8/10: Rolls-Royce Phantom III (1936–1939). What happens when you lock the accountants in the closet.
The Rolls-Royce Phantom III (1936–1939) was the ultimate prewar indulgence: Rolls’ first and only in-house V12, a 7.3-liter monument to both engineering ambition and the dangers of unchecked optimism. When Rolls-Royce returned to V12s fifty years later, the engines arrived courtesy of new corporate parent BMW. With 24 spark plugs, twin distributors, and hydraulic tappets that did more to enrich specialist mechanics than owners, the Phantom III introduced centralized chassis lubrication and built-in hydraulic jacks so the chauffeur could fantasize about self-sufficiency. The largest formal bodies tipped the scales at over 7,700 pounds and required a 40-gallon fuel tank just to make country touring feasible, as well as an engineer on staff. Owners specified everything from top-hat-height roofs to decanter cabinets to one Maharajah’s custom shooting brake. Goldfinger’s gold Phantom III is fiction, but everything else was real: the engine drama, the annual gin budget for the service department, and the suspicion you’d accidentally purchased a rolling full employment program for British mechanics.
8/10: Cadillac Eldorado Brougham (1957–1960). Same closet, new accountants.
Two decades later, the 1957-1960 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham served as the Phantom III’s spiritual successor stateside. Built in two acts, 1957–1958 (Detroit-built, 400 units), and 1959–1960 (body by Italy’s Pininfarina, 200 units), the Brougham was a $13,074 moonshot. Americans could buy a house for less. GM lost between $10,000 and $13,000 on each one, fiscal self-harm disguised as a car. Standard features included rear-hinged suicide doors, a brushed stainless steel roof decades before John DeLorean borrowed the idea, self-leveling air suspension, a glovebox vanity kit, and actual magnetic whiskey glasses so you could toast your financial acumen on the move. It had the Autronic Eye for automatic dimming high-beams (in the 1950s!!), and individually blueprinted 365 V8s, each hand-selected and balanced for its assigned Brougham.
The 1959–60 Broughams, with shells by Pininfarina shipped from Italy to Detroit for final assembly, traded the suicide doors for more conventional ones but gained the dubious distinction of being the first Cadillacs, but not the last (Allanté anyone?), built by the same carrosserie that clothed Ferraris. Elvis had one, but the real legacy is the lesson in what happens when Detroit takes on Rolls-Royce using brute force and a blank check.
8/10: Cadillac Fleetwood Talisman (1974–1976). Leave those accountants alone!
Finally, the Cadillac Fleetwood Talisman (1974–1976) was peak post-oil crisis Detroit, the showroom equivalent of gilding the lily and then adding throw pillows. Four individual Medici velour “captain’s chairs,” full-length padded consoles front and rear (with illuminated fold-out writing desks), matching footrests, shag carpeting, seatbelt buckles that vanished into the upholstery, and pillows for every occupant. The Talisman’s order form was pure committee fantasy. Imagine if the Princeton library had a Cadillac badge. If Cadillac could have grown actual ivy up the C-pillar, it would have. All this in a body just under 20 feet long, weighing nearly three tons when loaded. Fully optioned, the Talisman crested $13,000 in 1974, at a time when a new Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow was $16,000. Cadillac sold about 4,900 Talismans across three model years before OPEC, inflation, and reason intervened. Today, survivors are plush shrines to an era when velour was luxury and the answer to imports’ precision was “add more cushions.”