Frederick Vanderbilt's 1933 Cadillac 452C

Frederick Vanderbilt's Cadillac Sixteen (VAMA 1173). NPS Photo.

The incredible Cadillac V-16 engine was sprung on an unsuspecting market in late 1929 in a flurry of announcements, dealer presentations, previews for privileged clients and public auto shows. The surprise was complete, and while competitors publicly scoffed at the V-16’s size and complexity, privately they marveled and quickly retired to their drawing boards.

Hidden from public view but very important to Cadillac in conveying the sleek, refined, subdued image of the V-16’s quiet, confident power, the V-16 engine was as much a triumph for the stylists as it was for Cadillac engineering. Everything suggesting the minutiae of function was hidden. The spark plug wires travelled from the distributor to the plugs under covers. The valve covers, manifolds and even carburetors were monochromatic with only carefully selected details and highlights. There were no exposed oil lines. It was a sleek, modern statement of machine age design, carefully detailed and refined.

1930 Advertisement for the Cadillac V-16.

The first Cadillac V-16s were enthusiastically received but soon ran into the reality of the Depression. Production ran virtually unchanged through 1931, while 1932 ushered in a redesign with longer, lower bodies and freestanding headlights among other changes. Cadillac built only 300 V-16s during 1932, a huge drop from the nearly 3,000 built in the enthusiasm of 1930. Production never recovered, making the 1933 model a rare automobile.

Only 125 Cadillac V-16s rolled off the production line in 1933 despite a thorough update in the styling to match the racier, Art Deco fashion of the era. A vee-radiator with a rounded and painted shell along with flowing horizontal accents on the sides of the hood and front fenders were the hallmarks of the new look.

This motorcar is a particularly special example. Delivered new to Frederick Vanderbilt, it features custom, one-off Fleetwood coachwork and is in very nicely preserved and largely original condition. The body style, number 5530FL was for a five-passenger Imperial Limousine fitted with a faux landaulette top. Finished in two-tone burgundy over black fenders with beige broadcloth front and rear, the passengers enjoyed the privacy of a roll-up glass division with a speaking hole cut out, 8-day Jaeger clock, and a drawn curtain for the rear window, in addition to blind quarters for added discretion. A luggage rack was fitted should additional carrying capacity be required.

Among the fleet of Frederick Vanderbilt’s automobiles when he died in 1938, the Cadillac has been largely untouched since. Covering fewer than 20,000 miles in its five years of operation with the Vanderbilts, the limousine retains its original interior, including its cloth seats and wool carpets. The inlaid wood still shows well, as does the luxuriously appointed dash. Outside, the original paint remains, although areas show evidence of lifting from age and climate-cycles. Under the hood, the firewall retains the original factory markings.