Cadillac El Camino Sports Coupe Concept Car, 1954
Cadillac El Camino 2-passenger coupe (special order # 1929) presented at the 1954 GM Motorama.
Cadillac El Camino, 1954
El Camino is short for the Spanish el camino real, the Royal Highway,
alias US highway 101. The exhaust configuration, windshield, roof
saddle, spoked wheels, quad headlights, fluted side panel, gull-wing
bumpers with bullet tips all turned up the following year on the
production prototype for the Eldorado Brougham; the shape of the
tail-fins [as used also on the Cadillac La Espada roadster, below],
turned up on the production Eldorado models of 1955, 1956, the Eldorado
Brougham of 1957-1958 and the standard 1958 Cadillac production models.
The pointed bullet-shaped, gull-wing front bumper was shared with many
Cadillac show cars of the period; the bullets were sometimes rubber
tipped; these rubber tips [I call them the Dagmar bra] appeared on stock
Cadillac models in 1957 and 1958. El Camino was finished in silver-gray
and featured a brushed stainless-steel roof.
Cadillac El Camino, 1954
Compare the tail-fins on this car, as also on the Cadillac La Espada
roadster, with those on the production model Eldorado Brougham; the
exhaust configuration, windshield, roof saddle, spoked wheels, quad
headlights, fluted side panel, gull-wing bumpers with bullet tips all
appeared the following year on the Eldorado Brougham prototype. The
fluted lower body panel on the front fender and door was duplicated on
the rear fender of the Brougham prototype for 1955; the pointed, bullet,
gull-wing front bumper was shared with many Cadillac show cars of the
period; the bullets were sometimes rubber tipped; these rubber tips
appeared on stock Cadillac models in 1957 and 1958. Some 1957 prototypes
had white ones. The El Camino and La Espada were the first Cadillacs on
which quad headlights appeared; these became an industry standard in
1958.
Cadillac El Camino, 1954
