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The (new) Cadillac Database^©

Dream Cars

Pininfarina's Jacqueline
1961

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un résumé en français se trouve en bas de page

Pininfarina's Jacqueline "pushmobile" in front of the Stupenigi Palace in Turin, 1961     Left:  in the gardens of the Palazzo (isn't that a white car ?) Right: Pininfarina logo and script on front fenders

 

History

The six Pininfarina custom creations
[some automobiles and some "pushmobiles"]

(left):  boat-tail roadster on 1930 V-16 chassis for the Maharaja of Orccha [see 1930 page] (right): sports roadster on 1953 Cadillac chassis for Luigi Chinetti [see 1953 page]    (left): Skylight coupe said to be mounted on Series 60 Special chassis for the Geneva show, March 1958 [see 1959 page] (right): Skylight convertible again said to be mounted on Series 60 Special chassis for the Paris Salon, October 1958 [see 1959 page]    (left): Starlight coupe, possibly on Series 60 Special chassis but more probably engineless, for the Paris Salon, October 1960 [see 1960-61 page] (right): Jacqueline, engineless coupe for the Paris Salon, October 1961 [see 1960-61 page and below] [ See also "Broughams di Lombardia" in the Eldorado Brougham section ] Excerpt from soft-covered booklet published by Pininfarina and Cadillac; top row, right, is the "1954 2-seat convertible"; center row, right, is the '1958 4-seat" car

 

A Swiss friend of mine who often visits Scottsdale, AZ, called me early in 2001 to inform me of the aborted sale of some collectible Cadillacs belonging to a collector in France. About half a dozen of these cars were planned to be sold during the January 2001 edition of the annual Barrett-Jackson [Kruse] auction.  As it turns out, the cars never made it across the block.  In fact, it appears some of them never even made it to Scottsdale, from Europe. It seems the Kruse auctioneers thought the vendor's reserve price on one of the cars was much too high.

That car was the rare Jacqueline coupe, a (former)  pushmobile designed by Pininfarina for European auto shows of the early sixties.

My friend was interested in the car and asked me if I knew anything about it. He had got a copy of an appraisal that had been done of the car, in Paris, France, in November 1996.  He knew my interest in Cadillac cars and  was surprised, later, at the wealth of information about Jacqueline that he found in this, The (new) Cadillac Database©.

I too have been interested in Jacqueline for some 40 years.  My late mother and my lovely daughter both have that same name.  In addition, I was working at UNESCO, in Paris, the year Jacqueline made her first public appearance at the Paris Salon.

I remember also talking about her with Pininfarina's PR people, back in 1975. The facts and photos I got from them, at that time, have been included in the Database since its inception in 1996.  I am always pleased when I am able to add a new fact or more reliable historic information about her.  Facts are what count in The (new) Cadillac Database©, not fiction.

It seems, however, that my "facts" just didn't cut it with an irascible French used-car salesman who claims to have been involved with Jacqueline's destiny over the last few years. 

After this person rubbed me once too often the wrong way, I thought perhaps it was time to set the record straight by creating this special page devoted exclusively to the PF Jacqueline. I say again:  the bulk of information included herein came directly from Pininfarina themselves and from other very reliable sources in the world of rare, costly, collectible cars.

If you are familiar with the car and can contribute constructively (and not in a threatening tone!) to correcting any errors, omissions or misconceptions,  I shall be glad to hear from you :

 

Jacqueline
The facts as I know them

1975-76

I corresponded with Pininfarina in late 1975 and early 1976 but was not able to gain answers to all my questions. Here are those I asked, about Jacqueline, inter alia, as well as the [mostly incomplete] answers I was given at that time.  Perhaps an Italian Cadillac aficionado visiting this site could shed some more light on the interesting topic of the special Pininfarina cars that were allegedly mounted on Cadillac's bespoke Eldorado Brougham chassis:

Q. What were the Brougham chassis numbers used for the four special PF creations [the lower four cars in the above introduction]?
A. We do not have that data.

Q. What colors were these cars? What color was the trim and upholstery?
A. (a) The Cadillac Skylight convertible displayed at the 1958 Paris show [October '57 or October '58?] had a silver-gray metallic body with bright red leather trim. The 2-door coupe [it had no name] exhibited at the 1958 [???] Geneva Motor show was black with turquoise leather interior. The Cadillac Starlight 2-door coupe exhibited at the 1959 Paris show was white with brown leather upholstery. The Cadillac Jacqueline 2-door coupe exhibited at the 1961 Paris salon was ermine white and had black leather upholstery

[My comments: the appraisal that was done, in Paris, in November 1996, mentions a black, Naugahyde interior; in addition (though not specified in the appraisal) the car was gold-colored at that time]. 

[PF say Jacqueline had no nameplate at the Paris show and that the latter was added for the Turin show [nonetheless, the photo I have of Jacqueline, in Paris (below), already features the nameplate on the front fenders]

Q. If they were sold, who were the buyers? Do the cars still exist, and if so where are they located? If they were destroyed, when and where did this occur?
A. We do not have the answers to these three queries, except to say that we still own the Cadillac Jacqueline.

After receiving these initial replies to my questions, I was still somewhat in the dark as to the existence of custom Eldorado Brougham models fitted out by the Italian coach builder, so I had an Italian- speaking office colleague call Pininfarina, in January 1976, to make some additional inquiries. Following that call, and after some more research in their archives, Pininfarina wrote again on January 26, as follows:

Here are the answers to your additional questions:

Q. Were the Skylight coupe and convertible built on the Brougham chassis?
A. No, they were built on the Cadillac Sixty-Special chassis .

Q. What was the wheel base of these two models?
A. It was 330 cms. (i.e. 130 inches)

[My comment: the wheel base of both the Series 60 Special and the Eldorado Brougham was 130" in 1959 and 1960; since the Geneva Show takes place in March each year, and since the wheel base of the 1958 Series 60 Special is 133", obviously the Skylight coupe could not have been shown at Geneva in 1958; if  it was mounted  on the 130" wheel base chassis it must have been shown at Geneva in 1959]

Q.  Did the two foregoing models have air-suspension?
A. No, they had mechanical suspension with hydraulic shock absorbers

[My comment: in that case, these two cars were NOT mounted on the chassis of the bespoke Eldorado Brougham]

Q. Which of the two models above were exhibited first?
A. The Skylight coupe was exhibited in Geneva from 13 to 23 March, 1958, while the Skylight convertible was shown in Paris from 2 to 12 October 1958.

[My comment: once again, in 1958, the wheel base of the Series 60 Special was 133"; so, either the year of the Show was NOT 1958 or the the Skylight coupe was not mounted on a chassis with 130" wheel base]

Q. What was the chassis number of the Pininfarina Jacqueline coupe?
A. We do not have that information. The chassis no longer exists [suggesting that it did exist, at one time!]; it has been replaced today by a tubular structure.

[My comment: I think it most unlikely that this pushmobile was ever mounted on the Eldorado Brougham or any other Cadillac chassis for that matter.  This is the opinion also of  Frank Tetro who was commissioned, in 1996, to mount the pushmobile on the chassis of a 1960 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz]

Q. Is the Jacqueline coupe for sale?
A. No

[My comments: ...I was hoping I might just get lucky !]

Q. Did the Starlight and Jacqueline models have original Brougham wheels or only turbine wheel covers?
A. We do not have the answer to that question.

In my humble opinion, therefore, founded on these concise answers to my questions [and I have still the original correspondence with Pininfarina for anyone who is not convinced], the Cadillac Eldorado Brougham models with alleged custom bodies by Pininfarina ...all are a fallacy. For what reason would Pininfarina have installed the Jacqueline coupe first on an Eldorado Brougham (or any other Cadillac) chassis, and then have gone to the trouble (and expense) of removing it later and creating, instead, this pushmobile on a complex and probably costly tubular structure? And what became, thereafter, of the Eldorado Brougham chassis that was (said to have been) used?

My guess is that both the Starlight coupe with Plexiglas top (1959-60) and the Jacqueline coupe (1960-61) were pushmobiles.  Let's hear it from anyone who ever saw these two splendid creations move under their own power [...that is up to 1996, when Jacqueline was put on a pre-owned 1960 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz chassis].

Like many of us, I would have loved to find out that Jacqueline was, perhaps, the "missing" Eldorado Brougham  for 1959 [engine #100], the one that is supposed to have been dropped in the harbor at Detroit while it was being loaded on a freighter bound for Genoa, Italy. In fact, Cadillac factory records indicate without a shadow of doubt that only 99 chassis were built; EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM HAS BEEN ACCOUNTED FOR [check this page].

But, like you, I like to dream.

 

This photo of  the Jacqueline "pushmobile" is from Pininfarina's own archives     At the Paris Salon in October, 1961

 

 

1976 - 1996

During this period, I saw Jacqueline only once.  That was at the Geneva Motor Show, in Switzerland, in March 1991.  She was part of a display of special, custom cars exhibited by Barclay cigarettes [part of B.A.T., the British American Tobacco, group], under the attractive title: Barclay Fascination Cars. My press credentials enabled me to get a close look at the "car". I was able to crawl under it and discover for myself that there were, effectively, neither engine, nor transmission, nor any mechanical components of any kind on this "car".  Even the dashboard instruments were the dummy kind and the windshield and windows all were made of of plastic. Obviously this pushmobile never was intended to be driven. She consisted simply of the Pininfarina-built Jacqueline body shell mounted on an intricate, tubular framework with two trailer axles and wheels. The wheel covers were identical to those used on the 1959-60 Cadillac Series 60 Special and Eldorado models (i.e. the Brougham [sedan], Seville [coupe] and Biarritz [convertible].

In the mid-nineties, Jacqueline  was acquired from the PF museum in Italy, it seems, by Belgian Ferrari dealer, Philippe Lancksweert. I guess that his connections with PF, through their mutual business interest in Ferrari automobiles enabled him to secure the sale. I have no idea how much Jacqueline cost him but am guessing around $40K. 

The car was featured at a Christie's auction of Exceptional Motor Cars   in August, 1994 [Lot #086]. There is no indication of who the owner/vendor was at that time. Christie estimated it would fetch around $50,000-65,000, but the car apparently did not sell.

I got Philippe's name from Michel Kruch, in Brussels. I found Michel's number, quite by chance, through www.google.com; Michel had an ad running on the Lamborghini Web page in January, 2002. I called him, January 2002, and he filled in some more blanks for me. Michel said that he had acquired Jacqueline, later, from Philippe, in partnership with a French collector, Hervé Willems (whom I initially thought was of Belgian origin, on account of his name). Michel confirmed that Philippe L. had bought Jacqueline directly from PF; he confirmed also that the car was already painted gold at that time (i.e. the color of Jacqueline as featured in the Collectible Automobile article in January 1996 [see below]. Michel subsequently sold his share in the "car" to Hervé Willems, alias Irving Willems of Tarzana, CA.  Michel confirmed that Hervé (or Irving) subsequently had sold Jacqueline to Alain-Dominique Perrin, CEO of the French Cartier group.  That fact was confirmed directly to me, by Mr. Willems, in November 2006. Soon after that sale went through, Mr. Perrin commissioned Florida auto restorer, Frank Tetro, to make Jacqueline a drivable machine. That fact too was confirmed by Mr. Willems in 2006.

In these photos, I believe the car was still just a "pushmobile".  Note the 1959 Cadillac steering wheel

 

1996

The Article in Collectible Automobile
[January, 1996]

The photos published in CA, in January, 1996, show a gold-colored  Jacqueline, although she was originally painted ermine white. From the information I got from Michel Kruch, it appears that she was repainted in Italy, in the early nineties, before being sold to Philippe L. of Belgium.  All photos I have of Jacqueline [before publication of the CA article] show her to be ermine white. She was also still white when I saw her at the Geneva Motor Show  in March, 1991. As mentioned above, apparently she had been repainted "gold" by PF before she was sold to Mr. Lanksweert.

In the CA article, Jacqueline  was reported (correctly) to be owned by a collector in Tarzana, CA, by the name of Irving Willems [see previous paragraphs]; Irving is certainly easier to pronounce in the USA than "Hervé". The article mentions also a second, alleged 4-door Jacqueline model, said to have been also on show in Paris, in 1961. I have my doubts on that score, since I was there, but I will listen to anyone who can confirm the rumor ...and supply a picture! My belief is that the 4-door model to which the writer refers was a regular 1960 Eldorado Brougham, designed by Fleetwood, but also assembled by PF; that car may indeed have been also on display in Paris, although I don't remember having seen it there.

In all my contacts with Pininfarina, in the seventies, no "second" Jacqueline model was ever mentioned. Among the artist's drawings [top of this page] that depict the only known PF creations allegedly built on the Cadillac chassis, only one Jacqueline is shown. As may be seen in existing photos of that PF creation, she was fitted with the same "turbine-vane" wheel covers as used on all Series Sixty Special and Eldorado models (including the Eldorado Brougham) built in 1959 and 1960. Perhaps  PF hoped to sell GM/Cadillac on the idea of a PF designed Eldorado Brougham coupe for 1961 and subsequent years.

However, with the exception of the wheel covers, the instrument panel and a 1959 steering wheel, the car had no real, Cadillac "identity". Moreover, Cadillac had lost enough money on each Brougham sold from 1957 through 1960 to even consider prolonging the program after 1960.

At the time the CA article was published, this car was not yet "mobile"; it was still just a rolling chassis or, as its restorer said later, a pushmobile.

Jacqueline, after a repaint from white to gold (a job believed to have been done in the  Pininfarina  workshops) Note again the 1959 steering wheel (right) No sign of any spare wheel in this trunk !

 

 

The Conversion by Harbor Auto Restorations, Florida
[ summer and fall, 1996 ]

Mr. Perrin, who apparently bought Jacqueline from Hervé Willems, is well known in collector car circles. He is particularly fond of Ferraris and so it is possible he found out about Jacqueline through his Ferrari contacts. Soon after getting Jacqueline, he teamed up with auto restorer Frank Tetro of Harbor Auto Restorations, Pompano Beach, FL, with the intention of  breathing life into this pushmobile.  

At an estimated cost of some  $50,000, the father-and-son team of Frank and Tiano Tetro carefully and painstakingly mounted Jacqueline   onto a pre-owned 1960 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz chassis (although it seems that car had its power plant replaced at some time in its life with an earlier, regular 1959 Cadillac engine - not the "Q" type mounted in the Eldorado models). More details about this conversion are given below in the section entitled, "The Article in Sweden's Power Magazine".

I do not know the engine/chassis number of the donor car, but it must fall in the range 60E000001-60E142184. Mr. Arnaud Sene of Paris, France, the appraiser who inspected Jacqueline in November 1996, listed the VIN as 6929/061100. Where that number came from is a mystery; it is [was?] engraved on a copper plate affixed to the upper firewall surface with four self-tapping screws; it was in that location even before the "pushmobile" was motorized by Harbor Restorations in Florida.  According to Cadillac production records, the combination 6929 does, in fact, apply to the 1959 and 1960 Eldorado Brougham models; however, the engine/serial number 061100  falls outside the Brougham range for 1959 (the highest Brougham engine number for 1959 is 060824).  The factory built more than 80,000 additional units after those for the Brougham models had been pulled from the production line [by the way, the first 1959 Cadillac engine to come off the assembly line was put in the first 1959 Eldorado Brougham, i.e. car #1]. In 1960, all Brougham engines were pulled from among the first 20,000 units to be built [000019-019932].  The factory built more than 122,000 units in addition to those used for the Brougham models.

 

The French Appraisal Report
[November, 1996]

Jacqueline was appraised  in Paris, France, on November 25, 1996. The French rapport d'expertise [appraisal report]  #800273, incorporates some facts that contradict those in my possession [as an aside, I would like to say that Mr. Sene is a well -known auto appraiser; it was he who, around the same time, appraised the 1962, sea-green collectible VW Combi, named Menthe-à-l'Eau, belonging to my son, Philippe]. I was informed in an Email of August 1, 2001 from Mr. C. [you will learn about him later] that HE had ordered this report for a simple insurance valuation. He was critical of Mr. Sene's claimed level of expertise with "American" cars. Nevertheless, the obvious mistakes contained in the report doubtless were dictated by Mr.C. himself.

In his report, Mr. Sene asserts correctly that Jacqueline is a styling exercise by Pininfarina.  However, echoing the story published in CA, the appraiser asserts also that two Jacqueline models were built, both of them on the 1959 Eldorado Brougham chassis [wrong - there is only ONE Jacqueline and it was a "pushmobile" for more than 30 years].  Mr. Sene asserts also that the car he appraised is Jacqueline #1. Note that neither Pininfarina nor any of Jacqueline's subsequent owners can provide the slightest shred of evidence [documentary or photographic] to support the theories (a) that Jacqueline was built on a 1959 Eldorado Brougham chassis and (b) that two such cars were built. My gut feeling, on reading the appraisal, as stated already above, is that many of the "facts" it contains probably were dictated to Mr. Sene by Jacqueline's (alleged) owner, Mr. C., about whom we shall learn more, below.

As to there being one or two cars, again, on page 43 of the book Cadillac Allanté by Giorgio Bocca [Automobilia, © 1986 - ISBN 88-85058-83-3] we are told, in reference to Jacqueline, that this handsome coupe [is], one of a kind [my emphasis]. The Allanté book states further that Jacqueline ... is part of the in-house collection at the Pininfarina Bodyworks. This confirms that Jacqueline was still in Italy in 1985-86. By the way, when I saw Jacqueline on the Barclay Fascination Cars stand at the Geneva Motor Show in March, 1991, she  was still painted white. I assume, therefore, that she was repainted the current gold hue after that date, that is between 1991 and 1995, before the sale to Philippe Lanksweert and before publication of the first article in Collectible Automobile in January, 1996.  I suspect Pininfarina may have upgraded Jacqueline with a fresh, new paint job in the early nineties, possibly with a view to selling her.

The appraiser further asserts that the car was first licensed [immatriculée] in 1961. I have my doubts on that score too, mainly because I am convinced that Jacqueline was an engineless show car, a pushmobile, until 1996. There is a slight possibility she might have been assimilated to an "automobile" by the French customs and licensing authorities, who may have issued a temporary tourist tag [the red "TT" or "IT"plates] for the duration of the 1961 Paris Salon. But then, again, if Jacqueline had been licensed in 1961, there would be an official record, either in France or in Italy. None has been uncovered.

As previously stated, Jacqueline's current VIN is shown on the French appraisal form as 6929/061100, which matches the engraved, copper ID plate on the firewall.  If Jacqueline's engine were effectively a Brougham engine from 1959, its number would be preceded by the code 59P (if she were mounted on a Brougham chassis for 1960, the engine number would start with 60P). In my opinion, therefore, someone with inadequate knowledge of Cadillac's chassis/engine/body numbering system may have tried to fabricate a plausible Eldorado Brougham serial number, simply to add credence to the myth that Jacqueline was effectively built on such a chassis. 

It was not before summer 2006 that I was able to view the original (?) ID tag on the car. It it is not a regular, aluminum, Cadillac ID plate, but an engraved copper plate, screwed on rather than riveted to the firewall. I still have not been able to get the number of the engine block, but we know the motor came from a 1959 Cadillac although at the tme it was decided to motorize Jacqueline,  it was mounted in a rough, second-hand 1960 Eldorado Biarritz!  I tried a number of times to get clarification from the French appraiser, in Paris, but the telephone number shown on his appraisal appears to be incorrect.

Like the writer of the Collectible Automobile article published almost one year earlier, Mr. Sene asserts also that this car is one of two built by PF on the 1959 Eldorado Brougham chassis; I assume he got that information either from the CA article or, more likely, from the person who commissioned the appraisal. He says: ...two Cadillac Jacqueline models were built on the 1959 Eldorado Brougham chassis; this one, car #1, featured headlights installed in the front grille, as well as wrap-around tail-lights. He asserts also that the car was built in 1959/60 and first licensed ["immatriculée"] in 1961; however, as I said before, this car could not possibly have been licensed as an "automobile" in 1961, considering it had no engine or transmission until 1996.

The appraisal gives an odometer reading of 00010 miles [that was in November 1996]; he states in addition that the car had been completely mechanically restored [restauration intégrale de l'ensemble de la mécanique], that it was in excellent working order, had new tires but had not yet been through the French technical inspection (the buyer's agent - the irascible Mr. C., below, asserted in August 2001 that the car could pass Les Mines - France's DOT -  without a hitch ...but I doubt it very much. The interior was described as restored and in perfect condition, as were also the paint, chrome and accessories. The body was described as generally in very good condition. There is no way to tell, from this report, that the car was initially a pushmobile for more than 30 years and that the chassis, motor, transmission, instruments, etc. were taken, in 1996,  from a pre-owned Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz with a 1959 Cadillac motor.

In a closing paragraph, Mr. Sene declared that this car was a styling exercise by Pininfarina for a possible Eldorado Brougham coupe; obviously, this information came from the CA article published almost a year earlier.  We know that the Cadillac Motor Car Division of GM was losing money on every Brougham built since 1957; it is highly doubtful, therefore, that the company would seriously have entertained the idea of a new Brougham after 1960, and especially not a 2-door car [the Brougham name per se, implies a 4-door automobile].

 

The Article in Sweden's Power Magazine
[ Issue dated December 1996 - February 1997 ]

Not too long after the conversion had been successfully accomplished in Florida, an article about the "new", motorized Jacqueline appeared in Sweden's Power Magazine, which specializes in collectible American cars, including muscle cars and customs.

The title of that 5-page article was Cadillac Eldorado Brougham - 1961. It included more than a dozen color photos.  Although I am not familiar with Swedish, I did get the gist  of the opening sentence: pf den store Parissalongen 1961 stood en locket guldfärgad Cadillac Coupe Med svepande former ... en NY Cadillac Med europeiska linger - i.e. "at the Paris salon, in 1961, there stood a luscious, sweeping, gold-colored Cadillac coupe ...a new Cadillac with European lines."  The writer apparently did not know that Jacqueline was originally white, NOT "gold".

Here is a short summary of that article, in English, supplied kindly by Swedish auto enthusiast, Rikard Stenberg:

The [Power Magazine] article in 1996 covers the restoration of this car by Harbor Auto Restorations in Florida. The car had been left there by the owner of  Cartier, the jeweler, in Paris France (who had just bought it from a car collector in California [Irving Willems]).

They [Harbor Auto Restorations] spent 2000 hours on the car during a period of six months. The car was just a shell/mock-up with no engine, transmission, suspension, steering, electrical system, etc. The car didn't even have a frame -  just two trailer axles.

They sacrificed a genuine 1960 Eldorado Biarritz¹ for the conversion, taking all the necessary parts from it. They even had to make new floor pans for the car as they [i.e. those on the pushmobile] were completely flat. They even moved in the guts/interior of all the instruments from the 1960 Biarritz to Jacqueline [which, until then, had only dummy instruments]; they also had to make new window mechanisms as the original car just had permanently attached side windows.

Harbor Auto Restorations claimed that Jacqueline's roof is stainless steel and came from a 1960 Eldorado Brougham [author's note: only the 1957-58 Eldorado Brougham models had a factory-installed stainless-steel roof]. The front windshield, the wheels and part of the instrumentation (but with no working parts inside them) also came from the 1960 Eldorado Biarritz.
___________________________________________________
¹  Enthusiast Diego Montefusco, our contact in Italy, pointed out in 12/2005 that the engine (as it appears in the Swedish mag) is clearly not a 1960 unit since the oil filter is next to the power steering pump (1960 engines had the filter in the lower part of the engine block);  he thinks this block may be from 1959 [he is right!], but since he is not familiar with earlier engines he can't tell for sure.  However, he is sure it's NOT a 1960.   Also, the air filter housing is NOT from an Eldo engine, since - beside being gold in color - the correct Eldo filter housing has two "intake horns", while this has just one.  Diego is even  starting to doubt if it's an Eldo engine at all ...and it turns out he is right; it's a regular 1959 engine with  a 4-bbl carb.

 

1997 - 2000

Jacqueline was on show at the Bagatelle Concours d'Elégance in Paris, in 1998 and again in 2000. She was also the star of the show at Pebble Beach, CA, in 1999, at a Pininfarina special showing entitled Concorso Italiano (the Italian Concours d'Elégance).

In preparation for that millennium show at Pebble Beach in 1999, PF contacted me, in Switzerland [just before Gita and I emigrated to South Carolina] to ask if I might know the whereabouts of any of the six PF models described at the beginning of this page. The only cars of whose location I was vaguely aware at the time were the 1930 V-16 roadster, the 1953 2-seater roadster built for Luigi Chinetti, NY Ferrari importer, and Jacqueline [which I firmly believed at the time was still in Turin].

Of the show, Chairman Sergio Pininfarina of Industrie Pininfarina - S.p.A. said: I am very pleased that Cadillac, major sponsor of the Concorso Italiano, has dedicated an important part of this event to highlighting the historic creative and industrial collaboration between Cadillac and Pininfarina. Working on Cadillac automobiles has always inspired us to reach for designs that express the distinctiveness of this singular marque. We at Pininfarina are proud of our historic close association with the prestigious Cadillac brand. I am particularly enthusiastic about this relationship because of the technical excellence it has produced and the personal relationships that have developed.

GM Vice-President and General Manager of the Cadillac Motor Car Division, John F. Smith added: We are pleased to use this setting, surrounded by the many historic and beautiful cars here at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elégance, to celebrate this long-lasting and beneficial relationship. 

A number of Cadillacs built as a result of the "relationship" between Cadillac and Pininfarina were on show there including, inter alia, the unique 1930 V-16 boat-tail roadster, the regular 1959 and 1960 Eldorado Brougham models, a number of Allanté roadster models and, finally,  Jacqueline.  I understand that the renowned Italian coach builder had been able to borrow the former pushmobile from its then alleged owner [Cartier Chairman, Alain-Dominique Perrin].

In line with that showing, Cadillac collaborated with Pininfarina to publish a beautiful (and rare) booklet entitled Cadillac & Pininfarina - an Enduring Relationship.  Illustrated with many photos, mainly from the PF archives, the brochure relates the alleged long "collaboration" between the American and Italian auto giants.  It is asserted that it had begun some sixty years earlier, in 1931, when the young Battista Farina (nicknamed Pinin - the "little one") had been commissioned by an Indian Maharaja to build a boat-tailed speedster (for tiger hunting!) on the bespoke V-16 chassis.  It is my opinion, however, that there was no "collaboration" between Cadillac and Battista for this project; Cadillac merely supplied the chassis and engine.

The "collaboration" apparently continued on into the nineties with the manufacture of the  PF-designed Cadillac Allanté roadster.  This part is factual,  but most of the filler-material in between is highly exaggerated. I had an Italian friend inquire about the statement: Pininfarina designed and built one-off  ["off" what?] special bodies on Cadillac chassis, especially [my emphasis] for use by Hollywood stars and magnates. The PR people in Turin were unable to produce a single  name of any such "Hollywood star" or "magnate", nor any archival photo of any such special body.

Excerpt from the booklet Cadillac & Pininfarina

 

The text continues: The coachbuilder also produced a number of show cars using Cadillac mechanical underpinnings such as a two-seat convertible in 1954 and a four-seat in 1958. So far as I know, the 2-seater convertible was NOT a show car; it was a regular customer order, long believed to have been commissioned by New York Ferrari importer, Luigi Chinetti, and built (completed) in 1954 on a Series 62 Cadillac chassis for 1953. Information surfaced in 2007 indicating that this very special, easily recognizable car may have belonged [before Chinetti?] to King Leopold of Belgium. Indeed, the King was involved in a spectacular car accident between San Biaggio and Cortina d'Ampezzo, in the Italian Alps, on country road #SS51. The date of the accident is not known and it seems that the accident was not reported in the (world) press, perhaps because it was the second time the King had gone off the road in a car. The fist time, in 1934, his wife Queen Astrid tragically had lost her life. Look at the photos below, taken at the crash site; the car the King was driving in Italy looks identical to PF's custom 2-seat convertible.

Left and center: the overturned car; that circular front grille opening is unmistakably PF Right:  this is an upside-down view of the actual grille of the 1953-54 custom PF roadster; unless PF built TWO identical roadsters, I would say that the overturned wreck and the PF special used later?) by Luigi Chinetti are one and the same car

 

As to the 4-seater PF special, i.e. the Skylight convertible [which is more like a 6-seater], it does indeed fall into the "show car" category; it is illustrated above (second image box, central pair, RH side). The latter is believed to have had Cadillac mechanical underpinnings. Its sister car [they formed a pair in 1958], was the Skylight coupe to its left, above. Rediscovered in New York, many years later, it was found to have been mounted on a 1957 Cadillac chassis and drive train.  I am convinced that Cadillac had no hand in either of these projects, other than having manufactured the Cadillac mechanical underpinnings that were used (without any Cadillac involvement) to power the PF design.

In the same paragraph, we read: A notable 1961 show car was a handsome coupe built on a Cadillac chassis [again, my emphasis] named Jacqueline in homage to then-First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. In this specific case, the evidence is indisputable:  Jacqueline was never motorized [that is, until 1996]. This fact was confirmed by the professional automobile restorers at Harbor Restorations, in Florida, who in 1996 were faced with the arduous task of fitting the Jacqueline body shell onto the chassis of a pre-owned 1960 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz.  The floor pan was absolutely flat and could not have accommodated a Cadillac drive shaft of that period or earlier. The instrument panel was unwired and none of the instruments ever had been functional; the steering wheel was bolted in place under the dash; there were no holes nor any openings in the firewall for connecting any mechanical components, such as steering, brakes, electrical wiring.

I wonder who - at Cadillac - did the proofreading for the final publication of that PF booklet. It says, inter alia: the relationship between Harley Earl and Battista Farina produced the evolutionary design and manufacturing of the ultra luxurious Series 2 Eldorado Brougham during the 1959 and 1960 model years. Cadillac shipped chassis from Detroit to Italy where bodies designed and built by Pininfarina craftsmen [again, my emphasis] were installed. Later, it adds: Pininfarina was responsible for the redesign of a second edition [Eldorado Brougham], including production [building?] of the bodywork and final assembly in Italy... The fact is that Earl was retired by the time Phase 2 of the Brougham program was implemented and, secondly, the 1959 and 1960 bodies were DESIGNED BY FLEETWOOD. They used the stock Cadillac, 130" wheel base chassis, including most of the mechanical components of stock models of those years.  These included the floor pan [Jacqueline's floor pan was totally FLAT], lower body interior panels, seat structures, instrument panel, dashboard, door pillars, hinges, inner door panels [these were modified but used stock hardware], lower front bumper, grille blades [but not the bullets, for a cleaner less cluttered look], headlamp bezels, rear wheel skirts, wheel covers [not the cast alloy turbine wheels used on the 1957-58 Broughams] and a modified lower rear bumper. The forward-opening hood was an exclusive design; it was only 45 inches wide compared to the hood of the stock Cadillac models that stretched to 61 inches. None of the body panels nor any of the glass could be interchanged with stock Cadillac models.

The Cadillac chassis and other usable hardware [crated separately], including many pre-formed body panels, were shipped to Genoa, Italy (located about 100 miles west of Turin). There, Pininfarina merely did the final fitting and assembly at the new Via Lesna industrial complex, using the clay bucks Fleetwood had built and sent over, In his recollections about the 1959 Brougham, Pierre Ollier, a retired GM-Cadillac designer who was closely associated with its design and who owned two ’59 Broughams in the late seventies, mentioned how it had taken three weeks of negotiation with the Italian customs before the Brougham clay models could enter the country; at that time, a law prohibited the import of plaster objects, to protect Italy’s statue industry!

The cars were individually assembled on a stationary production line [photo below]. Where required, sheet metal was cut and formed on male wooden forms then welded together. Seams were hammer welded without the use of solder. Potential rust spots were filled with sealer. Chrome trim was made from brass castings. Protective splash pans and flanges were placed under the car to prevent the rocker panel from scraping on steep driveways. The hood, trunk and doors all fit perfectly and tolerances along the panel edges did not vary a fraction of an inch. However, because of all the hand-fitting that went into the manufacture, it was made clear in the service instructions that certain body parts, including sheet metal and moldings may have to be reworked if replacement is necessary. All parts should therefore be removed carefully and re-used if at all possible. Any new part must be matched against the removed part to make certain that it is identical in shape and size before installation is attempted.

[Left] preformed body panels were shipped to Turin, Italy, to be assembled and fitted [Photo: Pierre Ollier collection] [Center] stationary assembly line at Pinin Farina's plant in Turin; three Broughams nearing completion [Photo: PF archives] [Right] A badge like this one identifies the 1959 and 1960 Eldorado Brougham models; no mention of Pininfarina here

Sure, it all looks good when you just skim over the Pininfarina text but, when you look at the detail, the impression is that PF is pulling on a blanket of which Cadillac deserves to have the majority share. Surprisingly, there is no PF badge on the car [have you ever seen a car "designed and built by PF" that did not carry the company emblem?].  A small, chrome plaque bearing the words Brougham, by Cadillac, on a blue enamel, cloisonné background, graces the front fenders just ahead of the front doors, above the chrome side spear on the 1959 Eldorado Broughams.

As regards Jacqueline, the PF booklet mentioned above describes her in these terms: The low tapered line highlights the lightness of the roof panel on this Pininfarina-designed one-off body [my emphasis] that debuted at the Paris Motor Show [in 1961]. Note that PF asserts (as I do) that only one of these was made (cf.: "one-off" - more correctly "one of") and that the word "body" is used in lieu of "automobile", or "car", or "vehicle".

Pebble Beach - 1999

 

 

2001

The Article in RetroViseur [May]

The appraisal by Mr. Sene was still fresh in my mind (and on my desk) when a third article was published about Jacqueline in the French auto-hobby magazine RétroViseur,  #153, in May 2001. In a 5-page spread by Jean-Eric Raoul, illustrated with many recent photos by Dingo, it was claimed, inter alia (and in error) that 220 Eldorado Brougham models were assembled by Pinin Farina in 1959 and 1960; the correct number is 200 units. The article mentions also the PF Starlight coupe [with Plexiglas roof], shown at the 1959 Paris show:

The Pininfarina designed Starlight coupe, also with Brougham look-alike wheel covers

 

There is reference in the article to a single Jacqueline coupe on show at the 1961 Paris Salon; this contradicts the story as told in Collectible Automobile but confirms my own position. It is asserted also (as I too maintain) that Jacqueline was a pushmobile, i.e. a body shell on wheels with no mechanical components to speak of. 

The writer asserted also that the now gold-colored car had never been repainted. That does not tie in with the fact that Pininfarina had confirmed to me in 1975 that the show prototype was painted ermine white [not a color easily confused with gold].  PF also had supplied at that time a color slide [top row, below] as well as some original ads that had been shot in Turin. I can assert also that  Jacqueline was still painted white when I saw her at the Geneva Motor Show in March, 1991.

From what I have ascertained since, Jacqueline may have been repainted "gold" at the factory, around the early nineties, when PF decided to upgrade the old paint job, possibly with a view to selling the car.  

These photos appear to show Jacqueline in different colors; in fact they all are of the same, white car, but taken in different locations, under different lighting conditions and probably color-processed using different techniques; the top two images are from a 6x6cm color slide supplied to me in the mid-seventies by PF's consumer relations department; second row, left, is from a period ad for Pininfarina coach work; second row, right, is from another PF ad that appeared in the Swiss annual Automobil-Revue it seems obvious from the background that these two photos were taken on the same day and in the same location; on the third row you can see two further  publicity shots of a white Jacqueline (I believe the model in the emerald green dress is the same one seen in the RH photo above it; the one on the left features the same blonde, Italian (?) model; the B&W photo, immediately above,  is from the book Cadillac Allante by Giorgio Bocca; none of these pictures show a gold-colored car; despite the recent rantings and ravings of "Mr. C", who claims to know more about Jacqueline than me, I am convinced that there only ever was ONE Jacqueline and this is it ...before it got repainted from white to gold.

 

According to the writer, Jacqueline spent "many years" in a Belgian "museum".  The exact period and precise location were not specified but, from my conversation with Michel Kruch, in January 2002, Jacqueline could not have been in Belgium more than a couple of years.  I know for a fact that Jacqueline was, for most of her life, a part of PF's own museum collection in Turin, Italy.

At a date not specified in the article, it is said that an un-named collector had seen the car in the Belgian museum [what museum? - Michel Kruch says the car never was in any museum in Belgium - if anybody (especially any Belgian enthusiasts) ever saw this car in a Belgian "museum" please let me know!], became interested in it and decided to breathe life into it.  I assume that collector was Hervé Willems (aka Irving Willems) of Tarzana, CA, and that he saw  the car in Philippe Lancksweert's Ferrari dealership in Brussels. Irving, Philippe and Michel form a trio of Ferrari enthusiasts and racing aficionados that apparently goes back a long way.

There is no indication in the French article how or when the car got from Tarzana, CA, to Harbor Auto Restoration in Pompano Beach, FL. From Information I got first hand from Irving Willems, in November 2006, it was Alain-Dominique Perrin, CEO (or former CEO?) of France's Cartier group who bought the car from him (Willems) in 1996 and had it shipped to Florida for the mechanical transformation ...or should I say transmogrification?

With considerable difficulty, the body shell was mounted on a regular 1960 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz chassis powered by a regular 1959 Cadillac motor, by Tiano and Frank Tetro (see above). The tasks accomplished by Messrs. Tetro include fitting a fuel tank, dashboard instruments, windshield and all windows [these were made of Plexiglas on the PF showcar], as well as working lights all round and power window mechanisms. No mean task!

According to the RetroViseur article, Jacqueline's owner [in May 2001] was Mr. Benoît Couturier, a Paris resident.  I wrote that person in July 2001, asking for some more information about Jacqueline and was hoping to get some clarification for the apparently conflicting information I had got directly from Pininfarina in the mid-seventies. I did get some snippets of information from Mr. C. ...but mainly I got a lot of needless sarcasm! One thing is certain he NEVER owned the car but was simply an agent for Alain-Dominique Perrin. 

 

The French Connection
[July-December, 2001]

Mr. C. sent me a couple of faxes (in July/August 2001) and a couple of e-Mails (in November/ December, 2001). His droll sense of humor as well as his caustic and sarcastic tone were immediately apparent. In his first fax message, for example, he asserted that all the information I had on Jacqueline was just hearsay and gossip by people who only think they know the facts; he said I was wandering about in a thick fog and that I was the world's champion at reporting half-truths!

Might I say, in my defense, that in the Foreword to The (new) Cadillac Database©, it is stated quite plainly that "facts" from different sources sometimes are contradictory.  Included here, therefore, are only those "facts" drawn from the source(s) which, in my opinion, seem the most reliable.  It is for you, the user, to point out any errors, omissions or inconsistencies you may come across so that, together, we can improve the Database and thus better serve the hobby.

Subsequently, I learned from a reliable source that Mr. C. is indeed a very "difficult" person to deal with.  I learned from the same source that Mr. C. is just a used car salesman, although he does cater mainly to wealthy clients with a taste for high-end classic and collectible cars.  Among his client's are some European "big names", including a former wealthy former neighbor of mine who has requested anonymity¹.   Mr. C. apparently sold him a 1957-58 Eldorado Brougham.  At any rate, based on my own  dealings with him, I would say  Mr. C. is an auto salesman to avoid at all costs! When Mr. C. found out I had been in contact with Alain-Dominique Perrin, he had to come clean and admit that he (Mr. C.) never was the owner of Jacqueline. My guess is that he was merely acting as Mr. Perrin's agent (in fact, this was confirmed to me directly by Irving Willems, in November 2006).  Mr. C. initially claimed that HE had bought Jacqueline from Hervé [Irving] Willems in 1994 or 1995. In fact, and this was again confirmed later by Irving Willems, it was Alain-Dominique Perrin who bought the car; that was in 1996. Mr. C. later admitted that Jacqueline was not built initially on a 1959 Eldorado Brougham chassis but had been put later (1996) on a regular 1959 Cadillac chassis (it was a 1960 model, according to the Florida outfit that did the work). He mentioned a single, 4-barrel carb, whereas the '59 Brougham had the so-called "Tri-Power" unit (three double-barreled carbs). He told me that Frank Tetro had all the details. This was indeed confirmed to me, later, directly by Mr. Tetro.

Well, Mr. C., according to Frank, with whom I spoke on the telephone, the engine and chassis are NOT from a 1959 Cadillac but from a 1960 Eldorado Biarritz. Consequently, it should have the tri-power set-up. On the other hand, recent photos of the engine compartment (taken in June, 2006) show a regular 1959 325HP engine (not a "Q"-type 345HP motor as used on all Eldorados, including the Brougham). The plot thickens!

Mr. C. said he was "absolutely convinced" that there were two Jacqueline prototypes (did he get that "reliable information" - because it was in print - from the article in Collectible Automobile?) ; he claimed that "his" car was #1.  He suggested that the one I saw in Geneva (i.e. the one from Pininfarina's own museum in Turin and that was widely photographed by the press in 1961/62) was not "his" car.  So, then, by Mr. C.'s account, the Paris show car must have been #2. Take that with a pinch of salt! 

I am beginning to seriously doubt the ability of Mr. C., despite all his ranting and raving, to provide the world with any reliable, factual information about Jacqueline. He even asserted that the Jacqueline shown at the Paris Salon in 1961 was NOT white and referred me to a photo in a book on Cadillac published by France's EPA group.  I have in my vast Cadillac book collection the one published in 1985 by E.P.A. [Editions Presse Audiovisuel] entitled Cadillac - Toute l'Histoire; it is a translation of the book by Walter F. Robinson Jr. and carries ISBN # 2-85120-236-7. This book does NOT include any photo of Jacqueline [either in color nor in B&W]. Does any reader have the ISBN of the other (alleged) E.P.A. book to which Mr. C. refers? Could it be Les Américaines, by Nory and Martinez? My copy of that one unfortunately has remained in Switzerland. I suspect that the photo to which he refers depicts a regular 1959 or 1960 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham and NOT Jacqueline.

With respect to Jacqueline's original color, I have a copy of Pininfarina's Consolidated Annual Report for 2000 in which, on page 6, is an original factory photo of Jacqueline  in the company of a charming model dressed in an emerald green gown [see above group of pictures]. Note the second photo of Jacqueline, with the same model, gown and car, taken at night.  If that car isn't white, then I'm a monkey's uncle !

It was confirmed by my Swiss friend from Scottsdale that Jacqueline's last owner was a wealthy French businessman with an extensive collection of Ferrari models (this was Alain-Dominique Perrin - I had read about Mr. Perrin in an American hobby magazine, a few years earlier; I knew that he owned also a 1953 Cadillac Eldorado, and perhaps others too). He (my friend in Scottsdale) mentioned what he referred to as "a clique of European high-rollers" who congregated at the annual Barrett-Jackson collectible-car auctions in his town; these apparently were Messrs. Perrin, Willems, Kruch, Lancksweert and possibly also Mr. C. In my opinion we could be dealing here with a sort of cabal, intended to boost to new heights the motorized version of  Jacqueline, originally just a pushmobile.

One of Cartier's office complexes is located near Fribourg, in Switzerland; I knew this from driving past it frequently when we still lived in that country. I was able to get the address off the Internet and shot off a letter Mr. Perrin asking him kindly to confirm that he was, indeed, the current owner of Jacqueline. I received a reply from Mr. Perrin, dated January 21, 2002.  At that time he was in London. He said: I can only confirm what Mr. Couturier has told you, i.e. that the Cadillac Jacqueline has been sold and that the [new] owner wishes to remain anonymous."  As to my comments about Mr. C's rudeness towards me, as well as his manifold and manifestly untrue assertions about Jacqueline, Mr. Perrin said he did not know Mr. C. very well and recommended that I resolve the issue directly with him.

Mr. Perrin's assertion in January 2002, confirming that he had sold Jacqueline in 2001, does not tie in with the information I got five years later (in November, 2006) directly from Irving Willems who asserted that Perrin had retained ownership of Jacqueline up to 2006 and that he (Willems) had bought her back directly from Perrin that year. The plot thickens even more.
_________________________________________________________________
¹ At one time I thought Jacqueline might be in the possession of this former neighbor as he had bought already a Cadillac Eldorado Brougham from Mr. C.  The dates of the possible transactions
    seem close enough together to  justify this assumption (summer,  2001). This wealthy collector  is very discreet about the cars in his collection.  I know  he has an early V-16 phaeton, Fleetwood
    style 4380 all-weather phaeton as well as a customized 1959 Eldorado Seville town car alleged to heve been commissioned by the late King Farouk of Egypt [but now known to be the work of an
    amateur  customizer from Baltimore, MD].  Jacqueline would have been a probable and interesting addition to that eclectic collection. But, in all honesty, Mr. C.,  I don't really care WHO
    owns Jacqueline; my only concern is that the TRUTH be revealed!

 

Mr. C. goes "off his rocker"
[December, 2001]

My innocent query to Mr. Perrin put  Mr. C., into a fuming rage!  Mr. Perrin, it seems, had passed on my letter to him and this had set the cat among the pigeons!  Mr. C. contended that Perrin sold Jacqueline in May, 2001 [this ties in with Perrin's own statement in January, 2002]. Read  on, however, and you will discover a surprising "conclusion" to the true (?) story of Jacqueline's ownership.  

I still cannot believe the tenor of the fax I got from Mr. C. on December 14, 2001. I wonder what could have been eating him?  I suspect he was very unhappy that I should have got so much (factual) information about Jacqueline and that my Cadillac Database© on the Internet was making all that information widely available to Cadillac enthusiasts around the world ...even some who might have a special interest in Jacqueline. 

Mr. C. seemed to prefer his "myths" [read "lies"] to my FACTS about Jacqueline! Those "lies" obviously were intended to attempt to boost Jacqueline's value in the eyes of  potential (unsuspecting) buyers.  Such buyers might not be too happy to find out that the story spun by Mr. C. is just that:  a good story!

Needless to say, I rarely receive communications couched in such aggressive, threatening language, although I do admit that my apparent single-mindedness of purpose does seem, on occasion, to get some people's hackles up. The people who criticize me, however, often are the very owners of what I shall call "doubtful" Cadillacs with whose history I happen to be familiar and that I see occasionally described "inaccurately", to say the least (e.g. the Hartmann V-16 roadster of 1937, the so-called Vatican V-16 of 1938, a couple of Eldorado Brougham models, the alleged "unique" 1959 Motorama custom special with in-dash TV, the equally alleged "Farouk" 1959 Cadillac Eldorado town car, and now Jacqueline). People don't like the truth if there's a chance it might diminish in any way the profit potential of their special "baby".

The only "crime" of which I stand accused, as an auto historian, member of the Society of Automotive Historians (SAH) and compiler/keeper of The (new) Cadillac Database© on behalf of the Cadillac-LaSalle Club, Inc. (CLC) Museum and Research Center, is that of keeping said Database as factual, accurate and up-to-date as possible, for the benefit of its hundreds of thousands of users [between its inception in May, 1997 and the latest update of this page, the site has had more than three-quarters of a million "hits"].

What a strange fellow, this Mr. C !   Judging by his communications to me (excerpts below) and others that he has exchanged in the past with a fellow Porsche enthusiast and friend of mine in Paris, in my opinion he shows all the symptoms of suffering from a serious psychotic condition.  At the risk of incurring his wrath before a duly constituted court of law, here or in France (where I travel frequently) I will let you form your own opinion as to his "medical condition." Here is what this very irate gentleman (?) had to say [my comments are incorporated directly in the text, in a brown font and in square brackets]:

December 14, 2001

Mr. Saunders, I thought my last message about the Cadillac Jacqueline was quite clear; it appears I am mistaken and that you are still "poking your nose in other people's business" [Mr. C. uses an unpleasant French neologism: fouillasser]. Mr.  Perrin has passed your letter on to me; you will never get any reply from him, Mr.-know-it-all-but-not-quite. Cartier is no longer at that address and Mr. Perrin is no longer  Cartier's CEO [indeed, the new CEO is Bernard Fornas, but Mr. Perrin did get my letter at that address and he did have the courtesy to reply].  You never went to Tarzana and you never met Hervé [I never said that I did; I said I had "re-discovered" Jacqueline in Tarzana, CA - through the article published in Collectible Automobile in January, 1996].  Mr. Perrin doesn't give a damn [in French: il se moque complètement] about your address in Scottsdale [I had told Mr. Perrin that I hoped we might meet one day at one of the annual Barrett-Jackson auctions there]. He has nothing to tell you about Jacqueline. The car was sold in May 2001 to someone whose name neither I nor Mr. Perrin will ever reveal to you¹ [my emphasis].  As regards the car's history, I already gave you the details once. Please forget us and the Cadillac [did Mr. C. actually believe that after sending me this venomous epistle, I would actually want to "forget" him and the Cadillac; the only purpose it served was to pique my interest even further]. Please don't waste time answering [this e-Mail]; there will be no further communication from this end [he did write again, 48 hours later!].  I hope that I have been very clear about your "research" [his quotation marks].  SO STOP EVERYTHING [his threatening emphasis].
____________________________________________________
¹  I did find out the name of the "new" owner again ...in the summer of 2006.  Read on !

Well, one thing is clear:  Alain-Dominique Perrin obviously did own Jacqueline at one time, just as I had surmised. I opine also that he may have become suspicious that "she" was not all her vendor had made her out to be. As may be seen, above, the "expert" appraisal done in Paris in 1996 is at best inaccurate, at worst blatantly untruthful.

Until I found out more information, in the summer of 2006,  I had to accept Mr. C's word that Jacqueline had effectively been sold again in May, 2001. As I said  in a previous update, I expected we would hear from the "new" owner in good time. And so it came to pass!  By the way, it is rumored that Mr. Perrin parted with much of his classic auto collection (including Jacqueline).

I told Mr. C. I could not understand his ire. I had concluded from the tone of his first two messages that he simply lacked basic good manners. However, his obvious desire to "shut me up" suggested to me that he might be trying to hide something. I assured him that I did NOT intend to (nor ever would) ever give up researching the history of any car that I chose and that I thought was worthy of interest (...or that was plain suspicious), nor would I ever refrain from publishing my findings in the Cadillac Database  if I believed the facts to be true and essential to proper historical accuracy; it was my goal also to try to protect potential buyers from unscrupulous or untruthful auto vendors. I assured him that I would continue, as always, to keep secret the identity of any Cadillac or LaSalle owner who wished to remain anonymous but, as to verifiable facts or previously published information about a specific car or person, this information would remain public. My goal, I said, was to gather and to publish only facts (or information from reliable sources) about the collectible Cadillacs we all own or admire.

After asserting two days earlier that he would never write again, Mr. C. e-mailed me again (December 16, 2001), threatening me with legal action if I ever dared to publish again a single word about the Cadillac Jacqueline. Obviously he wanted to "muzzle the press".  Here is my own translation from his French original:

December 16, 2001

Sir [very official, very polite], following your reply, I have sent a copy to Mr. PERRIN and another to Jacqueline's current owner. The language of your communication is considered threatening [orig.: (ce) sont des menaces pures et simples].  Be warned that we forbid you to publish anything [else?] about the Cadillac Jacqueline [is that the Royal "we"or does he include Mr. Perrin and Jacqueline's new owner, as well as himself?].  At the slightest publication, despite our opposition, we will produce your threatening [???] letter [in court?] and we will file a suit as appropriate.  Please stop harassing us with your inquiries about private property without due authorization. I hope to never hear from you again.

Needless to say, Mr. C., I am still trembling in my boots!

Naturally enough, Mr. C's  uncalled for "epistolary aggression" of December 14 and 16, 2001 simply piqued my interest even more and I have continued tirelessly to investigate this former pushmobile with the intention of getting all the facts out in the open.  A car like this can not easily be hidden away, nor can it easily hide its true heritage.  So, Mr. C., I guess I'll be seeing you in court for having dared to print, in this Database, more than just "a single word" about Jacqueline !  

The current owner (summer 2006) has confirmed the change in ownership. Read on !

 

(Temporary) Conclusion (Summer 2006)

I was hoping to pick up some up-to-date information about the car during the 2002 and 2003 venues of the well-known annual Barrett-Jackson auctions at Scottsdale, AZ.  However, I heard from my friend there that although the major players in the Jacqueline "saga" were indeed in attendance again at the auction ...the car was NOT.  So perhaps it had indeed been sold in Paris and the new owner did not want it in Scottsdale.

In June, 2006, a Belgian friend of mine was in Antwerp to pick up a car he had shipped over from the USA. He was very surprised to find, in one of the hangars at the docks, the car in the photo-block below.  We talked at length about his discovery when I spent a few days at his home in Brugge while attending the Grand International Cadillac Meet in Zeebrugge, the first weekend in September that year.

The car was being shipped to a Ferrari dealer in California.  Ferrari?  Remember Philippe Lancksweert and Michel Kruch from Belgium? Indeed, the consignee was a company called Heritage Classics on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood, California. Some CLC members who attended the Cadillac Grand National in Hollywood, this year, may even have visited the place. 

I inquired of Heritage Classics if the car belonged to them and if it might be for sale. They answered "yes" to the first part of the question and "no" to the second. Then, a few days later, I got an eMail from the "new" owner ...Mr. Hervé [Irving] Willems!

Wasn't he the guy who bought the pushmobile from the Belgians, Lancksweert and Kruch, back in the early nineties? It seems that Willems is the head honcho at  Heritage Classics.  My friend in Scottsdale confirmed that he, Kruch, Lancksweert and Perrin (and possibly Couturier too) all are "Ferrari buddies."  In 2004, Willems and Lancksweert drove together a 275 GTB Ferrari  in the classic TourAuto, a GT-class annual European rally; in this thirteenth edition the participants drove from Tours [remember the Robert Keyaerts Cadillac Museum at Langeais, near Tours] to St. Tropez on the Mediterranean [remember Brigitte Bardot ?]  For the sixteenth edition, next year, the venue is Le Mans. 

I don't think Jacqueline will be competing...

Fact, Willems owned the car in the early nineties.  Fact, Willems owns the car again in 2006.  This begs the question: did Willems ever actually sell Jacqueline to Perrin and, if so, why did he buy her back?  What has Mr. C. got to do with all this? In my humble opinion the whole Jacqueline story stinks of combinazione (the Italian equivalent of cabal). It would make a good movie title: Five Men and a Pushmobile (Lancksweert, Kruch, Willems, Perrin, Couturier and Jacqueline).

I ask myself: is it possible that Perrin found out Jacqueline  was not all she had been made out to be, i.e. a custom creation by Pininfarina on the 1959 Eldorado Brougham chassis? Is it possible the sale (to him) had been conditional on the car passing muster with the French DOT [les Mines]?  These guys can make your life a misery, even with the best of stock (American) classic cars, so this "concocted custom job" must have had them rolling in the aisles.

Whatever the actual story, the fact is that Jacqueline  now has come around full circle, back to square one so to speak. What next?

~~~

What next?  Well, the car came up for sale at the Monterey Sports & Classic Car auction [as lot #586] organized by RM Auctions on August 17 and 18, 2007. Not surprisingly, it did not find a buyer, although it is reported that bidding reached $260,000 (the catalogue gave an estimated value between $350,000 and $400,000 !)

Below is an excerpt from the catalogue description [my comments in brown font].  Sounds impressive ...but all the buyer is getting, in fact, is a home made custom job comprising a unique PF salon pushmobile (worth around $80,000?) mounted on a rough, used Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz chassis from 1960 with a non-matching V-8 engine and transmission from 1959 (estimated value: $5,000). If you add labour and a paint job and you are looking at a total cost under $100K.

It should have been of little surprise that when one of the most creative automotive coachbuilders in the world, Pinin Farina, set out to create a rolling show piece [precisely] that had many of the same qualities as the First Lady, that they should name their beauty the Jacqueline.

Pinin Farina went to work on a couple of custom proposals to try and woo Cadillac back to Italy, and developed a pair of unique customs, both two-door and four-door versions [to my knowledge that 4-door version is the figment of someone's imagination!] of what they hoped would be the Eldorado Brougham's replacement. Thus was born the Jacqueline. While both cars [???] were smart and stylish, it was very clear that the coupe stole the show.

When the Jacqueline [pushmobile] was first unveiled at the 1961 Paris Auto Show, it won rave reviews by both members of the press and the public. The automotive media commented on its advanced styling, highlighting such features as its impressive, but not over-chromed, grille and clean, sculpted body side lines - a total departure from the rear quarter fins that had come to symbolize Cadillac style. To the rear, wrap-around taillights were featured and the greenhouse offered wide panoramic views with vast expanses of glass [actually Plexiglas] supported by thin pillars on all four corners.

A few items had been retained from that original Pinin Farina-built Brougham, such as the A-pillar along with the basic windshield design, the steering wheel  [which was changed from the the 1959 to the 1960 version during the "transformation" from pushmobile to automobile], the basic dashboard layout [with all dummy instrumentation], and the exclusive Cadillac wheel covers, which were maybe just a little too flashy.

Originally finished in Cadillac's own Ermine White, accented with a brushed stainless steel top in the same manner as the 1957 and 1958 Eldorado Brougham, it followed a new direction in automotive of design with a "less is more" theme. Interior styling, finished in black [leather ?] with limited use of chrome, was fresh and modern, featuring one-piece bucket seats with a center armrest and a special compartment behind the passengers to store a picnic basket or possibly a set of golf clubs.

Many of the lines seen on the Jacqueline would indeed eventually come to be found on other products from different General Motors Divisions, if not on Cadillac, and this vehicle would go down in the history books as one of the most attractive concept cars of the early 1960s.

After the Jacqueline's days on the show circuit had come to an end in the early 1960s, she was retired and became part of the Pinin Farina museum, where she stayed for the next 30-plus years with only occasional exhibitions. In the mid-nineties, Pininfarina, as they had officially changed their name to in the mid-sixties [June 6, 1961], sold their design study from the 1960s, and the Jacqueline eventually ended up in the United States. Shortly after coming to America, the new owner [Irving Willem or Alain-Dominique Perrin?] decided it was time for the Jacqueline to receive something it had never been equipped with, an entire Cadillac chassis and running gear.

During its time on the show circuit in the early 1960s and in its subsequent years, the Jacqueline has been merely a "pushmobile", moved into place on dollies as there was no engine, no steering, no suspension, just a custom tubular frame equipped with a pair of axles from a trailer to which the body had been mounted.

Maintaining the heritage of the Jacqueline intended chassis, it was decided that Cadillac would be the heart and soul of this car. It was also decided that the use of period materials that would have been available to Pinin Farina at the time of its creation would also be utilized in this project. Providing the chassis was a [rough] 1960 Eldorado Biarritz [in condition #5] that had donated many other parts [including its original motor] for [other] restorations. Powering the car  [i.e. the 1960 "donor" Eldorado] was a 1959 vintage Series 62 V8 engine of 390 cubic inches and 325 horses, along with a matched transmission. It was also decided that a standard suspension set-up with front coil springs, rear leaf springs and hydraulic shock absorbers all around would be utilized [although the Broughams all featured air suspension as standard equipment].

One major alteration to the body was needed - the fabrication of a new floor. Back in 1961, Pinin Farina had not planned on the need to accommodate a drive-line, so to keep a continuity of beauty [in fact, to facilitate construction!] left the floor perfectly flat. Other important issues also had to be addressed including creating a working steering system, installing operational foot pedals and wiring up the essential gauges and instruments.

All in all, it was a monumental task that had to be done to the same high standards of craftsmanship and skill that had gone into making the coachwork those many years earlier. Results proved positive and in the late-nineties [1996], the Jacqueline was able to hit the road for the first time in her life under her own power.

Retaining all of its original sheet metal and styling touches, an application of subtle gold metallic paint has been applied to the exterior [by Pininfarina, before the sale in the early 90s?], with its gleaming stainless steel roof. Most of the interior appointments, including the original one-piece bucket seats, are exactly as they were when crafted and installed by the coachbuilder, except that many of the items are now fully functional.

This is a rare and very unique opportunity to obtain a certified [by whom?] one-of-a-kind, fully functional piece of art that has never before been offered at public auction. Directly from a period of grace and elegance known as Camelot here in America, this heirloom of style and beauty, christened to honor one of America's most beloved First Ladies, Jacqueline Kennedy, could be yours.

With the same combination of elegance and natural glamour she carried when she made a rare appearance, this dramatically designed coupe is sure to be invited to where only the finest automobiles gather and will be held in the same high esteem as the woman for whom it was named [...and its "dummy" body tag, with purely imaginary Cadillac numbers for body, chassis and engine, will doubtless be one of the talking points among the Cadillac cognoscenti for the next few decades!]

 

 

 

Late Extra [Nov., 2006]

From Matt Larson, Cadillac & LaSalle Research Specialist and Historian
[ Co-author with Ron Van Gelderen of the ultimate LaSalle book: LaSalle - Cadillac's Companion Car ]

 

As you know, the first two digits of a VIN indicate the model year, followed by a capital letter that identifies the body style; the remaining six digits are the car's sequential build number . 

YES, there is a 1959 sequential build sheet #061100.  HOWEVER, the letter is "K", indicating   style 6229 6-window sedan, NOT "P", that would be style 6929 Eldorado Brougham!

In the 1959 model year, there are 35 cars on a record sheet - a single horizontal line lists 46 possible data elements that fully describe each individual vehicle. I have decoded hundreds of them for current owners.

Now, it gets strange!  The entry for car #061100 has been taped over on the original record and retyped.  The vertical lines are missing and the data spacing is off a bit.  At the right side of the entry is a hand written note "also see above 097011".   I never have seen any other record that has been changed - it jumps off the page instantly when you look at the sheet!

Naturally, I looked up sequence number 097011. That car is an "M", i.e. style 6029 Fleetwood 60 Special sedan.  There does not appear to be any connection with sequence #061100.

Your records are correct, Eldorado Brougham #99 for 1959 had engine serial number 59P060824. The Cadillac records for 1959 do NOT indicate any Eldorado Brougham with a body number higher than #99. 

For many years there has been a story that 1959 Eldorado Brougham with body number 100 fell overboard in shipment from Italy to the U.S. There is nothing to substantiate that story.

There has been speculation that Pininfarina kept #100 and built the Jacqueline out of that car.  I do not have ANY basis for assessing that conjecture.  The Jacqueline appears (in photos) to be a shorter car than production Broughams.  That may be an illusion because of the rounded shape of the body - I have not seen the actual car. 

An inspection of the car to determine the engine and chassis serial numbers, the engine unit number and the body tag data (if any) is clearly necessary to establish the pedigree of the car called Jacqueline. 

 

Well, Matt, as you can see from the pictures in the preceding box, Jacqueline's body tag resembles none that you or I ever saw on a Cadillac. It appears to have been cobbled up specially for this "car".  It won't be easy to determine WHO created it from scratch or WHERE the numbers came from.  One thing is certain, however, it was made up by a person familiar (but not overly familiar) with Cadillac's production numbering system.

Pininfarina would be my first "suspect", considering they were responsible for putting together the 1959 and 1960 Eldorado Brougham models. However, I'm not saying there was any criminal intent on their part, only that they needed to put some kind of "logical" VIN on the body they had built as a styling exercise to try to coax GM-Cadillac to continue pruduction of the Brougham through 1961 and 1962.

Contacts have been renewed recently with Pininfarina's PR people to try to determine if this tag is typical of the kind attached by the Italian company to its prototypes or styling exercises.  At any rate, as we have seen, the current chassis and drive train are from TWO different actual Cadillac models. The chassis is that of a pre-owned 1960 Eldorado Biarritz (the number is currently not known but may be found stamped at the front of the LH frame side bar; it will be included in the range from 60E000001 to 60E142184). The engine is NOT matched with the chassis (although it should be); it comes from a regular 1959 Cadillac and is the 325HP type with 4-bbl carburetor in lieu of the 345HP, so-called "Q" engine with three, dual-bbl carburetors, mounted on all Eldorado models that year.  Once again, the number is currently not known but may be found stamped on the center LH side of the block, above the oil pan; it will be in the range from 59*000001 to 59*142272. The asterisk here replaces one of the following letters designating the original body style in which the engine was mounted :   A, B, E, F, G, H, J, K, L, M,  P, R or S.

Meanwhile, Jacqueline seeks a new owner with deep pockets.   This ad was posted on the www in December 2006   I've been told by potential buyers who inquired that the asking price is $400,000 :

1961 CADILLAC BROUGHAM⁶ :  BROUGHAM⁶ by PININFARINA, THIS FABULOUS ONE-OFF CAR⁷ WAS BUILT BY THE LEGENDARY ITALIAN COACHBUILDER, PININFARINA FOR THE 1961 PARIS AUTO SHOW AS AN HOMAGE TO THE GRACE & STYLE OF THEN FIRST LADY, JACQUELINE BOUVIER KENNEDY. PININFARINA & CADILLAC COLLABORATED ON FOUR BROUGHAMS⁸ FROM 1958 TO 1961. THE 'JACQUELINE' IS THE ONLY ONE REMAINING IN EXISTENCE⁹ AND IT IS ALSO THE ONLY 1961 BROUGHAM⁶ EVER PRODUCED
__________________________________________________________
⁶  in fact, the only Broughams "built" by Pininfarina are the stock 1959 and 1960 models (200 units in all) that were designed by Fleetwood and assembled at the PF
    premises in Turin, with a view to trying to diminish production costs. True, PF did work on four designs which they say were inspired by Cadillac's Eldorado
   Brougham  project [second box of illustrations, above, lower two rows];  however, Cadillac did not "collaborate" with PF in this work. 
⁷  The word "car" is confusing in the sense that it means "motor vehicle"; this "car" only became a "motorized vehicle" in 1996;
⁸  There was NO DIRECT COLLABORATION whatsoever between Cadillac and Pininfarina in the making of these alleged "four Broughams from 1958 to 1961"; it is    
    true that at least ONE of these four cars was mounted on a 1959 Cadillac chassis, but Cadillac never was involved in PFs decision to use a Cadillac power-train for it;  
⁹  This is not correct; at least ONE other of these show cars [the light-colored Skylight coupe, above] has survived and was discovered to be mounted on a 1957 Cadillac
    chassis and drive train:  

In my humble opinion, the text of this ad fails to mention the essential fact that Jacqueline was originally built as a simple styling exercise by PF and that she was not motorized at that time.  A more factual ad should read:

Originally an engineless shell (a pushmobile), built for the 1961 Paris Salon by legendary Italian coachbuilder, Pininfarina, this stylish coupe was later put on the chassis of a pre-owned 1960 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz that had been retro-fitted with a 1959, 325HP motor. The car is now fully drivable. PF named this salon model Jacqueline as homage to then first lady, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy. Jacqueline is one of four similar salon models built by PF from 1958 through 1961: the Skylight coupe and convertible, possibly mounted on Cadillac chassis, the Starlight and Jacqueline coupes (both pushmobiles). Only the Skylight and Jacqueline coupes are known to have survived.

Jacqueline appeared again for sale as a "1961 Cadillac Brougham" in Hemmings Motor News, Dec., 2007 [?], with a revised price tag of $385,000!  The ad contained no pictures, only the phone, and fax numbers of the vendor as well as his web site URL: Ph. 310-657-9699, FAX: 310-657-9698; website: www.herit