Lucille came into my life at a good time. I was feeling aimless and a bit down and she gave me a reason to get my thoughts together and gather up my tools. I don’t know why I named her Lucille; it just felt right. Someone I know suggested I call her Greta. He said it felt right; well, maybe for him. Let me tell you a bit about this beauty so you’ll understand how I got hooked.
I’ve admired the designs of Harley Earl since I was a kid. For the last 60 years, however, I didn’t know his name, just his sense of design. I narrowed down that I wanted a Harley Earl designed car and more specifically, a Cadillac. I narrowed down the years to about 1948 or 1949. The design and mechanics of those years to me were special to me. I chose 1949 since that was the year that the new V8 engine replaced the old flathead design. It introduced greater efficiency and horsepower while reducing the weight and size of the engine.
I Googled “1949 Cadillac” and one of the available choices mentioned that it was in Scarsdale, New York, a Westchester County suburb of New York City not far from my home in Patterson, NY. When the picture opened, I saw this beautiful dark green Cadillac parked on the streets of Scarsdale. The shape, design, color of the Series 62, 4 door sedan all but swept me off my feet. Oddly enough, it had a special New York license plate that said ‘HYDRMTIC’. I found that unusual. Why would anyone advertise that their car had an automatic transmission? To each his own. As days passed, I returned to that page repeatedly. I found that the car had been one of those participating in the Scarsdale Concours d’Elégance back in 2005. Well, we all have dreams and this was mine.
As I got more serious about actually buying an old car, I saw an ad in Hemmings Motor News offering a 1949 Caddy in that same nearby Westchester County. Well, that was close enough to be able to check out a car before buying. Previously, I had put in a winning bid on Ebay for a 1949 Caddy in Maine. The reserve was not met and I didn’t get that car, although the seller later contacted me about making a deal. As we exchanged emails, more and more faults of the car came out and I backed away from any deal. Now, looking back at that car, I was lucky not to get it.
I contacted the seller of my Hemmings’ Westchester County car who answered many questions and agreed to send pictures. When I opened the pictures on my computer, I saw that the car’s license plate read, “HYDRMTIC”. Wow! I had stumbled across my dream car. Fortunately, the price was excellent and I just agreed to it. The seller was a financial advisor with an impressive large, old home. He had bought this car 10 years ago at an auction at Lyndhurst Castle in Irvington, NY conducted by Christie’s Auction House. He showed me the published Christie’s booklet showing all the cars entered in this auction, including this beauty. Wow, this car was being sold with other fantastic cars whose values were estimated up to $750,000 by Christie’s. While this car’s value was a mere fraction of the value of the others, I felt it was sitting in good company.
The seller said that his interest in the car had slowly diminished and he wanted something newer. He provided great paperwork with the car, including the actual California license plate on the car when he got it, a copy of the owners’ manual, shop manual, original ‘build sheet’, data sheet, accessories brochure, loads of General Motors paper and some spare parts for the car. Time to clear out the garage!
I wound up completing the purchase and received the Christie’s booklet and the actual auction paddle used by the seller ten years ago. He also supplied ten years of receipts for repairs and purchases for this car. From the information on the paperwork, it was easy to see that he had put about 2,000 miles on the car in ten years (that’s an average of only 4 miles per week!). The car’s finish isn’t perfect and it needs some mechanical attention; however, I’m in love with Lucille and hope to show it off when gathering with my fellow members of the Cadillac-LaSalle and Lambda Car Clubs.
