1954 Cadillac La Espada

This was the 2-seater roadster, companion car to the Cadillac El Camino coupe during the 1954 GM Motorama; body sheet-metal was identical, including the rear deck with its camel-humped tonneau cover [the latter was copied, much later by Ford on their T-Bird models in the early sixties]. La Espada was finished in Apollo Gold, a very light cream color with a metallic golden hue. The cockpit of La Espada featured a central console, bucket seats, horseshoe-shaped instrument cluster. The special, inner door pull-knob appeared 2 years later on the production Cadillac Eldorado Brougham. The dash-mounted rear-view mirror, that appeared also on the Eldorado Brougham prototypes in 1955 and 1956, was moved up to the windshield header bar in the production models. Across the center console was the word Caution warning the driver not to use the large knob below the ventilation controls to operate the plastic canopy top while the car was in motion!