The unique Cadillac Elegante, featuring an Italian aluminum body and 24-karat gold trim, went to auction for the first time more than 70 years after it was built. It became the most expensive Cadillac ever sold at public auction.
The 1953 Cadillac Elegante turned out to be more than just another expensive American classic. The unique coupe sold for $1.275 million at a Kruse Auctions sale in Auburn, Indiana, setting a new public auction record for a Cadillac.
The previous record belonged to a 1934 Cadillac V16 Fleetwood Aerodynamic Coupe, which sold for $940,000 in 2023.
The Elegante is also notable because Cadillac never officially built it. The car was created by two enthusiasts who decided in the early 1950s to build an American sports car inspired by the striking concept cars of the era.
To develop the exterior design, the friends turned to Albrecht von Goertz, who had recently opened his own design studio, Goertz Industrial Design.
At the time, Goertz had not yet achieved the fame he would later receive. He would eventually create one of the most famous German cars of the 1950s, the BMW 507. The Elegante is considered one of his first independent automotive design projects.
After the design was completed, the project moved to Italy. Through Mascari's connections, the work was assigned to Turin-based coachbuilder Carrozzeria Rocco Motto.
It took the Italian craftsmen about 30 months to hand-build the body entirely from aluminum. The Cadillac chassis was also lowered by about 8 inches, making the Elegante significantly lower and sportier than the production Series 62.
The result was a two-seat car with a long hood, a panoramic windshield, prominent rear fins, and four headlights. The latter feature looked particularly unusual in the first half of the 1950s: four-headlight designs did not become widespread in the U.S. until several years later.
But the Elegante's most striking visual element was gold.
The body was painted pearl white, while nearly all of the decorative elements received 24-karat gold plating. The headlight bezels, wheel covers, windshield frame, door handles, side trim, and rear body details were all gilded.
The gold theme continued inside the cabin. It covered the dashboard, instrument bezels, door components, radio trim, and other decorative details.
The interior was finished in deep burgundy Italian leather and red carpeting. The hardtop headliner was also covered in perforated red leather.
One of the most unusual details was a thin transparent steering wheel made from Lucite, a type of acrylic glass. Its center section featured illumination, while a St. Christopher medallion was mounted inside. St. Christopher has traditionally been regarded as the patron saint of travelers.
However, the Elegante was notable for more than its decorative touches.
The car featured a complex retractable hardtop that was advanced for its time. It folded away using a hydraulic mechanism with a system of chains and sprockets. For the mid-1950s, such a design was highly exotic even among experimental cars from major automakers.
The powertrain, meanwhile, remained largely standard. Under the hood was the original 5.4-liter Cadillac V8, displacing 331 cubic inches, inherited from the Series 62. It was paired with a four-speed Hydra-Matic automatic transmission.
Building the Elegante cost approximately $30,000. To put that expense into perspective, a new Chevrolet Corvette cost less than $3,000 in 1953. In other words, the one-off Cadillac cost roughly as much as 10 new Corvettes.
After construction was completed, the car was returned to the U.S. Its public debut took place in 1955 at an auto show in Yonkers, New York.
The Elegante was placed on a rotating platform, and the unusual car quickly became one of the event's main attractions. About 19,000 people attended the show on its first day.
The car even caught the attention of The New York Times. The newspaper published a story about it under a headline that can be translated as "Gilded Car Becomes Reality," calling the $30,000 Cadillac one of the stars of the show.
After that, however, the Elegante virtually disappeared from public view.
Over the following decades, the car changed hands several times. At one point, it ended up with Florida businessman Stan Marks, who was involved in road construction. The Birdsall family tried repeatedly to buy the car back, but Marks refused to sell it.
The car was finally returned to the family in 1992. Harry Birdsall's son Richard, known as Dicky, acquired the Elegante and began a major restoration.
The work took 16 years.
The goal was to restore the car as accurately as possible to its mid-1950s condition, both cosmetically and mechanically. After the restoration was completed, the Elegante began appearing again at classic-car shows and concours events.
Despite its age, the car has just 4,331 miles on the odometer.
The price is especially impressive given the car's origins. The Elegante is not a General Motors factory concept and was never officially part of the Cadillac lineup. Essentially, it is a private project by two enthusiasts built on a production chassis.
But the combination of American engineering, Italian craftsmanship, the work of the future BMW 507 designer, its unusual history, and its near-total uniqueness made it the most expensive Cadillac ever sold at public auction.