According to noted V-16 historian Christopher Cummings in his book, Cadillac V-16s Lost and Found , this Cadillac V-16 All-Weather Phaeton had been originally sold in Chicago, equipped as it is today with engine number 701495 and body number 98.

How it found its way west to California is not known, but in the 1940s it was owned by Northrup Aircraft test pilot John W.

Meyer, who used it to tow gliders for the development of the XB-49 “flying wing.” After Meyer was involved in an aircraft accident, he lost track of the V-16, which was stolen, wrecked by the thief, and finally abandoned in a farmer’s field in Long Beach—where it was discovered by Al Schinnerer and his fraternity brothers in 1949.

The trio bought the 35,000-mile car for $175, replaced its missing wheels and tires, repaired the brakes, and, with the brio typical of youth, drove it home to Los Angeles.

Schinnerer took his brother, Paul, for a ride in the Cadillac, commenting with a hot-rodder’s bravado that it “could bea...