{"id":969,"date":"2018-09-05T22:03:30","date_gmt":"2018-09-05T22:03:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/?p=969"},"modified":"2021-03-16T15:49:20","modified_gmt":"2021-03-16T22:49:20","slug":"nethercutt-cadillacs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/2018\/09\/05\/nethercutt-cadillacs\/","title":{"rendered":"Nethercutt Cadillacs!"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I was a kid (and that’s reaching back into the 1950s), there was no finer automobile than a Cadillac.\u00a0 That’s the way it was back then, and even though I’ve never owned a Cadillac, I’d like to someday.\u00a0 The thought that a Cadillac is the best stuck in my mind.<\/p>\n

Today if you’re snooty it’s all about BMW, Mercedes, Lexus, Infiniti, and maybe one or two others.\u00a0 All foreign stuff.\u00a0 I don’t know if foreign cars are really better or if tastes just changed, but back in the day, a sure sign of success was driving a Cadillac. \u00a0 Mercedes was a weird one in the 1950s, and nobody in America had heard of BMW. \u00a0 Lexus and Infiniti were way in the distant future, and if you were to tell somebody you had a Lexus back then, they would most likely assume it was a medical problem.<\/p>\n

I still think the 1959 Coupe de Ville was one of the best-looking cars ever made (anywhere, at any time), but that might be because it’s what I knew as a kid. \u00a0 Let’s see, I would have been 8 years old in 1959. \u00a0 Yeah, those big fins and bullet tail lights were cool.<\/p>\n

So I grew up knowing that Cadillac meant the best something could be (as in “the Cadillac of…”). \u00a0 Cameras, guns, bicycles, whatever…fill in the blanks, and if it was really, really good, it was “the Cadillac” of that product line.<\/p>\n

Sooooo\u2026\u2026.when I saw a series of early Caddies at the Nethercutt last Saturday, I was all over them.\u00a0 The Nethercutt had fabulous cars of all kinds, but the Caddies really did it for me.<\/p>\n

I had been there just a few weeks earlier, we had company in from out of town who wanted to see the Nethercutt, and I was prepared.\u00a0 I had my Nikon D3300 walking-around camera, I had my 16-35 lens (it’s bigger than the camera), and I had enough light to dial in ISO 1600 and get me some Caddy photos.<\/p>\n

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Wow, a very classy 1930 Cadillac, the Model 452A Imperial Cabriolet, with Caddy’s 452-cubic-inch V-16. The colors work. I want one.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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A 1938 Series 90 Convertible Sedan.\u00a0 These cars are amazing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Something slightly more modern…a 1984 Cadillac Fleetwood limousine. This car belonged to a Merle Norman executive who gave it to the Nethercutt Collection when he retired. The Nethercutts were the founders and owners of the Merle Norman Cosmetics firm.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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A 1935 Model 452D 5-passenger convertible. \u00a0 Cadillac only made two of these, and here’s one of them.\u00a0 Wowee!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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A 1937 Series 90 Aero-Dynamic Coupe (yep, that’s how they spelled it). It also had the 452-cubic-inch V-16 engine.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The 1933 Model 542-C Imperial Limousine. Sweet. It’s got the 452-cubic-inch V-16, too.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The 1932 Model 452B Deluxe Sport Phaeton, with the same big V-16.\u00a0 Stunning.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So there you have it. \u00a0\u00a0 The Nethercutt Museum has about 250 vintage automobiles, of which 150 are on display at any time.\u00a0 I’m guessing they have a few more Caddies stashed away, and that gives me a reason to go there again (and I will). \u00a0 If you’re ever in So Cal, you don’t want to miss the Nethercutt.\u00a0 It’s one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen.\u00a0 You might even say it’s the Cadillac of vintage auto collections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I was a kid (and that’s reaching back into the 1950s), there was no finer automobile than a Cadillac.\u00a0 That’s the way it was back then, and even though I’ve never owned a Cadillac, I’d like to someday.\u00a0 The thought that a Cadillac is the best stuck in my mind. Today if you’re snooty … Continue reading “Nethercutt Cadillacs!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[235,96,64],"tags":[258,256,257,54],"class_list":["post-969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-amazon","category-feel-good-stuff","category-gear","tag-cadillac","tag-merle-norman","tag-nethercutt-collection","tag-vintage-automobiles"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=969"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/969\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12526,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/969\/revisions\/12526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}