Engine No.

701323


Fleetwood Body No.

84


Fleetwood Style No.

4380



Cadillac's decision to build a sixteen-cylinder engine, announced at the New York Auto Show in January 1930, was as audacious as it was necessary for a company determined to defend its "Standard of the World" motto.

Owen Nacker's 452-cubic-inch overhead-valve V-16 produced 175 horsepower in near silence, its concealed wiring and polished castings dressed by Harley Earl's Art and Colour Section.

Riding a 148-inch wheelbase and priced from $5,350 to $9,200 when a Ford Model A cost $435, the Series 452 found just 3,251 buyers before the Depression closed in.



This exceptional V-16, identified by engine number 701323, positions it as one of the earliest V-16s completed, and it was shipped to New York City on 28 April 1930, barely three months after the model's public debut.

Its original sales order provided by the GM Heritage Archive documents that the chassis, fenders, side hood/cowl, and mouldings were fini...