West Coast Classics are proud to present a rare and stunning mostly all original example of this 1958 Cadillac Series 70 Eldorado Brougham 365/335HP V8 4 Door Hardtop in a beautiful original 'Deauville Gray' (code 118) color paint with believed to be an original 86K miles and with its all original and very well kept surviving original factory specs 'Light Gray All Wool Mohave Broadcloth over Dark Gray leather with biscuit pattern seats with deep recessed buttons' trim interior, original Dark Gray Karakul pile carpeting with floor mats, original factory signal seeking radio with dual speakers & power antenna, cruise control, Autronic-Eye headlight dimmer, power front seat adjustment with memory, power windows, power door locks, dual heating system, air conditioning, automatic starter, automatic trunk release, LH outside rear view mirror, air suspension, forged aluminum wheels with 15" WSW tires, wide angles 'V' in the center of the hood and fully loaded with rare and highly desirable factory specifications and options.
1 of only 704 built in total over its 2 year production run; 304 built in 1958 and 400 in 1957.
Standard Equipment :
There was no optional equipment offered
Air Cleaner, dry pack type
Armrest, center front
Armrest, center rear custom outfitted
Cadillac Air Conditioner
Cadillac Power Brakes
Cadillac Power Sterring
Cigarette Lighters, two front and rear
Clock, electric drum type
E-Z Eye Glass
Fog Lights
Front Seat Adjuster, 6 Way Power with memory positions
Glove Compartment, custom out fitted
Headlight Dimmer, automatic
Heater, front
Heater, under seat rear
Hydra-Matic Transmission
License Frames
Lights, courtesy or map
Light, glove box
Light, luggage compartment
Lights, back-up
Lights, ash receivers
Oil filter
Outside Mirror, left remote control
Parking Brake Warning
Radio, Transistor
Rear View Mirror, 3 way E-Z Eye
Remote Trunk Release
Visors, translucent plastic
Whitewall Tires, low profile
Window Lifts, electric including ventipanes
Windshield washer
and it's original 365/3335HP V8 engine!
There's no better example of GM's styling and engineering prowess than the 1958 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham - drive one like this particular example and you will see why - its hard to believe that this car was built over 64 years ago! In typical fifties fashion the Cadillac's were given an annual facelift. All new quad headlamps and more chrome, including large chrome bumpers with the grille now outstretched to nearly full car length! A unique and classic design that has stood the test of time! The top-of-the-line Eldorado's added lower rear quarter panel stainless trim and another strip of stainless running from the headlamps back to the midpoint of the car. Interiors were more lavish than ever with thickly padded seats & side panels and the instrument panel continued in its chrome laden horizontal theme.
The Brougham was Cadillac's muscular response to the Lincoln Continental Mark II coupe and was priced much higher in the stratosphere, at an astronomical for its day $13,074! While the Mark II had stressed conservative looks and engineering, the Brougham was radical in every sense! Center opening doors, brushed stainless steel roof, air suspension, quad headlights and Caddy's most powerful and highest horsepower V8 and with a full assortment of high roller accessories and accoutrements including a set of silver tumblers and special lipstick and cologne, as still preserved intact with this particular example and to be sold with the car!!
These are a one of kind rare all American classic milestone car boasting advanced engineering and the ultimate in luxury. Many body and component parts like these rare silver tumblers are today virtually impossible to find.
The frame was stiffer which allowed Cadillac to lower the car by 3 inches. The 365 V8 had redesigned cylinder heads with higher compression and the car was the highest priced car of its day with good reason - fifties excess had virtually reached its peak with Cadillac boasting bigger cars with more chrome and larger fins than ever before! These cars bristled with the latest in modern appointments and had few rivals in the luxury market with a recession making owning one only for the very privileged elite.
As announced in December 1956 and available by March 1957, the Cadillac Series 70 Eldorado Brougham was designed as part of the legendary Harley Earls design studio at GM. Arguably both today as then, this is the most beautiful and definitely one of the most sought-after Cadillac ever built, and was Cadillac's strong response to Ford Motor Companys Continental Mark II. The prototype Brougham was a hand-built, true pillarless four-door hardtop that first debuted as a featured show car in the GM Motorama for 1955 and arrived with a big splash. It was far more flashy than the Continental Mark II, but was beautifully styled and trimmer and more compact than regular Cadillacs. It was derived from GM's flamboyant ultra luxurious 1954 Park Avenue and 1955 Eldorado Brougham town cars, featured at GM's nationally held Motorama auto shows.
More Americans identified with the Eldorado Brougham than with the understated Continental Mark II partly because the 1950s was the most extravagant auto decade this country has seen and the Brougham was stunning with its brushed-stainless-steel roof, polished-stainless-steel lower rear-quarter panels with full rocker sills and rectangular-shaped side body coves cut into the front and rear doors, with horizontal wind-splits set into each cove. The pillarless four-door design had the rear doors opening toward the rear of the car (suicide style), allowing easy access for back-seat occupants. With all four doors open you could barely see the stub B-pillar.
At $13,074, the production Brougham came with every option and power accessory imaginable as standard equipment, including power brakes, power steering, air conditioning, powered memory seat, power windows and venti panes, power door locks, cruise control, automatic headlight dimmer, remote trunk opener/closer, dual passenger heating, rear-seat heater, and standard air suspension, among others. Initially, the Brougham was also planned to have had disc brakes, a Hydra-Matic transaxle, and even fuel injection, but these items would have driven the cost much higher, so Cadillac cancelled them prior to production. The car also came with a glovebox full of vanity items, such as magnetized silver tumblers, tissue and cigarette dispensers, lipstick, and a perfume/cologne atomizer. The Eldorado Brougham sedan was actually a four-door hardtop with no center roof posts carried the stratospheric price of $13,074. A regular Cadillac sedan cost $4,781, and a Chevrolet sedan could be had for $2,048. Only extraordinarily wealthy folks and movie stars thus could afford an Eldorado Brougham. But the car gave Cadillac great publicity and enhanced its reputation for advanced engineering--besides drawing prospective buyers of regular Cadillacs to showrooms. It also gave future Cadillacs with the Eldorado name a reputation for unique styling and engineering advances.
In the end the Brougham was offered for just two years and was available in 15 exterior colors and a choice of 45 different interior combinations, which included Mouton, lambskin, or Karakul carpeting. The Brougham was the brand's flagship and was never intended to be a profit earner. This "Eldo" possessed more upscale features than any luxury auto. It carried every conceivable gadget and cost as much as a new suburban tract home. Fat, rich Cadillac reportedly lost $10,000 on each Eldorado Brougham made, but had never really expected it to be profitable.
At 5,315 pounds, the Eldorado Brougham was a brute and required Cadillacs largest and most powerful overhead-valve V-8 engine. The 365-cu.in. V-8, fed via dual Carter four-barrel carburetors and backed by Cadillacs Hydra-Matic four-speed automatic transmission, produced 335 hp at 4,800 rpm and 400 lb-ft of torque at 3,200 rpm.
The stunning 1957-58 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham is arguably the most lavish car that automaker has ever built. It was by far the highest-priced American auto and was produced in limited numbers to show that Caddy was the luxury car king. The 1958 Eldorado Brougham, which cost the same as its predecessor, can be distinguished from the 1957 model only by its different non-Sabre Spoke elaborate wheel covers. Both had premium wide-oval high-performance tires with narrow-band whitewalls.
The Eldorado Brougham really stood out with its brushed stainless steel roof, unique center-opening doors that locked automatically when the car was put in gear, four headlights (which still were illegal in some states), massive stainless steel "skirts" covering lower rear fenders, exquisite taillights in beautifully shaped fins and a much lower height, allowed by Cadillac's more rigid new tubular X-type frame.
The opulent interior was over-the-top. There were air conditioning and all the usual power options, including a six-way power driver's seat with a "favorite position" memory that moved automatically to facilitate entry and exit. There also were electric door locks and front/rear compartment heating systems with under-seat blowers.
A dashboard control raised and lowered the trunk lid electrically. Also, there were an automatic headlight dimmer and polarized sun visors that became darker when tilted. Remember that this was 1957, when just power windows were a big deal for many cars. The glove compartment contained a fold-out shelf with mirror, matched set of magnetized silver tumblers (which cost thousands if you can even find them now), cigarette case, tissue dispenser, lady's compact, unique lipstick and Arpege cologne in a special atomizer. There were front/rear center armrests, and the rear one had a storage bin with note pad, pencil, mirror and a perfume atomizer stocked with Arpege, Extrait de Lanvin.
You could choose from 15 special exterior colors, besides 45 standard and two special-order trim and color choices. High-pile Karakul or lambskin carpeting were offered. As if all that weren't enough, the Eldorado Brougham was the world's first production car to have an air suspension system for a smoother ride and superior handling. The system used four rubber air spring domes that replaced conventional springs at each wheel. The air chambers were fed by a motor and regulated by levelers to maintain constant body height, regardless of load condition.
The Eldorado Brougham's hefty V-8 started automatically with the ignition on and the transmission lever in Park or Neutral. It was fast for a luxury car that weighed a whopping 5,315 pounds.
Only 400 Eldorado Broughams were made in 1957 and just 304 were built in 1958. That compared with a total of 1,769 rival, limited-production 1956-57 Continental Mark II models from Ford Motor Co., which was General Motors Corp.'s chief competitor. (Cadillac farmed out Eldorado Brougham production to Italy's Pininfarina in 1959 and 1960, but those later Broughams were virtually identical to the regular Cadillacs and only 300 were built.). The 1957 model had a silky smooth 365-cubic-inch V-8 with two four-barrel carburetors that generated 325 horsepower. The same hefty V-8 in the 1958 model got three two-barrel carburetors for 335 horsepower. Power was fed through a four-speed Hydra-Matic automatic transmission.
Amid a galaxy of luxury cars, the 1958 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham was a shooting star. The company only produced 304 in 1958, the second and final year of the lines manufacture. But the cars space-age style and advanced engineering made the Eldorado a household name despite a cost astronomical for the average suburban family.
Cadillac pioneered an X-frame body design for the Eldorado to support its simultaneous introduction of an innovative, self-leveling air suspension, replacing the springs that came before.
Under the hood, this new suspension system combined with the cars V8 engine, new, low-profile tires, and reduced center of gravity to elevate the Eldorados control, comfort, and speed while driving a functional achievement befitting the ultra-modern exterior.
Priced at $13,074 - the hardtop with its rear-hinged door design was the cost of a new, middle-class home. But authentically advanced technology, modern comfort, and stylish stainless steel details more than justified the price tag for buyers. The Eldorados enduring star power (Frank Sinatra was a fan) further cemented Cadillacs legacy as the arbiter of high-end automotive design and performance.
Space Age Convenience - the power operation offered by the Eldorado Brougham was revelatory, owners having a sense of holding the key to technology not entirely removed from that rocketing the country into space. Switches in the rear doors prevented the car from starting if any were open. Headlights transitioned to low beams if a light-sensing eye detected an oncoming vehicle. And both a central locking system and trunk lid could be operated remotely at the push of a button. Air conditioning, a heating system with under-seat blowers, and a six-position, programmable drivers seat were also standard features.
This particular mostly all original survivor was recently acquired with the floor boards, trunk and all the typical rust-prone areas all completely original, solid and rust-free and all original and the car was obviously an always cherished 'Garage Queen' and part of a collection. The car has aging original 'Deauville Gray' color paint matched to its all original time warp 'Dark Gray leather over Light Gray All Wool Mohave Broadcloth throughout with button pattern seats' trim interior with a matching headliner and carpets, all of which are in very beautiful all original condition throughout.
The 1958 Tri power 2 Barrels 365/335HP V8 engine is extremely strong and powerful and sounds absolutely magnificent and this particular car drives magnificently - must be driven to be fully appreciated - does not miss a beat and purrs like a kitten - drives straight as an arrow with no strange road wobbles, shakes or rattles - a truly remarkable daily driver that will give any modern day car a run for it's money! The transmission shifts smoothly through the gears and the car is an absolute pleasure to drive! All the options work as they should including all the power options, the power windows, power seats and the factory air conditioning! The car boasts its original spare wheel and jack in the trunk as well as its original owners manual and the extremely rare virtually full set of desirable vanities including magnetized tumblers, cologne, perfume, cigarette case and leather notebook. Please note that this particular rare survivor has all the vanities with the exception four magnetic tumblers and also that the the original air suspension has been replaced with the factory option coil spring conversion kit!
This is an extraordinarily rare opportunity to own one simply superb and extraordinary mostly all original survivor example of a 1958 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham in both phenomenal driving and looking condition and with almost every possible factory available vanities and options included!
