SO GOOD HE BOUGHT IT TWICE

There was a time, before World War Two, when American car manufacturers were simply leagues ahead of everybody else. The quality, reliability, style and performance of American cars were much better than what was on offer from their European counterparts. And at a time when American production numbers were already measured by the million, in Europe the biggest car manufacturers were still dreaming of numbers in the thousands. This is why, when we look at European car magazines of the period, we see so many American cars featured and offered for sale: most of the market, even in Europe, consisted of American cars.

‘There was no competition,’ says Nicola Bulgari, a leading Italian collector of American cars manufactured from 1930 to 1950 and the current custodian of this Cadillac V-16. ‘In America, cars were within the reach of the masses, while in Europe they were still reserved for a wealthy minority. In the USA people were using their cars to cross the country, and they needed something fast and reliable. In Europe the same distances were almost always covered by train at that time, relegating cars to a limited, more recreational use.’

As an example, in the 1930s one of the most successful