The 1912 Official Handbook of Automobiles, (wow, stats and views of brasss era cars still licensed under the Selden patent)

the above delivery wagon is cool, but check out the Locomobile Cup Racer, and the price ... $18,000

the Peerless on the right hand side below... if you read the stat sheet, you might be as amused as I am that the body is known as the "King of Belgium"

the Selden Patent issue:

The above tag has a bit of historical perspective... the Selden company patented the automobile. He collected on every car made... 0.75%

Selden was a patent attorney. His dad was a judge, and a prominent Republican attorney most noted for defending Susan B Anthony.

Yeah, it obviously didn't stand up very long, but for a time, they had the patent on the automobile, and if you wanted to sell a car in America, you either paid a licensing fee or fought them in court.

Henry Ford fought them in court and won... he was obviously better prepared to make a success and a fortune that he'd share with the US Govt by way of taxes, so the right people were persuaded to take the patent of the automobile, and make it go away... the reason given was that the Ford and other cars were using an engine based on a different engine than Selden had patented.

http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2007/05/spooky-no-traction-sliding-on-ice-as.html  

see the whole book page by page at http://www.archive.org/stream/officialhandboo04assogoog#page/n12/mode/2up which is just one of 10s of thousands of online books at http://www.archive.org/

Cadillac motorhome, and a White COE tipping around a corner

 makes you wonder doesn't it.

found on http://allmetalshaping.com/showthread.php?t=2226&page=2 ona  recommendation from Steve... thanks! I've never thought about anyone making a Cad motorhome... makes me laugh

H A Testard's Bicycle and Cadillac dealership (odd combination) 1910 New Orleans

from http://www.shorpy.com/node/9691

Cadillac

Cadillac Sixteen concept car - Great wallpaper (

Cadillac Sts (2008 )

Cadillac cien Concept car

Armored Cadillac DeVille lowrider

Classic 1961 Cadillac DeVille

Cadillac Xlr

Cadillac Escalade 2007

Cadillac Cts V

Cadillac Wtf - Concept car

Cadillac Cts

Cadillac Eldorado Fleetwood Black 1967

Cadillac CTS 2008

Cadillac History:
Founded in 1902 as Cadillac Automobile Company was purchased by General Motors and thirty years later had become a symbol of the high standard of luxury. Cadillac became a pioneer in automotive technology as several cars completely closed, and the automatic start replacing the old cranks and uncomfortable. During the First World War, the Cadillac aircraft engines had a technical, paying them 100% of its production capacity. In the year 1924 the Cadillac company offered a lot of color and chrome paintings, while other automakers offered only in black. In this decade, the automaker innovates once again by becoming the first company in the industry to use a designer, Harley Earl, in place of an engineer to design the bodywork of their Cadillac cars in 1927. The following year, GM has also incorporated two major companies producing car bodies for exclusive CADILLAC, Fisher and Fleetwood, which contributed greatly to the improvement of the line brand automobiles. In fact the methods of precision created by Leland, associated with pioneering the use of advanced technologies has created an image of quality and reliability around the brand Cadillac. Another factor that has contributed to increase the prestige of the brand was the fact that it has become the preferred artistic emerging class of Hollywood of the 20s onwards. The image of that era artists like Clara Bow, William Boyd, Joan Crowcroft, Dolores Del Rio and Marlene Dietrich, reaching in CADILLAC cars in the "Avant Premiere" of his films ended lending the brand a lot of "Glamour" the Hollywood of those years. Other classes also have embraced the brand's models were the heads of state, members of the nobility, magnates, artists and intellectuals from other areas renowned.

Cadillac Escalade Hybrid Review

The temptation was huge to simply let the picture above be the review: A Cadillac Escalade, the ultimate Sumo-class luxury SUV, with the word "H Y B R I D" emblazoned on it.

That would be the easy way out, though. The Cadillac Escalade Hybrid deserves...heck, demands...some serious discussion. After all, the mass perception of hybrids revolves around cars like the Toyota Prius...small fuel-sipping machines that, while luxurious by the standards of even a decade ago, make a show of shunning wretched excess.

Sure, the movement has been to larger hybrid vehicles of late...from the Ford Escape Hybrid to the Nissan Altima Hybrid, but those haven't fully penetrated the public consciousness yet.

And yes, the Lexus LH600 L hybrid sedan, at $105,000 plus, is somewhat more of an apparent contradiction than the Escalade Hybrid, but it's largely invisible...looking like its gasoline-powered variant, the LS460, it slips through traffic unnoticed.

Not the Cadillac Escalade Hybrid. There are NINE...count them...NINE exterior badges proclaiming the word "H Y B R I D", prompting the inevitable questions from fellow motorists, who then have to deal with the answers:

A base price of $72,865.

A curb weight of 5,717 pounds.

403 horsepower from a 6.2 liter V8 gasoline engine.

0 to 60 in 6.8 seconds.

So what could the payoff possibly be? Where's the hybrid come in here? With an EPA estimated 20 miles per gallon city, 21 highway.

Now those aren't earth-shaking numbers, certainly not compared to misers like the Prius (which gets 48 city/45 highway). It misses the TireKicker Top Ten Fuel Saver list. But it is a 50% improvement in mileage compared to the gasoline-powered Escalade, which beats the 38% improvement GM's engineers got with the Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid (although the Chevy's raw mpg numbers are higher).

So, if you have to have a Cadillac Escalade, the Hybrid has its upside in gas savings. Which leaves the question: Do you? Have to have one, I mean?

Well, "have to" is a loaded phrase. As I walked around the Escalade Hybrid when it arrived, looking over the GM PR materials, I was thinking about what a tough sell this particular vehicle was likely to be.

Then I spent a week driving it.

Lord help me, I want one. If GM wants a "yes" vote on bailout money, they just need to send 100 of these to the Senate wing of the United States Capitol with notes saying "Return whenever...or not." The Escalade is luxury and refinement taken to a degree where I'd argue that it's the best car to wear a Cadillac badge in at least 40 years. It imparts a sense that you're not just driving any old thing...you're driving a Cadillac. And covering 150 miles while barely seeing the fuel gague needle move off "F" is a bonus.

Getting 20 miles per gallon in the city out of a three-ton, 400-plus horsepower SUV is something that I would have classified as "the dog riding the bicycle". It doesn't matter how well he does it, it's just that it can be done at all. But the Escalade blows that away by being a really great car that makes you want it. And if that's not proof that American car-building ingenuity is alive and well, then I don't know what is.