Foreword

12/30/2017 Foreword
and admirers of Cadillac and La Salle automobiles. It is, in particular, for those who, like me, are
more interested in the styling of their favorite marque and models, rather than in the mechanical
marvels under the hood. It is also for those who write about Cadillac and La Salle automobiles and
who want to be as accurate as possible in their writings. Finally, it is for all absent-minded Cadillac
and La Salle aficionados who, again like me, can never remember precisely in which book, magazine
or factory catalog they saw the photo of that V16 Town Car with the French body, or read that article
about a special Cadillac "Dream Car". More specifically, The (new) Cadillac Database© is
intended for the many repositories of what my friend and automotive writer Roy Schneider rightly
refers to as:
The Sacred Heritage
Getting the bug
My interest in Cadillac automobiles and history goes back to 1955. I was in my mid-teens when I first
became fascinated by the sheer size and flamboyant styling of American automobiles in general,
compared to the tiny, drab cars of my forgotten childhood in Scotland's industrial west coast just after
WW2.
I was born in 1939. Jock, my late father, married Maman, in Paris, in 1937; she was a 19-year old
French beauty whom he had met in Vienna where both were studying German. Dad taught French
and German in Scotland before he was recruited, in 1947, as a translator by the newly formed United
Nations. He gave me my love of languages ...and of American cars.
In 1947 the family moved from Balloch, on the bonnie banks of Loch Lomond, to Geneva, Switzerland,
seat of the U.N.'s European headquarters. Dad's only means of transportation up to that time had
been his own two feet (ma ain twa feet - as he used to say) and an old Raleigh bicycle he had bought
second-hand when he was still a young student-teacher in Scotland. But on a late summer's day, in
1948, he was captivated - as I would be some 18 years later - by an impressive American car on one of
Geneva's used car lots. It was a 1934 Chrysler CB-6 convertible sedan. He bought it not for its
gracefully flowing fenders and bullet-shaped headlights but rather for its capacity to accommodate
our then 7-member family. Dad didn't know it at the time, but he had just bought himself a rare and
desirable automobile, only 450 units having been built in total.
This is NOT a Cadillac !
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