CADILLAC

Cadillac brand was named in honor of a Frenchman Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac (Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac), founded in 1701 in the backwoods American town of Ville-forest d'Etrua (Ville d'Etroit - The City at the Straits). After two years, this tiny settlement has grown into the capital of the American auto industry - Detroit.The founder of a new car company was Henry Leland (Henry Leland, 1843-1932 years). As a youth he worked as an engineer in the arms factories, during the Civil War. He then became a design engineer at the plant Browne & Sharpe. After moving the plant in Detroit this entrepreneur founded the firm Leland and Faulconer, which is engaged in the production of industrial engines, famed for its quality and reliability. However, the origins of Cadillac was still not Leland, and ... Henry Ford (Henry Ford).Even before the foundation of Ford Motor Company Ford in 1899 created the Detroit Automobile Company, which after reorganization in 1901 was named Henry Ford Company. Things were going badly, a year later Ford quarreled with other investors and threw the company. Investors turned to Leland to assess the company's equipment in order to eliminate it. However, Leland was able to convince them that you need to build cars, and took leadership of the company in their hands. That's when she was renamed Cadillac.In October 1902 the first was built the first car of this brand. In January the following year he showed at the New York Auto Show, where he immediately received two thousand orders. Mass production of this model began in 1903. It was like two peas in a pod similar to the Ford Model A, differed only in the engine - the car was lilandovsky. It was a 10-horsepower, single cylinder engine, it is located under the front seat.In 1905, joined the ranks of four Cadillac D. In the same year appeared the first truck Cadillac - it was an easy truck model F. The company became one of the pioneers in the automotive industry, when the single-cylinder chassis was built America's first car with a fully enclosed body compartments. He was released in a single copy, and called Cadillac Osceola, he became the personal car of Henry Leland, but the following year offered buyers a closed coupe model H.In 1909 the firm acquired the famous Billy Durant (Billy Durant), founder of General Motors, but the organization she remained a separate company, and Leland retained the post of president and general manager. In the same year production of single-cylinder model has been discontinued and replaced the old four-cylinder models come with a 30 Cadillac Model 30-hp motor.From 1909-1914 during the "thirty" was the only model of the firm during this time, the volume of the engine increased from 3.7 to 6 liters, and the models in 1912 the world's first electric starter was installed. Before the advent of the main method of starting the starter motor gasoline remained crank. Spin it was quite difficult and dangerous, which was confirmed when a close friend of Leland was zaglohshy start the car. Motor fails to start, crank spinning, breaking his jaw and hapless driver's hand, he went to the hospital where he died. Leland was so distressed by this incident, which sought the assistance of the inventor Charles Kettering (Charles Kettering), who brought the idea of ​​an electric starter to the mind and set the device to the Cadillac. Along with starter machine has an integrated circuit of electrical equipment, in general the same as used on modern cars.In 1915, to replace the four-"thirty of the" Cadillac 51 came with an 8-cylinder V-engine. The transition to the new motor testified a desire to guide the company finally gain a foothold among the manufacturers of luxury cars. The parameters of the new engine was not very prominent: the volume of 314 cubic inches, the power of 70 hp Nevertheless, it represented a major step forward, because in those days the only way to reduce noise and vibration of the engine was to increase the number of cylinders.Beginning in 1917, the company became a division of Cadillac General Motors.Then went out because of a conflict with the Leland Durant. When the U.S. entered World War II, Leland wanted to produce engines for military aircraft, and staunch pacifist Durant strongly prevented this. As a result, a new company founded by Leland Lincoln, which in 1922 was bought by Ford, with time, this brand became the most dangerous competitor for Cadillac.V8 engine survived until 1928, without changing the volume. A major innovation was the emergence in 1918 of removable cylinder heads, and in 1924 - the introduction of the crankshaft with counterweights, which dramatically reduced vibration. In the same year appeared the brakes on the front wheels.As for the body, they are constantly changing in line with fashion trends. The main chassis manufacturers have been known from Fisher and Fleetwood, included in the group General Motors. As argued ads in 1927, a customer could choose from 50 different body types and 500 different combinations of colors and upholstery. In fact, each customer received a totally unique car.In 1927 appeared a small «Cadillac» - brand La Salle, which was intended to fill a hole between the price Cadillac and much more expensive Buick. La Salle is famous as the world's first car, which worked on the exterior of a special designer.He was none other than Harley Earl (Harley Earl), the future chief stylist of General Motors. La Salle cars were produced until 1940.Eldorado Brougham in its original form was produced for only two years. In 1959 he received a new body with a more concise and angular design, which was made by Italian firm Pininfarina. Eldorado Brougham 1959 - an extremely rare car, they were released only 99 pieces. In 1960, after a slight restyling, production was 101 machine, followed by Eldorado Brougham disappeared from the production program.Typical of the 50s "architectural excesses" peaked in the 1959 models that have a body, more like a boat, a massive grille with front position, reminiscent of a jet engine air intakes, and monstrous fins equipped with dual lamps that simulate jetexhaust. After these extravagant fashion fins quickly fizzled out, but they are the Cadillac in a highly truncated form persisted for a long time, becoming the hallmark of this brand, as well as narrow vertical lights.Another landmark year of 1967 was the first, when there was a brand new Cadillac Eldorado, designed for the emerging niche of personal luxury coupe (personal luxury coupe). This machine, which did not have anything in common with other Cadillac, except for 340-horsepower engine, was front-wheel drive. In 1970 at the Eldorado set motors with an enormous volume of 500 cubic inches (8.2 liters), posing 400 hp Detroit megalomania put one record after another, before just two or three years uhnut into the abyss of the oil crisis.One of the consequences of this crisis was the inability to produce an annual re-styling, characteristic of American cars from the late 1920s. From now on, the next model year differed only slightly from the previous ones, if not in any way. In addition, it was necessary to cope with the pouring into the American market is more compact and efficient Japanese and European cars.The answer to this was the appearance in 1976 in the Cadillac lineup of the new compact model, which is called the Cadillac Seville. This machine was designed to discourage buyers from prestigious European brands such as Mercedes-Benz and BMW. Greatly inferior in size full-size Cadillac, Seville significantly superior to them in price, which, however, did not prevent sales that first year were more than 43 thousand cars.The trend toward compactness again manifested itself in the next year, when after a redesign of large rear-drive Cadillac decreased in size. But thanks to the successful design of internal living space is not decreased but rather increased.Past the massive size for some time retained only Eldorado, which since 1976 has lost a modification of a convertible, touted as "the last American convertible."However, the assumption that the Convertible buyers are no longer needed, were not justified, and since the early 1980s a small number of gigs again appeared in the line of American brands. In 1984 he returned to their production, and Cadillac, releasing a model Eldorado Convertible, which was based on a new generation of Eldorado, remains front-wheel, but much more compact.On front-wheel drive models were translated and other Cadillac. In 1980 it happened to Seville, which also has an unusual body style Razor Edge (razor blade), characteristic of the British cars late 1940s. In 1985 full-size front-wheel drive vehicles have become De Ville and Fleetwood. Rear-wheel drive and conservative appearance has preserved only the Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham, with no major changes from the unreleased 1980. In 1987 it was renamed simply Brougham, and in 1993 he was replaced by a new big Fleetwood, which was manufactured until 1996.Sign a model in 1987, became a roadster Allante, which was produced in collaboration with Pininfarina. The chassis for this car was going in Detroit, was loaded on the aircraft were delivered to Italy, where he casteth body, and as the aircraft sent back for final assembly. This gave rise to talk about the wit, "the world's longest assembly line." During the years 1987-1993 was built 21,000 Allante.In 1999, first appeared in the line Cadillac SUV. They became the Escalade, which was a close relative of such large SUVs from GM, a Chevrolet Tahoe and GMC Yukon. Second-generation Escalade in 2002 became the first representative of a new "faceted" design. In addition to a manufactured Escalade EXT, which, like the twin brother Chevrolet Avalanche, is a hybrid SUV and pickup truck. In 2003, in addition to these two models appeared long wheelbase Escalade ESV, which became an analogue Chevrolet Suburban.That same year, Cadillac launched a radical change of names. New models are given names instead of the previous three-letter abbreviations. The first sign of this "rebranding" has become a model CTS - rear wheel drive mid-size sedan. In 2004 it added to the SRX crossover and roadster XLR, first after the Allante. In 2005, Seville took place model of STS, which is available in rear-wheel-drive versions, and in 2006 underwent replacement of long-lived and DeVille. The new flagship of the called DTS, but left front wheel. The models CTS, STS and XLR are also available in the "charged" version that is called a CTS-V, STS-V and XLR-V.First line of Cadillac was drawn up solely by tastes of Americans. But now General Motors headed for the transformation of the brand in the global brand and the name of the first Cadillac models were sold not for the American market.Cadillac SLS model is designed for the Chinese buyer, and is available for Europe Cadillac BLS, which is produced in Sweden and is based on the same platform with the Saab 9-3. So, despite a hundred years behind him, the history of Cadillac has just begun.