Cadillac Hartmann

One of only two in the world.
If you have never heard of the Cadillac Hartmann don´t be surprised, there is one, the original, which now in the Jim Patterson Collection in Louisville, Kentucky and this one, a hand-built replica which we found abandoned in a shed and is now in our workshop in Southern Spain. Not the sort of thing you see every day.Here´s a bit of history.With the start of the Great Depression late in 1929, the production of custom coachwork on high-quality chassis worldwide would soon slow down to a mere fraction of its previous output. In the US, it caused the majority of coachbuilders to either fold their tents or go bankrupt. In Europe, the situation was a bit brighter, especially in France where the tradition lived on.The famous French design and coachbuilding firm Figoni & Falaschi, located in Paris, first unveiled the design that this Cadillac was later based on at the 1936 Paris Auto Salon. It was very well received and immediately became the new benchmark for a streamlined two-seat roadster in Europe.Philippe Barraud, who commissioned the coachwork for this creation was the son of a wealthy supplier of masonry products. He wanted a custom car constructed on a grand scale and in late 1936 ordered a 154-inch w.b. Cadillac V-16 chassis through the Edelweiss Garage in Lausanne, Switzerland. The Garage was located near Lake Geneva in the area that is referred to as the Swiss Rivera.For a designer and coachbuilder for his Cadillac, he chose Willy Hartmann, who also was located in Lausanne. Yann Saunders interviewed Hartmann in 1937, who told him of producing several drawings for Barraud to consider. In the end, the Figoni & Falaschi likeness he penned with an added tail fin was chosen. The project moved along quickly and the car upon delivery to him in mid-1937.Philippe Barraud kept the car until the 1960s, and it was found abandoned in a Swiss field in 1968 in poor condition. The car has had six owners and was restored at least three or more times. At some point in time, it was misattributed as being a Figoni & Falaschi design and was restored with applied brightwork that mimics its original two-tone paint scheme. It was in the Blackhawk Collection in Danville, CA from 1990 until recently when it was sold to Mr. Jim Patterson.The original V16 roadster has been rebuilt and restored to its former splendour, with its original front and rear ensembles copied from the authentic the car and was unveiled at Pebble Beach in August 2018.Our Replica This is a hand-built replica built over approx. 10 years by an ex RAF engineer in the UK. The body is aluminium on an ash frame and the donor car was a 1969 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham. In 2008 the car came to Spain where it has been parked up in a garden shed until we acquired it.