Cadillac La Salle

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Let me give you a small intro to this months Vintage car. Its very simple. If you were living in the 1950’s, a photo of this car along with Marilyn Monroe would have definitely adorned your wall. The Cadillac La-Salle: The car which possibly started everything for the American manufacturer. The 17ft Cadi’s which was driven by Elvis Presley wouldn’t have been possible without the LaSalle. In fact, among all American manufacturers, Cadillac would definitely be my most favorite. Its the least snobbish yet classy and this weird mix of characters is something I’ve loved. The LaSalle was made from 1927 to 1942 and was designed by a certain Harley Earl. GM which owned Cadi even then, were looking for new models through which they could increase sales. From the cheapest Chevy to the intermediate Buick and the high end Cadi, every marque had to come out with a new model which would increase sales. The LaSalle was the result of this effort.
The car was made in a variety of wheelbases ranging from 3200mm to 3400mm and featured GM’s Ninety Degree V8 which made them very fast and very sporty. In the 1930’s !! It hade a 5.28lt V8 which produced 125bhp. The LaSalle could achieve the 100mph mark which is 160kmph approximately and that was outstanding. The car was used as a Grand Tourer
even in those days thanks to its phenomenal driving characteristics. The design as you can see, is very contemporary. The front windscreen for example was partitioned and I somehow would prefer even if present day cars had this feature. Its lends a very classy look to the car. Based on the wheelbase and the way the car was designed, you can easily tell that Cadillac wanted this to be a Mercedes S-Class of sorts and it was. Sales of the car were as fast as the speed. So all was going well then. No, not quite. America had the Great Depression during this period and sales of automobiles naturally dropped, sales of expensive Cadillacs were non existent. Cadillac announced a price drop of 1000USD and even though sales picked up it never reached the level it was prior to the depression. Meanwhile at this time, manufacturers such as Ford had come up and were going all out in promoting cheap and small cars; something Cadillac was not known for. Thus began the paradigm shift in the American car buyer and it was evident that small and cheap cars were the need of the hour. Slowly, Cadillac had to phase out the LaSalle after one and half decades. This did not stop here, No. The LaSalle was like a ghost if you may. During the 1970’s and 1980’s, Cadillac researchers found that the people wanted the name ‘LaSalle’ to be revived once again for one last hoorah. Attempts were made also to design a car which had the basic roots of the Salle. Unfortunately at this time came along another small bout of recession and the plan was dropped all together. Cadillac instead made sedans for the family fan and convertibles for the pop stars. Thus came the end of probably history’s finest example of a car since the Model T.

However, there is going to be new car out soon from Cadillac and it would be a present day interpretation of the 17ft long ‘Cadi’ which Presley drove. The name has not been announced yet.