On the market: Cadillac's rolling palace of gold

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American car styling of the late 1950s was famously wild, and one tends to associate the period with huge, razor-sharp fins and acres of gleaming chrome. Chrome, though, was de rigueur; it was the least the American car-buyer expected to get for their money. If you were really someone, and you wanted to show it, you could go one-up and choose a car with gold trim.

Cadillacs were the car to have if you were a successful businessman or powerful statesman or sparkling Hollywood star, but none was more exclusive or glamorous than the Eldorado, named after the legendary South American city of gold. The new-for-1956 Eldorado Biarritz was as flashy as they came, with golden badges and optional gold-anodized grille and wheel covers. One of the most expensive cars on the market at $6556, only 2,150 were produced in '56. Even by American standards, the gold trim was perhaps a step too far for many tastes, but it doubtless made for an extraordinary spectacle cruising around the mansions of Beverly Hills, and we're very taken by this extraordinary specimen being offered for sale with Classic Promenade in Phoenix, Arizona.

Said to have been sold new in Kansas City, by the time it was 20 years old it was already highly coveted by enthusiasts and collectors, and it sold to David Ventresca of Los Angeles, who kept an impressive stable of award-winning Cadillacs. Ventresca did not restore the Biarritz, though, and he sold it in 1980 to Harvey Stelte in Alberta, Canada, who intended to restore it. However, he only ever got as far as dismantling it, and no further progress was made until 2015, when it changed hands again. The new owner entrusted it to Art Wright Restorations in Tempe, Arizona, and the result, as may be seen, is extraordinary.

The meticulous restoration was undertaken using only original and new old-stock parts, and the car now presents very handsomely in a factory-correct triple-black colour scheme, with all the gold parts newly re-anodized. The interior is awash with rare original options and accessories. On completion, it won a Senior Award at the 2019 Cadillac & LaSalle Club Grand National Meet. With only 40 miles on the clock since the restoration, it is still very much in concours condition.

A car like this is not for the shy and retiring type, but if you love the excesses of mid-century Americana then you won't find a better car than an Eldorado Biarritz with a sprinkling of gold dust. Equally well-suited to events like the Woodward Dream Cruise as it is to concours d'élégances, the Cadillac could be yours for $240,000 (approx £185,000) and you can read a full description here.

Photographs: Classic Promenade
 

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