Subscribe to our Newsletter!

Tag: cadillac

Top 5 ~ Barn Find Cars Edition ~ This Week’s Craiglist Classic Cars for March 13, 2023
13Mar By Brian CoreyNo Comments
Cheap Classic Cars

Top 5 ~ Barn Find Cars Edition ~ This Week’s Craiglist Classic Cars for March 13, 2023

Who doesn't love a good barn find? While we would all surely love to come across a rare barn find Mopar muscle car, prewar Duenseberg or -- hey, I'll take a cool station wagon, please -- we can't all be so lucky. However, that shouldn't stop you from looking for some rusty and dusty metal hidden away in a barn, field, warehouse or otherwise. Let's clear the air, applying barn find terminology doesn't always mean the car is found in a barn. The moniker generally applies to any car that's simply been sitting or seen better days, just like these Craigslist barn find cars for sale. Check out the video below and scroll down to find links and a bit more information on each cheap classic car for sale. Be sure to subscribe on YouTube for the latest finds and more automotive history! Barn F...
Read More
November 25, 1949 – The 1,000,000th Cadillac
25Nov By Automotive HistoryNo Comments
This Day

November 25, 1949 – The 1,000,000th Cadillac

On this day in 1949, a 1949 Cadillac Coupe de Ville rolled off the assembly line, marking the 1,000,000th Cadillac to be manufactured since the company's inception in 1902. Pictured with the vehicle above are John F. Gordon, General Manager; Don E. Ahrens, General Sales Manager; and C.A. Raftrey, Works Manager. Standard specs for the 1949 Cadillac Coupe deVille included a 331 V8 that made 160 horsepower. It could power the approximately 4,250 pound car to nearly 100 mph. It averaged 13.5 miles per gallon when equipped with 4 speed Hydra-Matic transmission. 1958 Cadillac Sedan de Ville, same model as the two millionth Cadillac While it took Cadillac nearly 50 years to reach the one million mark, it'd only be 9 more before the two millionth Caddy hit the streets. It was Februa...
Read More
October 20, 1902 – The first Cadillac is completed, maybe…
20Oct By Automotive History26 Comments
This Day

October 20, 1902 – The first Cadillac is completed, maybe…

According to the book “Henry Leland - Master of Precision,” the final assembly of the first Cadillac took place on this day in 1902, however this date is disputed. Another source points to October 17 as the day the first car reached completion. One account states car number three left the factory on October 16 of that year. So, with that in mind, on, or around, this date in 1902, the first Cadillac rolled out of the plant. The Founding of Cadillac Henry Leland bred Cadillac from the failed Henry Ford Company, Henry's second attempt at starting an automobile business. Ultimately, Henry Ford disembarked the company due to a dispute with his investors over production plans. The dying company's financial backers called upon Leland, a Detroit engineer, to appraise the Ford manufactur...
Read More
August 17, 1915 – The electric starter is patented
17Aug By Automotive HistoryNo Comments
This Day

August 17, 1915 – The electric starter is patented

The name Charles Kettering may not ring any bells unless you are familiar with Kettering University in Flint, Michigan, but this US inventor is the man you can thank for your car being so easy to start. On this day in 1911 he received US Patent #1150523, the electric starting motor for the automobile.  Kettering didn’t exactly invent the automatic starter, but he did make it work for cars of the era. Early automobiles required a person to hand crank the motor to start it. Incidents often led to broken hands, wrists or even shoulders, but one accident was much worse. Byron Carter, the founder of Cartercar, came across a stranded motorist in Detroit during the winter of 1908. When the driver forgot to retard the spark the crank kicked back and broke Carter’s jaw. Due to complications...
Read More
June 15, 1911 – The electric starter is patented
15Jun By Brian CoreyNo Comments
This Day

June 15, 1911 – The electric starter is patented

The name Charles Kettering may not ring any bells unless you are familiar with Kettering University in Flint, Michigan, but this US inventor is the man you can thank for your car being so easy to start. On this day in 1911 he filed for US Patent #1150523, the electric starting motor for the automobile.  Kettering didn’t exactly invent the automatic starter, but he did make it work for cars of the era. Early automobiles required a person to hand crank the motor to start it. Incidents often led to broken hands, wrists or even shoulders, but one accident was much worse. Byron Carter, the founder of Cartercar, came across a stranded motorist in Detroit during the winter of 1908. When the driver forgot to retard the spark the crank kicked back and broke Carter’s jaw. Due to complication...
Read More
February 16, 1843 – Henry Leland, founder of Cadillac & Lincoln, is born
16Feb By Automotive HistoryNo Comments
This Day

February 16, 1843 – Henry Leland, founder of Cadillac & Lincoln, is born

Henry Leland, founder of Cadillac and Lincoln, was born on this day in 1843. He began his professional engineering career in the firearms industry, including time spent at Colt. His exceptional eye for toolmaking, manufacturing and parts interchangeability resulted in him and partner Robert Faulconer founding Leland & Faulconer Manufacturing Co. in Detroit. Faulconer, left and Leland, right, at their Detroit office. Though he worked on engines as early as 1870, it wasn’t until the automobile industry’s rapid expansion that he found it lucrative, initially as the engine supplied for Ransom E. Olds. Then, in 1902, partners of the already defunct Henry Ford Company approached Leland & Faulconer to conduct an appraisal of the Ford factory and toolings prior to liquidation. L...
Read More
February 3, 1948 – The first automotive tail fins hit the road
3Feb By Automotive HistoryNo Comments
This Day

February 3, 1948 – The first automotive tail fins hit the road

General Motors design chief Harley Earl was an inspired man after gazing upon a twin-tailed P-38 Lightning fighter plane of WWII. By borrowing elements of the plane’s design he ushered in the tail fin era of the automobile, starting with the 1948 Cadillac, the first of which left the factory on this day in 1948.  Above: 1959 Cadillac Coupe deVille, the year fins hit their highest point. By Brian Corey. Top: 1948 Cadillac Series 62 by sv1ambo.  CC 2.0 https://flic.kr/p/eg2nf2 The style proved popular and spread through American automotive design centers and then around the world. By the end of the 1950s, fins had grown from small projections to massive wings with sharp edges. Following an apex in 1959, in which Cadillac again stole the show with its enormous fins, the d...
Read More
December 21, 1945 – General Patton dies following mysterious car accident
21Dec By Automotive HistoryNo Comments
This Day

December 21, 1945 – General Patton dies following mysterious car accident

Patton's wrecked Cadillac On December 9, 1945, U.S. General George S. Patton, received an invitation from his chief of staff, Major General Hobart Gay, to go pheasant hunting off-base, near his German post. Patton, riding next to his preferred chauffeur, Private H.L. Woodring, noticed the dog belonging to their hunting guide was riding in an open top Jeep behind them. Believing the dog to be cold, Patton asked his driver to pull over and bring the dog into their car. In doing so, Patton moved to the rear of the vehicle, and allowed the dog to ride upfront. It was a simple act of kindness toward an animal that would prove fatal.  Not long after their pit stop, Patton observed burned hulks of automobiles on the side of the road. To this he said, "How awful war is. Think of the waste."...
Read More
Cruiser or Loser – Cheetah print 1977 Cadillac Eldorado for Sale – $6,295
12Nov By Automotive HistoryNo Comments
Cheap Classic Cars

Cruiser or Loser – Cheetah print 1977 Cadillac Eldorado for Sale – $6,295

What's got purple paint, cheetah print interior and a V8? Alright, it's not much of a riddle since you clicked on the picture to get here, but come on! Check out this 1977 Cadillac Eldorado for sale on Craigslist in Omaha, Nebraska (Go Huskers!) for $6,295. While I probably wouldn't bat an eye at most late 70s Caddys, this thing sure is striking. Unfortunately the seller doesn't say too much about it or provide nearly enough pictures of this, uh, beauty, but let's see what we can decipher. What's a pimpmobile? Sure, the purple paint is what first got my attention, but the cheetah print interior on this Eldorado kept me from surfing away. Based on the ad, it is hard to tell if the current seller did the car up like this or if it has some history that isn't shared. In either ...
Read More
October 18, 1934 – Automatic transmission patented
18Oct By Automotive HistoryNo Comments
This Day

October 18, 1934 – Automatic transmission patented

Oscar H. Banker, an Armenian-American inventor born in 1895, filed for a patent for a new type of automatic transmission on this day in 1934. The automatic transmission wasn’t a new idea at the time, but it had hardly been perfected. General Motors and REO each debuted a semi-automatic transmission the same year, but both were found to be quite unreliable. Even though Banker’s patent, which used hydraulic force and had no need for a manual clutch mechanism, was viewed as more durable, safe and easy to use, it took years for any automaker to give his invention a shot. General Motors offered the first mass produced automatic transmission vehicles using queues from Banker’s design with the release of the 1940 Oldsmobiles and Cadillacs. Above: Oscar Banker. Top: 1940 Oldsmobile by Sicn...
Read More

This Day in Automotive History is a transportation history, car history and general automotive history website dedicated to providing informative and entertaining content. Our goal is to enlighten our readers by producing and publishing automotive content on a wide range of topics, including famous cars, important automotive inventors and engineers and other historic automobile related events, places and people. We encourage you to share our page and connect with us on Facebook or sign up for our automotive history newsletter at the top of this page. If you have any questions about the content we publish, including our car videos and car history pictures and text and the use of them, please don’t hesitate to contact us using the below email address. On occasion we post classic cars for sale from Craigslist, Facebook and other online marketplaces. We utilize imagery from those ads in a fair use fashion. This includes barn finds for sale, muscle cars for sale, vans for sale, station wagons for sale, trucks for sale and other affordable old cars for sale. If you’d like your car featured, reach out to us!

Facebook Twitter Instagram

Contact Us

©2022 Cars & Copy Media Co.

This Day in Automotive History is product of Spare Change Multimedia LLC, DBA Cars & Copy Inc.

Proud Member of the Port Gardner Vintage Auto Club
Click the Logo to Read Our Privacy Policy

If you learned something today,

please buy me a beer!