diminish its "worth" in the eyes of potential buyers.

In a magazine article [Auto Gallery, September 1987], Dennis Adler, the well-known auto-columnist, continued to propagate and expand on the myth that the Hartmann car had been built for a rich South-American. In October of 1936, he said, South American industrialist Carlos [Simon?] Patiño was visiting the Paris Auto Salon, saw the Figoni et Falaschi Delahaye, and decided to have one like it ... so Patiño took his V-16 to Switzerland, and there commissioned the coach building firm of Hartmann to copy the 1936 Figoni Delahaye."

Interestingly, Mr. Adler mentioned in his article that the Hartmann car had been auctioned in Phoenix, AZ, on January 23, 1988, to the Ken E. Behring museum at Black Hawk [Danville?], CA, for a reported $750,000 ...a far throw from the $3,500,000 ticket that Tom Barrett had on the car the next year and later!

No ads that I know of appeared for the Hartmann car in 1988. Nonetheless, in January, 1988, the car was again on the auction block at Scottsdale. A Swiss friend and collector who attended that event said that the V-16 roadster found no buyer. He does not recollect the amount of the high bid, if any.

A little more than a year later, In April 1989, new ads began to appear for the car. Again it was stated untruthfully (despite my letter to Tom Barrett) that it had a "...Figoni and Falaschi body". The car was described as having been newly restored.   I don't know if the V-16 was on the block in Scottsdale in January, 1989;  I suspect it may have been undergoing further "restoration" at that time, including being repainted "collector car red" to further enhance its marketability.

In Auto-Week for January, 1990, it was said that the Hartmann V-16 had been sold [again?] to Ken Behring of the Blackhawk Auto Museum, this time for $1,400,000, during the weekend auction of 18-21 January, 1990. If this were true, then obviously there had been "no sale" at Scottsdale in 1988, but merely a high bid.  Indeed, it was reported that same week in Old Cars Weekly [January 4, 1990] that the car had been (up to the time of the January sale) a part of Tom Barrett’s private collection.  There is definitely more to this story than meets the eye!

In the British monthly Thoroughbred and Classic Cars, January 1990, there was a two-page spread about the 1990 edition of the annual classic car auction at Scottsdale, Arizona. The text accompanying a photo of the Hartmann car read correctly [apart from the year of the car] "...1935 Cadillac V-16 Roadster, body by Hartmann".

Although I had sent the owner documentary proof of the car’s Swiss ancestry, the false Figoni et Falaschi appellation continued to appear in all the sales advertisements listed above. In fact, when I admired the car again at Retromobile, in Paris, in 1991, I was horrified to see that the original   Hartmann name plate [that I had photographed in the seventies] had been removed from the instrument panel [by whom?] and replaced with a new, modified one that included the words Dessin Original Figoni & Falaschi [i.e. Original Design by Figoni & Falaschi]! 

    
In the mid-eighties the original coach-builder's nameplate was removed from the RH corner
of the instrument panel [ RH photo, above, © 1974, Yann Saunders ] and replaced with a fake
replica on which were added  the words (in French) "Original Design - Figoni Falaschi"   [LH photo]

 

Why would the vendor of a car with a known history deliberately and fraudulently misrepresent it to potential buyers?  In my opinion, this excerpt from the Milestone Car, the magazine of the Milestone Car Society of America, that appeared in 1973, provides a plausible explanation: The supply of Figoni et Falaschi designs available to the collector is strictly limited today, and those that have survived and occasionally come up for sale bring prices that rank with the cream of the classics - unfortunately for most of us. 

One can easily understand why the vendors preferred to see the car associated with the renowned French coach-builders rather than with an unknown Swiss artisan!

 

Fourth Restoration

Presumably owing to the early unsuccessful attempts to sell the car (in the period from 1987 to 1989), it was decided to "re-vamp" the Cadillac in the hope of further enhancing its marketability. During the fourth restoration in 1989 which - in my opinion - was totally unnecessary, the original gas-filler cap was recessed below the rear deck, access being through a flush-mounted, hinged panel. The convertible top studs were removed to accentuate the smooth curves of the rear body. The car was repainted for the fourth time in its history. The color chosen was fire-engine red (vermilion). No doubt the owner wanted to verify the old adage about red cars always winning the first prize ...or, in this case, fetching the highest selling price!

   
(Left): the Hartmann V-16 after the 1989 "face-lift"; (right) on display in the Blackhawk collection, Danville, CA

On a humorous note, I read in Autoweek for February 19, 1990 that ...a while back, one of Barrett's numerous lady friends, in a gay moment, drove another of his [Barrett's]  cars into the garaged '37 [V-16] , adding $145,000 to the evening's expenses."

The last but one time I got close to the car was in Switzerland, one year later, during the Geneva Auto Show in March, 1991. The newly-painted-red car was exhibited, along with others, under the banner Barclay Fascination Cars [Barclay is a brand of cigarettes actively promoted and sold in Switzerland].

Three different restorations:  [left] Switzerland, 1970), [center] France, circa 1985, [right] USA, 1989. 
In my opinion, the final restoration [right] is an insult to both Willy Hartmann, the creator, and André LeCoq,
France's finest classic car restorer.  The car is now "fire-engine red" and glitters with vast expanses of chrome!

 

What is the Hartmann Car REALLY worth

Even if this V-16 car had been restored to its former, original splendor, respecting the coach builder's original design for the front ensemble, as well as the original color scheme, upholstery pattern and  instrument panel layout, still its current value would be nowhere near the prices that have been asked for it. And even if the car did have a genuine body by France's Figoni & Falaschi team, its current value - in my opinion - would be no more than $500’000, which is still five hundred times more than the second owner paid for it in 1969!

Sure, the car is a Cadillac. Sure, it is a V-16.   Sure, only fifty V-16s were built in 1937. Sure, it is a roadster - the most desirable of all body styles - and, sure, it is fitted with a unique body. But it is not and never was a car built by Figoni & Falaschi.

Whoever heard of Willy Hartmann of Lausanne, Switzerland, before this V-16 literally was dragged out of the bushes in the sixties?

Let not a three-and-a-half million dollar ticket pull the proverbial wool over the eyes of the unsuspecting emptor! This is no Bugatti Royale nor pristine Duesenberg "J".  The body, while unique, is not built to the standard of the creme de la creme of contemporary European coach-builders like Hooper or Mulliner in England, Fernandez & Darrin, Figoni et Falaschi, Kellner, Letourneur et Marchand or Saoutchik in France, Erdmann & Rossi or Gläser in Germany, Nordberg in Sweden, Van den Plas in Belgium nor even Hermann Graber in Switzerland. Hartmann did not possess the skills and techniques of the latter, renowned coach builders.

Despite the reputation of the Swiss for fine-quality workmanship, the second and third owners of the Hartmann car confided in me that Willy's talents as a coach-builder were no match for those of the great European and American coach-builders of the time.  On Hartmann's own admission when I spoke with him in 1987 [he was then aged 86], the only reason he ever got to tackle a Cadillac, let alone a V-16, was on account of the proximity of his small workshop to the home of wealthy Philippe Barraud.

For a car of these gigantic proportions and on a scale of one to ten, this car [below, right] gets only a two in my book, in terms of quality of construction and finish. In comparison, the corresponding Fleetwood convertible coupe built the same year - style #5835 [below left] - deserves an eight!

Left, Fleetwood style #5885 convertible coupe proposal for 1937 [only two were built]
Right, the "awesome" Hartmann roadster [only one was built ...and that was enough!
The drawings are by Fleetwood (left) and Yann Saunders (right)]

 

Nonetheless, viewed simply as an objet d'art, the Hartmann V-16 has exceptional appeal. Place it side by side with a comparable roadster by Figoni & Falaschi on the Delage, Delahaye or Talbot chassis and you'll see what I mean!

So, what is the Hartmann V-16 really worth? Well, if you simply add up the basic cost of the car, as paid by Mr. Parviz, to the cost of the restoration by Lecoq,  transporting the car back to the USA and  the most recent "face lift" in 1989, it's just possible that the total could reach $350'000. So the "profit margin" on this car was over $1,000,000! ...thanks mainly to the fake "Figoni and Falaschi" label.

As they say, caveat emptor !

 

Conclusion

Even though - in my opinion - the car is not worth one quarter the ticket prices we've seen since 1987, still it deserves a place in the Automobile Hall of Fame. I love it and hate it too! This fire-engine-red mammoth is also something also of a white elephant. I think it is probably the most enormous, outrageous and utterly preposterous two-passenger car ever built and ever to carry the distinguished coat of arms of Sieur Antoine de la Mothe CADILLAC!

 

The Hartmann V-16 roadster is currently [1999]
in the renowned Blackhawk Auto Museum, Danville, CA.

 

LATEST UPDATE:  On a recent trip to California [in June 1999], where Gita and I attended the annual Cadillac-LaSalle Club, Inc. "Grand National" meet, the organizers had included a visit to the renowned Blackhawk Auto Museum in Danville, located some 45 miles NE of San Jose. Thanks to an introduction by a member of the CLC of Northern California and owing to the generous courtesy of the museum staff, I was allowed to clamber up onto the dais on which the Hartmann car is displayed, and to photograph close-up the "fake" coach builder's plate now mounted on the RH side of the instrument panel.  My worst fears were confirmed.  Someone intent on increasing the car's status had taken the extreme liberty of removing the original plate and affixing a new one, with the following additional inscription: "DESSIN ORIGINAL FIGONI FALASCHI" [i.e. "Original Design, Figoni & Falaschi"].  Below is the proof of my assertion:  on the left is the original Hartmann plate that I photographed in Mâcon, France, in 1974; on the right the new, "fake" one.

 

Sorry for the poor photo quality;  both are from TV/video footage I shot and both have been retouched for improved
contrast.  I photographed the original builder's plate [left] on the car in Mâcon, France, in the early seventies;
the background appears to be blue but in fact it is black; at that time the instrument panel was colored cream,
just like the car itself.  On the fake plate [right], note the black merlettes as well as the wider spacing
between the Cadillac crest and the lower inscription; note also the different print used;  in addition, only the
word Cadillac is italicized on the fake plate, whereas on the original the word LAUSANNE also was in italics

 

Want to see a 1:8 Scale exotic wood sculpture
of the Hartmann Car?

Click here

 

Bibliography

I should like to extend particular thanks to the following individuals without whose enlightened help all the pieces I was able to assemble of the Hartmann "puzzle" could not have fallen into place:

Mr. Willy Hartmann,   proud "progenitor" of this extraordinary automobile.  He admitted, when I spoke with him in 1987, that even in his wildest dreams, he never could have imagined all the adventures that were to befall the car that had once been merely a drawing on a sketch pad for a prospective client.

Mr. Philippe Barraud, the first owner of the car. Despite his age and failing health [he was 75 years old when I spoke with him in 1987], this fine old gentleman was kind enough to answer my many questions about the wonderful automobile that had been his favorite "toy" fifty years beforehand.

Mr. Jean-Jacques Belet, second owner of the car who was able to dig up some early photos for me and to fill in missing details for the period from 1968 through 1972.

The late Mr. Patrice de Witte and his charming wife who welcomed me often in their château-home near Mâcon, allowed me to play with their incredible toy and generally entertained the many Cadillac buffs I brought from near and far to see this incredible V-16.

Mr. Michel Payet, who acquired the V-16 from Mr. de Witte shortly before the latter passed away, and who told me the story from where he had picked up the threads.

Mr. André Lecoq, France's premier automobile restorer who did the best job he could to restore the V-16 in 1985, in the absence of any early designs or photos of the car.

Mr. Alain Berrabah, a Swiss Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg fan-and-nonetheless-friend who, despite his young age probably knew more about the history of the Hartmann V-16 than the rest of us put together; Alain it was who supplied many of the early photos for this story.

Mr. Christian Vaney, a long-time friend and Cadillac buff who had seen the huge car before me and whetted my appetite for more facts and photos.

Mr. Eddy Strebel of Switzerland's Automobil Revue who tipped me off to the car's location in France.

 

 

Return to The (New) Cadillac Database© Index Page
or return to the "Miscellaneous Cadillac Stuff" index page
or go back to the V-16 index page

 

© 1992, Yann Saunders [aka Mr. Cadillac]
[ Background image:  the Hartmann roadster after restoration in Paris, 1985 ]