LaSalle ranked just below Cadillac in General Motors’ highly segmented prewar marketing strategy, but in its early years, the brand offered many of its upscale sibling’s coachbuilt bodies courtesy of Pennsylvania-based Fleetwood, which GM acquired in 1925 relocated to Detroit in 1931 to work exclusively on Cadillacs and LaSalles. The 1930 catalogue of Fleetwood bodies for LaSalle included various elegant styles, encompassing a large variety of open cars, all with dramatic names that indicated both the fleetness of their lines and the identity of their coachbuilder.

The example offered here is the Seven-Passenger Touring, evocatively known as the Fleetlands, of which only 239 were built, making it one of the rarest LaSalles of its production year. Interestingly, a copy of its build sheet on file reflects that it was originally delivered to the Cadillac Motor Car Company of Maine in Portland, with a notation that it was reserved for the “Bar Harbor Salon,” apparently a special display of the latest models in that popular coastal vacation enclave. One imagines that its early years were likely spent at someone’s summer place on the coast, driven only in the best of weather.

Restored some years ago in a rich medium green with dark green fenders, complemented by cream striping and wheels, over tan leather upholstery and a khaki cloth top, the car retains its numbers-matching chassis, engine, and coachwork, all as documented on its build sheet and with the numbers still visible in their expected locations. Finishes throughout exhibit gentle aging, appropriate to the age of the restoration and conscientious use thereafter. The LaSalle is equipped with dual side-mounted spares with fabric covers and mirrors, a Goddess radiator mascot, dual driving lights, fender lights, wind wings for the front doors, and a set of side curtains in their bag. At the time of cataloguing, its odometer had recorded 33,463 miles.

This is a very attractive automobile, and would still be highly appropriate for driving at one’s summer home—in Bar Harbor, perhaps—or in any number of Antique Automobile Club of America events, with room for the entire family.