ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTEEN years young

Think Cadillac and most of us will picture its over-the-top ’50s models, with shark fins, bullet-shaped tail lights, curvy bodywork, and lashing of chrome and whitewall tyres, but the history of this luxury brand stretches back to 1902. A pint-sized piece of that early history lives right here in New Zealand. Laurie Cocker’s 1906 Cadillac Model M delivery wagon may be pushing 115 years, but it remains a proud reminder of Henry M Leland’s early ambitions.

What would become a core General Motors brand rose like a Phoenix from the ashes of the original Henry Ford Company. Henry and a handful of key staff left the company in 1902, just a year after its founding. The Cadillac story began when Ford’s backers William