Two 1930s Cadillacs at Pebble Beach, built in 1984?

Pebble Beach has shown that it is not only the focus of brands with models that cost figures with several zeros, but also the stage for strange historic models that are auctioned to the highest bidder. As an example, this pair of Cadillacs: one from 1934, the other from 1937.

But what if I told you that both cars were built outside the Cadillac plant during the days of the Great Depression, only in 1984. Would you believe it? That has been the fate of a roadster and a phaeton that were sold for almost a million dollars each.

The history of these two models takes us back to the days when Cadillac had a special division that bodied cars to order, according to the specifications of its wealthy buyers. And since during the Depression not everyone had enough money to buy a made-to-order Cadillac, these two models remained in the archives, immortalized only as sketches in the original design drawings.

In 1984, a man named Frans Roxas rescued those sketches and built these two examples to the exact factory specification, using period Cadillac chassis and two V16 engines of the same make. They were named “5802” and “5889”, serial numbers assigned by Cadillac at the time.

Both cars, designed in the 1930s but built in 1984, were displayed at Pebble Beach, and not only did they win the award in their class, but they were also auctioned: one sold for $962,500 (the 5889 phaeton in black) and the other reached a million… plus a thousand dollars; genuinely good figures for two classics that nobody wanted to buy in their day.

Via | LeftLane News