Few Cadillacs are rarer than the V-16 of 1933. As with most seasons in this decade, the company had planned to produce 400 examples of their sixteen-cylinder titan. Instead, with the Great Depression continuing to pound sales, the final total was a mere 125. This was despite some of the most visually impressive coachwork of the time, with Cadillac fully adopting streamlining in the form of fully skirted fenders and a long, smooth headline with horizontal louvers, emphasizing the throbbing horsepower beneath.

The example offered here, engine no. 5000082, was originally delivered with a Fleetwood sedan body in San Francisco, as is noted on its factory build sheet. It was eventually acquired in the 1950s by the great enthusiast Jack Passey, who enjoyed the well-maintained original car for many years. He finally sold the car to Fred Weber of St. Louis, well-known at the time for his vast V-16 collection. From Mr. Weber the car was acquired by the McGowan brothers of Connecticut, who, as it happened, had recently acquired a 1932 Cadillac V-16 with a replacement 1933 all-weather phaeton body. The McGowans moved the all-weather phaeton body to their newly acquired, pristine, original 1933 V-16 chassis. The car subsequently received Senior honors in AACA and Cadillac-LaSalle Club judging, as well as a CCCA Primary 1st with a perfect 100-point score for Jarvis Barton of Portland, Connecticut, in 1998.

More recently, prior to its acquisition by the Groendyke Collection, the car spent over a decade in a well-known Southern California collection of V-16s, in whose care it underwent extensive mechanical improvements by Bob Mosier, receipts for which are on file, after which it appeared at the 2008 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. It was also famously driven in the famous Rose Parade in Pasadena in 2012, chauffeuring Grand Marshal J.R. Martinez, as recounted in the spring 2012 issue of The Classic Car. The following year it achieved CCCA Senior and Premier status, with scores of 100 and 99.5 points, respectively.

Only four original examples of the 1933 V-16 all-weather phaeton are known to have survived, including the famous former Al Jolson car in the National Automobile Museum and others that are part of some of this country’s most revered collections. The car offered here has enjoyed continued excellent care as part of one of those stables, the Groendyke Collection, and is now offered here to make its next owner very proud indeed.