This has to be one of the oddest PR/ad shots ever, especially for such an exclusive car: a “1960 Cadillac Estate Carriage by Stengel Carrossier”, of which this is the only one ever made. It’s sitting on a dirt road out in a field; doesn’t look much like Hollywood to me.
And yes, although it was built in 1960 and called that, it obviously started life as a 1959 Cadillac. But here’s the really remarkable part: the rear quarter panel is from a 1959 Cadillac Brougham, handbuilt by Pininfarina in Italy. Where did they find that? And here’s the final kicker: this wagon was built in England.
As is so often the case, the site coachbuilt.com has the details:
From the May 1960 issue of Australia’s oldest motoring monthly, Wheels:
“Anglo-American Caddie Wagon
“Built in England for an American owner, Mr. E.D. Hess, this huge Cadillac station wagon was based on a project by Stengel of Hollywood; the design was prepared by James Young of London and the work was carried out by Panelcraft of Putney, London. Cadillac does not include a station wagon in its range so this unit originally started life as a brand new ‘Sedan de Ville’. The car is finished in metallic pink and the seats are leather. Rear cargo deck and walls are lined with wood-grain Formica, bonded to plywood and aluminum, giving strong panels with high abrasive resistance.”
Given that Stengel’s office was just down the street from Coachcraft in West Hollywood, one does wonder why it wasn’t built there. Probably for the same reason it was shot without wheelcovers in a muddy field.
Just wow! I could not fathom how monstrously expensive this car must’ve been for Mr. Hess.
Probably could’ve had a nicely loaded Buick or Olds wagon *and* a stock Cadillac sedan for the same price.
“Exclusive” meant just that.
These days, not so much. If only a few hundred of a car are built, some call that “exclusive.”
Yabbutt :
I’d rather have a CADILLAC STATION WAGON .
-Nate
Possibly the PR shot was taken in England, and the wheel covers had been kept back home in LA. The weather in the photo is much more UK appropriate.
Agree – spent 12 years in the UK and this has a very strong English feel to it. Incidentally, PLM Panelcraft specialized in that sort of thing and converted Aston Martins, Rolls-Royces and Mercedes Benzes into “shooting brakes” regularly.
The actual name is FLM Panelcraft, and I will assume your PLM was a typo.
FLM Panelcraft was an interesting smaller coachbuilder in the Battersea area of London. Founded in the early 1950s by former staff from 3 other coachbuilders: James Young, Corsica, and Alpe & Saunders, the initials stood for H.S. (Nobby) Fry, Robert (Dick) Lee (founders) and W. McNally. Quite a bit of their work was subcontracted by other coachbuilders, as they could often beat even Italian shops for “delivered price”. The coachbuilder would design the vehicle, and FLM would construct it.
I had a Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud with some minor body and interior changes, the sill plates indicated it was by Harold Radford, yet when I was restoring the car we found hidden written marks & labels on various interior bits that identified them as being made by [or for] FLM Panelcraft!
So it’s no surprise to me that FLM built this wagon. I had seen other photos of this one-off Cadillac listed on Kevin’s Cadillac Station Wagon website, but for sometime now the photos on his site have been unavailable. About 10 years ago I tried to do some research into the car’s history, but was unsuccessful, and I fear it didn’t survive.
Yes FLM of course. Back then in the UK there were a few coachbuilders like that who could knock out custom bodies quickly and cheaper than the Italians, Williams & Pritchard was another such enterprise.
That Cadillac is a car to kill for. You are probably right about it having been scrapped long ago but the US is a large place, so who knows…
^This. I’m wondering about the “started out as a Sedan de Ville” text. It could really be that this one-off was originally some sort of base car coming from Pininfarina based off of the Eldorado Brougham (which was manufactured in Italy and shipped to the states).
So, the intent might have been for a factory in England to receive a basic Eldorado Brougham body/chassis from ‘somewhere’, upfit it with the Estate-Carriage bits, and ship it back to LA where the hubcaps (and anything else) were added.
Simply put, it never had the hubcaps in the first place since they were added later when the foreign-built Cadillacs got to the states.
And if that was the assembly plan, it’s no wonder only one was ever made. The 1959/60 Eldorado Brougham was pretty damn expensive as it was. Adding the Estate-Carriage coachwork would have gotten the price into Rolls Royce territory (which may have been why it was built in England, too). I mean, an über-luxury saloon was one thing. But a station wagon? Who would be in the market for something like that?
And the Pininfarina connection could also explain why the Cadillac Estate-Carriage never made it past just the one. If that was the plan, having the Eldorado Brougham (and any other Cadillac) built in Italy ended after 1960, and it would have been even ‘more’ expensive for an independent coachbuilder to ship individual Cadillacs to England for retrofit.
It could really be that this one-off was originally some sort of base car coming from Pininfarina based off of the Eldorado Brougham (which was manufactured in Italy and shipped to the states).
It’s clearly not based on the Brougham, which had 100% different sheet metal (and glass) than the regular Cadillac. This is very obviously based on a regular Cad, except for the Brougham rear quarter panel.
Why on earth would a PR shot be taken without wheel covers on a forlorn dirt road? And in black and white?
Jim Wangers would die.
Hubcap theft used to be a real thing. With a photographer hired and ready, with no hubcaps what else can you do?
Pretty neat ! .
Even better if it someday surfaces again .
-Nate
Amazingly, Peter Stengel explained in a 1960 interview that it was more cost effective for him to buy a Cadillac in the US, ship it to his associate in Britain for the body work, and then have it shipped back… than to have the bodywork done in the US.
I wouldn’t have thought that skilled labor rates between the two countries were quite that different at the time, but I guess they were.
I like the little vent windows behind the rear door.
My first thought was that this would use the standard GM wagon roof from other brands, often done for custom Cadillac wagons in later years, but that doesn’t seem the case here.
The 1959 Cad Brougham was a very limited coach built auto. Converting the Brougham into a one-off estate wagon required big money.
coachbuilt.com ‘s insistence (why???) on the use of first initials instead of actual names makes it difficult to drill down on the identity of individuals. I do wonder if “E.D. Hess” is any relation to the Hess-es of Hess & Eisenhardt.
Six decades later, someone decided to make their own custom version to the tune of a cool $2m:
https://www.hagerty.com/media/magazine-features/cadmad-the-anatomy-of-a-ridler-winner/
This has to be the most unexpected CC-effect (sort of) ever. I was saw a replica Ghostbusters ’59 Cadillac ambulance/wagon on Barnfinds, and wondered if any coachbuilders ever attempted a low-roof 59/60 station wagon. So I sat down to google “1959 or 1960 Cadillac station wagons”, but flicked across to CC for a quick look and lo and behold this post was there… Looks quite a decent conversion too, I’d certainly drive it regularly if it was mine!