1953 Cadillac Elegante One-Off Concept Car
Albrecht von Goertz designed this one-off Cadillac two years before BMW hired him to create the 507, the car that would make him famous. Commercial artist Harry Birdsall and his friend Joe Mascari commissioned the Elegante in 1953, starting from a standard Cadillac Series 62 chassis and handing Goertz's design over to coachbuilder Carrozzeria Motto in Turin, who spent 30 months and $30,000, an enormous sum for the mid-1950s, hand-forming its aluminum body. When it debuted at the 1955 New York International Auto Show, The New York Times covered it under the headline "Gold-Plated Car Becomes a Fact." Details include a hydraulically operated retractable hardtop, a Lucite steering wheel, and custom bronze castings finished in gold plate. After Birdsall's death in 1960, the car passed through a handful of owners before Birdsall's own son bought it back in 1992 and spent the next 16 years restoring it to its original condition, a restoration that won the People's Choice Award at the 2014 Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance. It's being offered for sale publicly for the first time since it was built.
