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| 1950 CADILLAC Page one |
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Cadillac began reaching for U.S.
luxury-car leadership in the Thirties, and clinched it for good in the Fifties.
Symbolizing its achievement was the 1958 death of Packard, once
America's premier prestige make, due to an over-long reliance on
medium-price products and a crippling 1954 merger with troubled
Studebaker. Lincoln would never threaten Cadillac's supremacy in the
Fifties, owing to a more limited lineup. Nor would Chrysler, even after
spinning off Imperial as a separate make after 1954.
Initially sized at 331 cubic inches, the Cadillac V-8 was the product of 10
years research and experimentation. It was mainly engineered by Ed Cole,
Jack Gordon, and Harry Barr, who aimed for less weight and higher
compression (to take advantage of the higher-octane fuels promised after
the war). These factors dictated the overhead valve arrangement, a stroke
shorter than bore (3.63 inches, versus 3.81), compact wedge-shape
combustion chambers, and "slipper" pistons. The last, developed by Byron
Ellis, traveled low between the crankshaft counterweights, allowing for
short connecting rods and low reciprocating mass.
With all these advantages, the ohv arrived with 160 bhp, 10 more than
Cadillac's last 346 L-head V-8 -- and from less displacement,
testifying to its efficiency. The ohv had other advantages. Though built of
cast iron, like the L-head, it weighed nearly 200 pounds less, yet would
prove just as durable and reliable. Initial compression was only 7.5:1, yet
could be pushed as high as 12:1; the L-head couldn't. The ohv also boasted
more torque and 14-percent better fuel economy. Equally important, it had
room enough to be greatly enlarged -- as it soon was.
This superb engine combined with a surprisingly competent chassis to
make early-Fifties Cadillacs some of the best road cars of that day.
Chicago enthusiast Ed Gaylord, who backed the short-lived Gaylord car of
mid-decade, owned a 1950 Series 61 with standard shift and 3.77 rear axle.
He also had a new Jaguar XK-120 at the time. Gaylord later said that "the
Cadillac was the faster car up to about 90 mph. [It also] set what was then
a stock-car record at the original quarter-mile drag races in Santa Ana,
California .... The only competition I had in acceleration was from the
small 135-horsepower Olds 88 coupe, but the Cadillac engine was
substantially more efficient both in performance and economy." Indeed,
such a car could clock 0-60 mph in around 13 seconds and easily top 100
mph.
Of course, such exploits mattered less in showrooms than the smooth,
powerful V-8 itself. And Cadillac had another advantage going into the
Fifties: GM's equally smooth and efficient self-shift Hydra-Matic Drive, by
then standard on all models except the low-priced Series 61. Together with
the V-8, it made for luxury-car performance demonstrably superior to that
of rival heavyweights with less vigorous drivetrains. Though the V-8 would
remain at 331 cid through 1955, it gained over 100 bhp in the interim,
reaching 270 on that year's Eldorado.
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