1957 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham

This car, Lot 133, sold for $184,800, including buyer’s premium, at RM Sotheby’s Arizona Auction on January 22, 2021.

The 1955 Paris Salon de l’Automobile is perhaps best remembered for the introduction of the Citroën DS19. But the show also featured two experiments in extreme American automotive luxury, their makers hoping that mingling amongst the refined Europeans would somehow upgrade their provincial status in the eyes of the highest-end customers.

Ford’s Continental Mark II was displayed under a miniature version of the Eiffel Tower and was billed as “aristocratic, but in a quietly modern way.” A corresponding Cadillac, the Eldorado Brougham, was also displayed. A pillarless 4-door sedan, its stainless-steel roof was as dramatic as the Mark II was understated.

Cadillac was gaining significant momentum in the mid-1950s, with annual sales approaching 150,000 units — numbers that Ford could only dream of. This likely encouraged the creation of a production Brougham, which was announced in November 1956.

A concept car for the showroom

An earlier iteration of the Brougham had been shown as part of GM’s Motorama exhibits, extravagant collections of GM products that toured America, previewing future design and technology features. Cadillac described it as “a luxury show car exhibiting a wide departure from conventional automobile styling.”

Seen through modern eyes, the Cadillac Eldorado Brougham may appear less of a departure than advertised. But it was distinguished from the contemporary Cadillac sedan with a three-inch-shorter wheelbase, a seven-inch length reduction and a six-inch lower roofline.

Its dizzying array of unprecedented features (all standard; there were no options) included central locking that disengaged the rear interior door handles when in drive, a front seat that moved back and down upon entering or exiting and returned to one of two preselected positions, “Autronic” headlight dimming, a transistorized radio with automatic antenna, individual front and rear heating and a powered trunk lid.

Leveraging GM’s coach-division experience, Broughams came with air suspension that utilized rubber “airdomes” at each wheel, with three valves keeping the car level across varying loads and road conditions. Plans for even more elaborate features such as fuel injection, disc brakes and a rear-mounted transaxle were scrapped, in part due to air-suspension faults that left prototypes temporarily undriveable.

From the limousine line

Broughams were essentially serial-built concept cars that shared little with other Cadillacs apart from the standard Eldorado’s 365-cubic-inch V8 with dual-quad carburetors (three 2-barrel carbs were used in 1958) and 4-speed Hydra-Matic transmission. Even then, Broughams had a specific block design with full-flow oil filtration and dual senders for the gauge and warning lamp.

Built atop an X-frame chassis specifically developed by A.O. Smith, their one-piece front ends were welded together with leaded seams. Each car was hand-assembled on a special line at Cadillac’s Clark Street plant in Detroit, normally used for limousine production. Every example was then test-driven prior to delivery. In the end, only 704 were built — 400 for model year 1957 and 304 in 1958.

As a statement of pure luxury, Broughams came with a set of vanity items that are today eagerly sought after to round out a full restoration. The glove compartment had special areas for tissues, along with cigarette and cosmetics cases and six magnetic stainless-steel tumblers that could attach themselves to the back of a fold-out mirror. The rear armrest incorporated a beveled mirror, leather-bound notepad with a Cross sterling-silver mechanical pencil and a one-ounce atomizer bottle of Arpège Extrait de Lanvin perfume.

A technological cost

The Brougham’s technical advances surpassed any contemporary car, as owners have discovered — sometimes to their own peril. Most problematic today is the air suspension, which is often replaced by conventional coil springs.

David King of Keep’em Running Automotive, one of a handful of Brougham experts who knows their weaknesses well and caters to their unique parts needs, also warns of troublesome electrical systems: “The wiring loom between the body and the door is 1¼ inches wide and stiffens over time; the copper flexes and eventually breaks. Then there’s the elaborate control box for the seats, which was hand-built by Delco and signed by its builder.”

Complexity like this has often led to deferred maintenance: “By the time these cars got to their third owners,” cautions Bill Warner, Amelia Island Concours founder and owner of a 1958 example, “they were just used cars and were treated as such.”

Warner says Brougham parts seem to be consistently priced in the four-digit range, making a thorough inspection a critical prerequisite to purchase, and also reinforcing SCM’s long-advised recommendation that it’s usually better to buy a car that has already been sorted or restored than to do it yourself.

It’s all about the condition

Our subject car previously sold just a few months earlier, for $91,300 at RM’s 2020 Fall Auburn sale. At the time, its air suspension was said to be non-functioning. But by the time it appeared in Arizona, this had been serviced. Clearly, these repairs paid off with a doubling of the sales price in just a few months — leaving it well bought the first time and well sold the second.

So are these complex totems of 1950s glamour poised for growth? Bidders for a 1957 example originally donated to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum by 1921 Brickyard competitor Riley Brett looked past its faulty air-suspension system, focusing on its originality and low mileage. It sold for $142,500 on Bring a Trailer in January. Another 1957 sold in October for $123,000. These recent sales would suggest an increased interest in these rare and special cars — condition permitting. ♦

(Introductory description courtesy of RM Sotheby’s.)