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Sunday 13 October 2013

Cadillac

Cadillac was founded on August 22, 1902 by Henry Leland, a master mechanic and entrepreneur, who named the company after Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, the founder of the city of Detroit.

Cadillac's first automobiles, the Runabout and Tonneau were two-seat horseless carriages powered by a 10 hp (7 kW) single-cylinder engine. They were practically identical to the 1903 Ford Model A.

Cadillac Model A, 1902. By Iwao from Tokyo, Japan Wikipedia Commons

Cadillac was the first volume manufacturer of a fully enclosed car in 1906

Cadillac was the first American car to win the Dewar Trophy from the Royal Automobile Club of England, having successfully demonstrated the interchangeability of its component parts during a reliability test in 1908. This spawned the firm's slogan "Standard of the World."

In 1911 Cadillac introduced the electric starter and dynamo lighting.

Cadillac introduced in 1928 the synchromesh gearbox, facilitating gear changing.

The longest car ever made was a 100ft-long Cadillac with 26 wheels, a swimming pool, a Jacuzzi, a helipad and a hinged section in the middle to enable it to turn corners.

Chuck Berry owned a warehouse full of old Cadillacs, one from every three or four model-years, all the way back to the mid-fifties. He claimed to be trying to get rid of them, but as nobody would give him a fair price, he just stored them away.

The Doors drummer John Densmore was sued by his remaining bandmates because he wouldn’t let them sell the commercial rights to their songs to Cadillac. Densmore claimed their late singer Jim Morrison would have opposed it. During a six year court battle, he was called anti-American, communist and Al Qaeda supporter.

The US president's Cadillac One (aka The Beast) is equipped with 8 inch thick bulletproof doors, an oxygen system, a night-vision camera, tear-gas bombs, a shotgun, and pints of the president’s blood type.

Source Wikipedia

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