1939 Cadillac Sixty Special Madam X At SEMA: Live Photo Gallery
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The annual SEMA Show in Las Vegas is typically not a place you’ll find wanting for high-end custom machinery, and the 2021 event held last month was no exception. Among the many highlights of this year’s show was an array of vehicles plucked from the Chip Foose Collection, including this – the 1939 Cadillac Sixty Special Madam X.
To explain why this thing is so special, we must first go back to the early days of General Motors and a man named Harley Earl. Back in 1927, General Motors appointed Earl as the head of the newly created Art and Colour Section, a division specifically devoted to vehicle design. At the time, automobile design was focused on utilitarian features, rather than aesthetics, but as the success of Earl’s Art and Colour Section grew, the rest of the industry eventually caught on to the importance of vehicle styling.
The first vehicle that Earl created under GM’s Art and Colour Section was based on a 1927 LaSalle chassis, with a body for Lawrence Fisher. However, the design was created by lowering the chassis by four inches and adding a two-piece windshield. The pillars were also quite thin, which prompted the use of a stronger steel construction, rather than the traditional wood frame. The resulting vehicle was dubbed Madam X, taking after a popular show of the time, and the name was reused for further one-off projects thereafter.
As for the vehicle featured in these photos, it was created by American automobile designer Chip Foose as a nod to those original Madam X vehicles. The design is a reimagining of a 1935 concept by Art Ross, which was first created as a study for the 1938 Cadillac Sixty Special.
Starting with a 1939 Cadillac Sixty Special four-door, the body was modified into a two-door layout with a removable top, while the body lowered and shortened.
The overall look is stylish and clean, incorporating classic coach-building aesthetics with a subtle modern touch. That includes the interior as well, which is dripping in rich leather upholstery and wood trim.
Check it out in full with these exclusive photos from the 2021 SEMA Show, and make sure to subscribe to GM Authority for more General Motors-related SEMA news, Cadillac news, and around-the-clock GM news coverage.
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Wonderful, that.. we call Cadillac…
Hermoso Cadillac , pero nació del Buick 1937 es el mismo auto , pero aún así me fascina ese hermoso Cadillac
That car oozes class. Even the name does.
When a Cadillac was a Cadillac.
Just love the detailing in the hood ornament. Would be nice Cadillac reintroduce a hood ornament similar in modern design for a super ultra luxurious sedan or coupe. Highly doubt the CELESTIQ will get a hood ornament though but you never know what Cadillac have up their sleeve anymore.
Unless Celestiq gets the hidden hood ornament treatment via RR style.
Yea that would be so cool a crest coming out of the hood. What a good idea. 🙄
What’s your good idea, a Cadillac version of the Spark?.
Nah, blow RR outta the water and thwart punk-a$$ thieves by going next-level : Hologram hood ornament.
I think Cadillac would do well if it borrowed more of its styling cues from this era. Timeless design.
And borrowed the thinking of what Cadillac IS too….
Agreed, GM has purposely destroyed it’s heritage as a Luxury brand. For those reading who don’t know … Ford put the nation on wheels, cheap Model T, but wheels. GM’s management at the time saw the changes in lifestyles to lower,, middle class, upper middle class, and first class to put it one way. Chevrolet was the working man’s car, Buick was the next step up along with Pontiac for the sports minded, Oldsmobile was the third rung in the ladder moving up in luxury an features,and as a individual moves upward in status, then when you’ve arrived at the height of your career … a Cadillac. Today GM’s blunders has costed then heavily, Chevrolet’s models are blurred mess of suvs an pickups, Buick’s heritage as a coup, sedan, an wagon with upscale feathers, gone … Pontiac an Oldsmobile really gone … and Cadillac in no manner shape or form is it what it was. GM’s attempt to make it a sports car brand really hasn’t worked. I was up to my Oldsmobile in GM’s ladder when they ruined things. By now we’d very likely owned a Seville, not a land yacht, but all the style that made Cadillac … a Cadillac. And GM … 40 to 50 years from now what cars will be shown at car shows … with the exception of the 1940 Jeep of WWII fame, forget about ANY suv … it will be vehicles like the 1966 Impala Wagon that was featured in this forum, … it is 2062 and a car close to 100 years old still steals the car shows.
In the future will anyone be celebrating the spiffed up Chevy suvs they call Cadillac’s now?
when cars were cars ànd Cadillac was standard of the world. To bad that ended.
Now that ladies and gentlemen is a Ride.
Beautiful car. When is the LS swap?
Art and Colour Section. That department must be closed? Where have all the Harley Earls gone?
Mike Wolf (American Pickers) about two to three years ago discovered and bought the original 1929 Madam X prototype Cadillac that started the series, paid over $90K for the car.
Great car seen it many times , cars is owned by Wes Rydell in Grand Forks ND and mostly built by his guys from guidence by Chip at Wes’s Toyshop at his dealership watched its progress over the yrs Wes drives it alot
That is nice. This and photos of other classic Cadillacs should be in the Cadillac design studio for inspiration if not already.
The only inspiration that is tolerated is cost cutting…
Note the full size front very comfortable bench seat. The seat invites you to sit on it. Deep cushion, wiggle room comfort, beautiful full leather. Leg, thigh, buttocks, spinal and back comfort at it’s finest. Now we have small, foam padded twin bucket seats with a big really minimal functional ice chest type separator between the driver’s and front passenger seats.
The great vehicle designers RIP. They are spinning in their graves when they see today’s concoctions.
Spinning in their graves? I’d like to see a working tachometer on their headstones.
Agreed, I was hit (an hurt) by a drunk driver, bucket seats and stupidly large center console makes for an uncomfortable ride. The auto manufacturers should offer bench seat, column shifter. Those of us with mobility issues need this, it isn’t a “whim” but a genuine need. I’m hoping that GM makes good on their deal to produce the short box, reg cab pickup in the WT trim level. That will assure a bench seat w/arm rest and column shifter. You’d think that the auto manufacturers would realize (and for various reasons) that a column shifter and bench seat w/fold down arm rest would be a option. Come on GM get with the deal, and make what we want, not what you want.
It’s not just mobility issues but how we are built. I am a big man, but with short limbs. I tend to drive with my right leg canted over while on cruise control, and the consoles are in the way.
I love my Pacifica because it lacks a console, but my needs have changed and am in the market for an all-wheel-drive vehicle. I don’t want a pickup, and about the only other option is a base model Tahoe, but then I can’t get stuff I need for comfort because they are not offered in the base. To get those items, I need to move up and *ding!* I get a console.
Agreed. Like you have mobility issues. ALL the auto builders need to offer every model with a bench seat w/fold down arm rest, and dash or column mounted shifter. GM is suppose to offer the Silverado
Pickup (know you don;t like trucks, not my 1st choice either) in the Work Truck Trim w/reg cab. short box style. I’m actually leaning towards this with their great 4 cyc engine. You can “dress up” a WT to look like the $50K trucks. Just tossing another option out there for you and other like us who if they could would bail on a center console in a minute. Take notes GM, your competition is.