[ last update: 09.15.2004 ]

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The Cadillac V16

Series 452-452A
1930-1931

The European Tour Cars

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(en bas de page se trouve un résumé en français)

In June of 1930, the Cadillac Motor Car Division of GM sent a half-dozen of the most representative sixteen-cylinder models to Europe, on a promotional tour.

There is some debate as to which sixteens were part of the tour.  In his excellent book Sixteen Cylinder Motor Cars, my friend Roy Schneider mentions a first group of Fleetwood-bodied sixteens that traveled the U.S. auto show, salon, and dealer showroom circuit; these included a close-coupled sedan (style #4330), an all-weather phaeton (style #4380), a sport phaeton (style #4260), a town car with special cane work on the lower rear panels - one of only three built this way (style #4264-B) and a convertible coupe (style #4235) among others.  Roy says that six (of these?) sixteens were then sent to Europe in June. Were they from the same group?  My guess is that, yes, they were.

From the photos below, taken during the tour, I have been able to identify the following Fleetwood styles. Perhaps a scrutiny of factory build sheets might reveal all the chassis/engine numbers of the actual cars that were sent on the tour:

1.  #4175 Madame X limousine
2.  #4235 convertible coupe
3.  #4260 special phaeton
4.  #4264B razor-edged town brougham
5.  #4330 5 -pass. sedan
6.  #4376 hardtop coupe [the only one with white wall tires]

Most of the photos I have seen of the tour caravan [they are included, below] show the cars wearing French license tags in a numerical sequence all ending with the letters XB. These letters identify the Seine inférieure (lower Seine) region of France, which suggests that the cars may have been disembarked in France (not in Denmark) at Le Havre, being one of the larger, French, merchant sea ports. The XB license tags may have been issued either at Le Havre, or possibly at Rouen (the district capital), before the cars proceeded south east to Paris (some 100 miles away) by road.  I'd like to hear it from any astute French V-16 enthusiast.

The French tags issued are the following (five of them are a certainty, being clearly visible in period photos, while the sixth is a guess - I am assuming that it fit naturally in the same consecutive series with the other five):

#2145XB (on Fleetwood style #4260, dual-windshield phaeton)
#2146XB (on Fleetwood style #4330 town sedan)
#2147XB (on Fleetwood style #4376 coupe - this is my logical guess)
#2148XB (on Fleetwood style #4175 Madame X limousine)
#2149XB (on Fleetwood style #4264B town brougham with cane work)
#2150XB (on Fleetwood style #4235 convertible coupe)

So far as I may ascertain [logic again!] the caravan proceeded from Le Havre south-east to Paris then north-east to Antwerp and Brussels in Belgium; probably it then continued to Amsterdam and Utrecht in Holland, followed by Copenhagen in Denmark and across the Kategat to Stockholm in Sweden.  Turning south again, the cars probably entered Germany, visiting the cities of Berlin, Cologne, Dresden, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Münich and Nüremberg (it is possible that while the cars toured Germany they carried temporary German tags - one of them is just discernable in the group photo taken in front of Cologne cathedral).  By the way, I have listed the cities and towns here in alphabetical order for each country; obviously the caravan may not have travelled the route in that order.

I assume the tour continued south to Austria (where the cars apparently won prizes), Switzerland, visiting  Berne, Geneva, Lausanne [spelled "Lussan" in one report], Lucerne and Zürich before heading south-west to Spain, to visit Madrid and San Sebastian.  On the journey through Switzerland, France and Spain, the cars again appear to have carried French tags.

In August 2005, I had a contact with Bruno Amiot, a researcher from Angers town council; Angers is a market town located about 185 miles SW of Paris. He recalled that the caravan of V-16s had stopped there in September 1930, as evidenced by two cuttings he kindly sent me from the local paper, Le Petit Courrier; this is borne out by two of the period photos in the collection below.   The press cuttings state that the cars would be in Angers from 4 p.m. on September 8  until noon on September 9 and  would be on display at the local GM/Cadillac dealer, Laudreau & Co., operating out of the Central Garage,  7 Place du Pelican.

From this time frame, I am assuming the caravan had been in Europe already for some three months and stopped in Angers on the return journey from Spain, traveling north along the Gironde river basin and the Atlantic seaboard through Cadillac [the name adopted by local Gascon adventurer, Antoine Laumet, founder of Detroit, before he sailed for the New World in 1683], Bordeaux and La Baule, the Atlantic sea coast resort and spa that boasts the longest beach in France.  There were photo shoots at Cadillac, Bordeaux and Angers [see below].

From the cuttings sent by Bruno, we know that the caravan reached Angers coming from La Baule.  That would have meant quite a long detour north and east through Nantes and Saint Nazaire prior to turning 180º west back towards Angers, and thence to Paris.

Ads from Angers' daily Le Petit Courrier [ September 7, 1930 ]     The text on the LH ad reads: We have learned that the caravan of  sixteen-cylinder Cadillac cars currently on a grand tour of Europe will stop in Angers, coming from La Baule, on Monday, September 8,  staying until  Tuesday 9 at noon, in the Central Garage, Laudrau & Co., 7 Place du Pelican in Angers. We are convinced these cars will enjoy a great success among the curious public who for the first time will be able to inspect and to see in operation a mass-produced (?)  sixteen-cylinder motor car.

 

The six V-16 European tour cars

England's Motor Sport for November, 1962, recalled (p.894) that "several" V16s were seen in Cologne in 1930.  The writer did not question why the cars had not come to Britain. It seems strange, in my opinion, that England was not on the initial itinerary.  Perhaps a visit to that country was not considered essential, at the time, considering that the company was planning to show a couple of sixteens at the Olympia show, in London, that coming Fall.

V-16 enthusiast, Alan Merkel, writing in the seventies, said that the cars had been shipped first to Copenhagen, in Denmark. On the other hand, in the definitive book on Fleetwood coachwork, published in 2001, author James Schild asserts that the tour began in Paris, on June 21, 1930. Who of the two is right? My guess is that Jim is closest to the truth.

Some of the European Tour cars may have remained in Europe. We know, for example, that the special phaeton [Fleetwood style #4260] was acquired by Paris' Jacques Saoutchik who removed the body and replaced it with a special, sliding-roof sedan.  The original special phaeton body was subsequently mounted on V-16 chassis #701554]; it too has survived.  Additionally, I suspect that the town brougham [style #4264-B] may have remained in Holland and been converted there by Bronkhorst.  Quarter windows were aded and the body may have been stretched to accommodate full-sized auxiliary seating.

~~~~~

Trivia 1:  Interestingly, in all the photos I have seen that were taken during the tour (some of them are shown above), you can see that none of these cars seems to have a Goddess hood ornament. In addition all but one of them have regular, black-wall tires. The convertible coupe has the optional, chrome-plated hood louvers, as does also the phaeton with secondary windshield.

Trivia 2: A reported seventy orders were taken during the European tour. This number corresponds to the recorded export sales of the V-16. Of these, fourteen units went to Antwerp, in Belgium, twelve to Madrid, in Spain, eleven to Berlin, in Germany (of which one style 4325C town car landaulet, licensed #1A75825), seven to Mexico City, in Mexico (were the orders taken in Europe???), six to Paris, in France (of which at least one style 4130 and one 4330 - possibly the tour car - or 4375 with French tourist registration No. 2017XB), five to Stockholm, in Sweden, four to Copenhagen, in Denmark, only two to London, in England [possibly because the caravan did not stop there!], two to Buenos Aires, in Argentina (engine #701530 was one of these; it is currently in Spain, mounted in a custom-bodied V-16 racer), two to Havana, in Cuba (one was a style 4391 Town Car Brougham, the other may have been a style 4175 Imperial),  one to Bombay, in India (a style 4260 sport phaeton with RHD, for the Maharajah of Tikari), one to Manila, in the Philippines, one to Honolulu, in Hawaii (Hawaii did not become a State of the Union until August 21, 1959), one to Moscow, in the former USSR and one to Port Elisabeth, in South Africa (a RHD style 4380 all-weather phaeton). One additional unit (Fleetwood style #4291) went to the Royal Thai household in Bangkok, Thailand. This unit appears to have been a domestic purchase that was subsequently exported and, therefore, is not included in the official export total.

Trivia 3:  Already in July 1930 some vee-sixteens had been delivered to wealthy buyers in Europe. It is reported that on July 12, in particular, a new V-16 [possibly a regular phaeton or an all-weather phaeton] owned by Baroness Von Rosenberg was entered in and took first prize in a Concours d'Elegance, staged in Vienna, Austria.

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© 1996, Yann Saunders and the Cadillac-LaSalle Club, Inc.
[ Background image: three European tour V-16 models in front of Cologne cathedral, in Germany ]