1938 Cadillac V-16 Town Car, 9053 🇮🇹

This car was ordered by the Paris Cadillac agency for Countess Rosaria de Larecchea de Shiffner. The  Italian widow of wealthy German World War I flying ace, Baron Friedrich von Schiffner.  The Countess ordered the car largely to make occasional trips from her apartment in Paris to visit her daughters in Rome.

As the winds of war began to blow over Europe, the car was dispatched to General Motors Near East S.A. in Alexandria, Egypt to avoid possible delays.  The car was then shipped to Naples, Italy and presumably driven to Paris for final delivery to the Countess. 

In 1948, the Countess passed away and her daughters gifted the Cadillac to Cardinal Francis Joseph Spellman.  Cardinal Spellman was the very powerful and influential Archbishop of New York City.  He was a close friend of the Schiffner family and often visited with them when he was at the Vatican. 

Cardinal Spellman kept the car at the Vatican where he used it for official business when visiting.  As part of the Vatican garage fleet, when the Cardinal was not present, the car was used for official Vatican duties. 

In 1966, as part of a modernization of the Vatican fleet, older cars were sold off to make room for newer additions. The town car was amongst many 1930’s cars offered for sale to the public.  Future founder of the NB Center and burgeoning American car collector, Nicola Bulgari, purchased it.  Mr. Bulgari had a long fascination and association with this car.  He had seen it on the streets of Rome and through his family’s ties to the Vatican he had been up close to the car on numerous occasions.

Less than a decade later, in a move that Mr. Bulgari has characterized as one of the mistakes of his early car collecting pursuits, he sold the car to French businessman, Noel Lambert.

Mr. Lambert was the owner of a trucking company near Lyon, France and he kept his modest sized collection of Classic Era cars in a private museum.  By the late 1980’s, Mr. Lambert was downsizing his collection and the car was sold to Mr. Amman from Arrau, Switzerland.  The car remained in Switzerland before briefly returning to France in the 1990’s.

The car next passed to Richard Beguhn in the United States and finally to noted collector John O’Quinn in 2006. 

After O’Quinn’s untimely death in a car accident, RM Auctions sold off his massive collection of mostly Classic Era cars over a period of more than one year.  The Cadillac Town Car was an offering at the 2011 Villa D’Este auction where it was purchased, again, by Nicola Bulgari.  The one that got away is likely to remain a cherished holding of The NB Center Collection.

The Town Car is in largely original condition with just 63,000 kilometers (39,146 miles) showing.This car was originally painted in Antoinette Blue, but it received a repaint to black sometime in its history.  It is likely this repaint was done by the Vatican garage. In the period this car served, the official color of Vatican transport cars was black. Patches of the original dark blue paint can be seen today in places on the body where the repaint has flaked off. 

The black leather driver’s seat is distressed from years of use but still intact. The rear passenger seat is as sumptuous as a living room sofa covered in its luxurious light brown broadcloth.   When riding in the passenger compartment you feel like you are gliding over the road on a magic carpet.  It is so quiet when in motion, conversations can be held at a near whisper.  

Company
General Motors

Make
Cadillac

Model
38-9053

Body Style
Town Car, 4- door,  7-pass.

Body Manufacture
Fleetwood  Body Co.

Model year
1938

Wheelbase
141 inches

Length
220.625  inches

Engine
V16, L-head, 431 cid

Horsepower
185 @ 3600 rpm

Transmission
3-speed manual

Original Base Price
$7,170

Brand Production
9,458  model year

This Car Production
10

The advertising deservedly pronounced Cadillac as the “Standard of the World” in 1938. As such, they often served as the transportation of choice for the rich, famous, infamous, glamorous and powerful.

The series 38-90 was a new offering in 1938, it was essentially a V8 series 75 car with the same 141 inch wheelbase but fitted with a newly engineered V16 engine. The all new V16 engine was now an L-head with a 135 degree angle making the engine nearly flat. The new engine lowered the production cost and allowed Cadillac to offer this ultimate luxury car while maintaining their position as a major luxury car manufacturer in the US.

The massive series 90 cars needed those 185 horsepower, V16 engines to haul around their bulking weight. The Town Car, like this one, weighed 5,415 pounds.

Only 315, 38-90 cars were produced. Of that total, the Town Car was amongst the rarest with just 10 cars produced.

To understand the Vatican Limousine Collection of the NB Center you need to understand why the Vatican had American cars in the first place. In 1861, the Kingdom of Italy was created by the unification, both voluntary and forced, of the small countries and city-states that made-up the Italian peninsula. Many of the areas taken by the unification were Papal States, under the direct rule of the pope. The pope and the ruling body of the papacy, called the Holy See, retreated from these seized lands to the Leonine City on the shore of the Tiber river across from central Rome. This became the de facto headquarters of the Papacy and by extension the seat of the Catholic Church.

The new King and parliament of the Kingdom of Italy had no wish to be seen suppressing the Church or the pope, after all, the vast majority of Italians were Catholic.  Through an act of the Parliament, called the “Law of Papal Guarantees”, the Kingdom of Italy granted certain powers and sovereign prerogatives to the pope. But, because this law was created by the government of the Kingdom and the pope did not recognize the rights or powers of the Kingdom, the pope did not accept this law. He declared himself a prisoner of the Leonine City, aka the Vatican, unable to leave the grounds for fear the Kingdom of Italy may seize the Vatican as their own. This stalemate,  called the “Roman Question”, remained the status quo from 1861 through 1929.

The government of dictator Benito Mussolini finally negotiated an end to the Roman Question through the Lateran Pacts. This agreement, made February 1929, created the independent sovereign State of Vatican City and granted the full legal and political independence of the pope from the nation of Italy.

For the first time since 1861, the pope was free to move about outside the Vatican. Since no pope had left the Vatican since 1861, they never needed a car. While cars did exist inside the Vatican and the pope had even been given cars prior to this time, they never really had any place to go. To mark the occasion of the signing of the pact, the American Graham brothers, owners of the Graham-Paige Motor Company, donated a car to the Vatican for the use of Pope Pius XI. This 1929 Graham Paige 837 Landaulet by LeBaron became the first car for the exclusive use of a pope outside of the Vatican walls.

The car proved very reliable and comfortable. While the pope had other cars at his disposal, the Graham became the chosen vehicle. The car served both Pius XI and Pius XII  before it was retired from regular use in 1947. The car can still be seen today in the Vatican museum.

In the years since the Graham entered the papal fleet, the Vatican came to appreciate that American cars were less expensive, easier to maintain and less gaudy than the offerings of most European manufacturers. In 1932, the Vatican began to purchase cars from General Motors. In that year they purchased several Buicks and a couple Cadillacs. This was followed in 1938 with the purchase of two Buicks and two Cadillacs. While other brands were purchased for various duties, all the cars dedicated to transporting dignitaries of all types, except the pope, through the end of World War II, were Buicks or Cadillacs

Immediately after the war, the Vatican placed an order for a custom Cadillac for the exclusive use of Pope Pius XII. This car was delivered in 1947 and soon followed by orders for another Cadillac, Packards and eventually Chryslers. American cars dominated the transport of dignitaries and the pope, at the Vatican until the mid-1960s.

Today, the largest collection of Vatican cars outside of the Vatican are in the NB Center collection. From a 1932 Cadillac to a 1965 Checker Marathon, including the Cadillac  customized by Derham Body Company for the use of the pope starting in 1947, these cars survive because Nicola Bulgari and the staff of the NB Center set about to locate, save and preserve these artifacts while documenting their history.