Footnotes

Founded by Henry Leland and Robert Faulconer, the Cadillac Automobile Company of Detroit, Michigan, completed its first car in October 1902, the firm's superior precision manufacturing technology soon establishing it as the foremost builder of quality cars in the USA. Always innovators in automobile technology, the company continues to produce cars recognised everywhere as symbols of wealth and prestige.

During the 1930s it seemed that almost every year brought with it a landmark advance in the development of Cadillac's long-running V8, which by the decade's end had been rationalised to a single 346ci (5.7-litre, 150bhp) variant, the expensive V12 and V16 coachbuilt models having been dropped. The Series 62's beautiful Fisher-built 'Projectile' or 'Torpedo' bodies had first appeared on the 1940 range and featured a revised front-end treatment for '41, establishing a pattern that would last for several years. With 150 horsepower on tap, the 126"-wheelbase Series 62s had a decent turn of speed while the chassis was considered remarkable for its manoeuvrability.

This owner-driver Series 62 convertible dates from the last full year of automobile production before Japan's attack on Pearl Harbour propelled the USA into WW2, and is unusual in having been treated to a subtle yet substantive 1940s-style customisation sometime in the 1980s. The late 1940s had witnessed the birth of the modern automotive customising movement, with West Coast practitioners, like the Barris brothers, competing with East Coast rivals. This Series 62 displays many of the era's most popular custom trends: the wings have been 'leaded' into the body; the original convertible top replaced by a hand-built, chopped 'Carson'-style padded top; the headlights 'Frenched' into the front wings; and the stock bumpers replaced with those from a 1947 model. The older dark blue metallic paint presents well, as does the patinated red leather interior, and the car wears authentic, much sought-after Cadillac 'sombrero'-style hubcaps. Boasting twin carburettors on a period-correct Edmunds intake manifold, exhaling through dual exhausts, a mildly tuned 346ci Cadillac flathead V-8 sits beneath the lengthy bonnet. This car also has the pioneering Hydra-Matic automatic transmission, developed by General Motors' Cadillac and Oldsmobile divisions, which had been introduced in 1939 for the 1940 model year.

The Key Collection purchased this imposing Cadillac at Bonhams' Quail Lodge Sale in August 2012 (Lot 433). Sleek and aggressive at the same time, this unique car is a guaranteed head-turner in any gathering and definitely not for the shy and retiring.

Should the vehicle remain in the UK, local import taxes of 5% will be added to the hammer price.