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Over A Century Old: 1914 Cadillac Touring Car

You may have recently read our article on Barnfinds about a 1956 Pontiac Star Chief convertible. That car stirred memories of watching I Love Lucy, and this one is doing the same thing. You see, before Ricky bought the Star Chief convertible, Fred went out and bought a 1923 Cadillac Touring car, which even though it was 9 years newer than this one, is still similar.  This 1914 Cadillac Model 30 Touring car is for sale here on eBay in Astoria, New York. The asking price is $59,500.

Due to Ricky’s notoriety as a rising Hollywood star, Fred agrees to buy a car from a dealer friend for the trip from New York to California, and Lucy wants a Cadillac convertible. Fred pays $300 for the car and after getting so much grief from Ricky, Lucy and Ethel, he returns to the dealer to get his money back. Lucy meanwhile schemes by calling the dealer posing as a television company needing a Cadillac touring car and can pay $500 but gives the dealer a fake telephone number. Fred returns proud and ends up telling the three that he and his friend decide to split the extra $200 profit and Fred paid the dealer another $100, and the dealer gives him the telephone number of the television company, which of course, is fake. All is not lost though. Ricky ends up buying a new Pontiac Star Chief convertible and gets $400 for the Cadillac as a trade in.

Sorry if I’ve gone on a tangent and you wanted to know more about this particular car. However, the dealer does not give very much information about it. I even went to his website and there is hardly any more information there than on eBay. He is more interested in the terms of the sale. Here are the things we can determine about this car: it’s green, it has a black interior, it has a 4-speed manual transmission, and is a right-hand drive. It appears that drivers were given a longer seat than front seat passengers. That’s pretty much original patina you’re seeing in the exterior shots.

According to Standard Catalog of Cadillacs 1903-2005, Cadillac offered seven models in 1914 with the Touring car, being the least expensive model at $1,975 for five passengers and $2,075 for seven passengers. The engine was a vertical, in-line, L-head four-cylinder. Its displacement was 365.8 cubic inches. The dealer does not tell if the engine runs. It rode on a 120-inch wheelbase. Model year production was 14,003 for all 1914 model year Cadillacs. This was the last 4-cylinder Cadillac until 67 years later when a 4 cylinder engine was used in the Cadillac Cimarron.

Sorry, this one can’t be bought for a price as reasonable as Fred got his in 1955. Is this the kind of barn find that interests you at a price like that?

Comments

  1. Avatar Jay E.

    Nice write up! It does bother me that now I am years older than Fred was back in the day when I watched Lucy on a B/W 10″ tv. Back then I always thought Fred was OLD!! At least I’m not pulling my pants up to my belllybutton yet…

    Like 12
  2. Avatar wuzjeepnowsaab

    Why is it a right hand drive? Was that a thing in the beginnings of auto manufacturing?

    It’s definitely 100% cool. I love these old relics that show early engineering

    Like 3
    • Avatar That AMC Guy

      I think at the time manufacturers had not yet realized that was the wrong side of the car to put the steering wheel on. The British still have not figured that out.

      Like 2
      • Avatar Miguel

        AMC Guy, I think is was by design.

        This was a chauffeured car so it makes sense for the driver to be on the right side of the car to open the right door for the passenger without having to run around from the other side of the car.

        Like 0
      • Avatar Scott Tait

        Stupid reply

        Like 0
      • Avatar Miguel

        Scott, who did you direct your comment to?

        Like 0
    • Avatar Brock

      Even Eastern Canada had RH drive in the 30’s where the rest of Canada was LH drive. So occasionally you’ll see Model T’s made in Canada in right drive for local Canadian market.

      Like 0
  3. Avatar 68custom

    I think it is cool as well. Is a brass era Cadillac in this condition a 60 k car? I dont know!

    Like 0
    • Avatar Dovi65

      I’m with you on that. This Cadillac is in great condition for being 104 y/o. That said, IMO $59,500 is overly optimistic. The values for brass-era cars in any condition less than pristine is very low; the market just isn’t there anymore. Even tho they’re mechanically simple, they’re expensive to restore. Cut that asking price in half, and you’ll have a better chance of finding her a new home.

      Like 0
  4. Avatar BAdnikl

    What it could look like.

    Like 5
    • Avatar james Kitchener

      any chance you have a picture of the whole car was thinking about painting mine that color combo but this is the only pic i can find

      Like 0
  5. Avatar Fred W

    LHD slowly became standardized around the time this car was built. For whatever reason, some manufacturers like Packard held onto RHD for several more years.

    Like 1
    • Avatar Dovi65

      Yep .. “we’ve always done it this way, it’s what our customers expect. This LHD thing is just a passing fancy…”

      Like 0
  6. Avatar Ian

    ..re the RHD…..as far as I am aware (and of course up to being corrected) high end cars of the time considered it to be a cut above mass produced cars to be RHD…ie Hotchkiss in France. It was only later in the 30s that ‘posh’ LHD cars in lhd counties came out

    Like 1
  7. Avatar Gaspumpchas

    Wow. amazing to find in this condition. You guys think its worth the coin?? So unmolested!

    Like 0
  8. Avatar Butchb

    $1975.00 in 1914 dollar’s adjusted for inflation would be $49,771 in 2018.
    Maybe the seller is not so far off in his asking price. But for $59,000 could he at least wash the dust off it?

    Like 1

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