Cadillac National

After our post about the history of Cadillacs in Africa I received an email from Rudolph who has written to us before and he is in Africa also. He wanted to get in touch with Karl as they are both in the same area. He went on to tell me that he just got back from the 2013 Cadillac LaSalle Grand National that was hosted by our friends at the New England Region Cadillac & LaSalle Club.

I then asked Rudolph to send me a little write up about what it was like to attend the event since he traveled so far to go to it. Well he has a club for classic Cadillac, Buick and Oldsmobile’s in Africa and he had a newsletter written up about the subject that he allowed me to put here. Below is his newsletter which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Dear Cadillac enthusiasts,

Since the last Newsletter I have experienced quite a dose of Cadillac events, albeit not all here in South Africa. If you recall I alluded to my upcoming travels to the United States in the June edition of the Newsletter.

I have since been to the US and attended both the Cadillac Grand National in Boston, Ma, as well as the Pacific North West Region of the Cadillac Club’s annual Cadillac Picnic in Seattle, Wa.

The trip to the US and the cars that I saw there were quite spectacular!

The Cadillac Grand National in Boston was a memorable experience and many new friends and acquaintances were made during my time there. It was my first attendance of a Grand National since last attending the 100 year celebration back in 2002 in Detroit. One forgets how well organized the Americans are when it comes to these large events. They certainly do things on a grand scale compared to what we are used to. There were over 850 people attending the event and about 600 cars were on display at the Marriott Hotel in Quincy, which is about 18 miles outside metropolitan Boston. The logistics of arranging an event like this is truly one of Mammoth proportions and planning and arranging of the event starts more than a year in advance. A host hotel needs to be secured well in advance, as well as back-up hotels to cope with the number of people and cars attending. The additional events and Car tours to keep spouses entertained must also be planned for. I can only commend the organizers as it has truly been well organized and most enjoyable for all attendees.

Arriving at the host hotel certainly is an experience for any Cadillac enthusiast, especially for one from South Africa, where we do not see these cars on the road every day. Most of the cars we see in magazines or online are just there, on the highway and the closer one gets to the event it is evident that this is a Cadillac gathering of note and vintage Cadillac cars arrive from all over.

Vintage Cadillac’s in traffic even make the locals double take. I was running around the parking lot at the hotel looking at cars before even checking in. The saying of a kid in a candy store was quite apt a description. Truly a sight for sore eyes, especially after travelling 15 hours and then some from Johannesburg to get there.

Once settled in I took my time to walk through the parking lot and marvel at more and more cars and their owners arriving for this yearly event. It is just a pleasure to see these cars glide by almost whisper quiet with just a burble of a mighty V8 audible. Many members drive their cars over vast distances and others use car haulers to transport their precious cargo cross country. I spoke to a gentleman, Tim Sullivan, who drove his 1972 Coupe De Ville together with his wife across the country from Mount Vernon in Washington State. Tim says his car performed flawlessly all the way to Boston. He did, however, decide to take it easy on the way back and he had the car shipped back by rail while they relaxed in the comfort of their compartment on the three day rail journey home. These folks are serious about their cars and attending this event.

It was interesting to see cars from all over the US attending, but the majority came from Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts and surrounds.

There is plenty to do at the host hotel and besides the cars outside, which inevitably gets the most attention, there are also many vendors who have parts, memorabilia and literature for sale. If only one had more space to bring parts back home! The additional events were well planned and frankly overwhelming. I only selected two days to attend tours and car collections, the rest of the time I spent at the host hotel experiencing the cars, attending informative briefings and mingling with like-minded enthusiasts in the hospitality suite arranged for guests.

The first day was spent touring two collections namely the Collings Foundation and the Lars Anderson Auto Collection. The Lars Anderson Auto Museum is quite impressive and interesting although not a Cadillac collection per se, there were examples of early brass era Cadillac cars. This is the oldest privately owned automobile collection in America and has been in existence for over 85 years.

The idea for the Larz Anderson Auto Museum grew out of a Sunday tradition started by wealthy socialites Larz and Isabel Anderson at their Brookline, Massachusetts home. The Andersons would open the doors to their spectacular Carriage House on Sunday afternoons and share their mounting collection of marvellous American and European vehicles with the public. As their interest in automobiles grew, the Andersons continued to purchase vehicles and retire them to the Carriage House once they became obsolete and continued doing this all the way up until the passing of Isabel Anderson in 1948. The Andersons purchased an automobile nearly every year, acquiring a total of thirty-two brand new motorcars during the course of their lives and 14 of them remain in the collection until today. The cars are primarily original and have never been restored, which is remarkable to see cars that were used by this illustrious couple during their lives with the scars of daily life adding to their patina. Marques I have not even heard of like Bailey Electric, Winton Bullet, Rochet-Schneider and Gardner-Serpollet to name a few is featured in the collection.

The second collection visited was the Collings Foundation, which has some of the most important pre-war American Aircraft, classic cars and historically significant race cars in the world, definitely more my cup of tea! All are housed in their Stow, Ma facility in purpose built buildings. Included are some pictures which give an idea of the grand scale of the collection and magnificent gardens of the estate.

I also visited the private workshop and restoration business of Dick Shappy Classic Cars. Mr Shappy himself showed our group around his establishment and restoration shop. He has been in the business of classic era car restoration for over 30 years. He primarily focusses on the restoration of 1930-1940 V16 Cadillac’s. It is an education to see the work undertaken and often complete body panels and parts have to be recreated from scratch since parts are just not available on these super rare cars. The quality of restoration is beyond description and a pleasure to see. A more affordable and less rare car compared to the 16 cylinder cars in full restoration mode in his workshop was a 1957 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz Convertible in a striking metallic green colour with a white top. Whoever the lucky owner of this car is, will be getting a brand new car after a no-expense-spared-nuts and bolt restoration! Some guys have all the luck!

Unfortunately time did not permit me to stay for the last day of the Grand National, when the final parade and judging took place. I wait with keen interest to see which cars were the final winners in the various classes, but that will only be revealed once I receive the October issue of the Cadillac Club Magazine.

All too soon my stay on the East coast came to an end and I had to bid farewell to friends made at the event. Luckily I still had the Cadillac Picnic in Seattle to look forward to.

The annual Pacific Northwest region of the Cadillac club holds their picnic and gathering every August. This year the event was held in the picturesque little town of Ruston, which is about 1 hour’s drive south of Seattle overlooking the Puget Sound.

No less than a total of 37 Cadillac’s and La Salle’s registered for this event. At first I had my doubts about the turn out, as in typical Seattle fashion rain showers and fog greeted us on the day. It soon cleared up and a beautiful sunny early autumn day remained, perfect for a classic car event. A large variety of cars made their arrival. The oldest Cadillac on display was a 1918 Model Phaeton and the newest being a 2011 CTS-V Coupe! The classics and traditional Cadillac’s as we know them were eye catching, but what really attracted my attention was the V-series Coupe, which is the ultimate in modern Cadillac technology and refinement. This is the performance range car that Cadillac has on offer, similarly to what AMG and Motor Sport means to Mercedes and BMW.

Gone are the days of your grandfathers wallowing Cadillac when it comes to this car. It is Nŭremburg Ring performance tuned and tested. It has a 556HP supercharged V8 engine. This is pure adrenaline on wheels. I was fortunate enough to test drive one of these beasts at the local Cadillac Dealership. All I can say is that it is mindboggling fast and for fear of being pulled over by the highway patrol men I kept the performance runs to a conservative level. Suffice to say there is plenty of power with a 0-60 time coming up in a blistering 3,9 seconds. That is super car performance figures for a relatively affordable amount of $65 000. In a recent test on USA Top Gear it left a $200 000 Ferrari California in its dust, and that was the station wagon version! Now that is impressive! I like the direction Cadillac is taking to reclaim its Standard of the World title with these models. If only they would return to South Africa!

Until next time, happy motoring

Rudolph Nicholson