Phony & flashy like no other

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Just a glimpse of this is enough to spot this vehicle as an unmistaken Figoni & Falaschi creation with all the signature markings. Swooping panels, fully enclosed ‘pontoon fenders’ with massive overhang at the back, two-tone paint in contrasting colours and brightwork following the curls and twists of the body.

Carrosserie Willy Hartmann of Lausanne

Well, you are forgiven, but it’s not a Figoni & Falaschi and it’s not even a Delage or Delahaye, Bugatti or Talbot-Lago. This is the sole Cadillac V16 bodied by Carrosserie Willy Hartmann of Lausanne, Switzerland. But we understand that even some of the self-acclaimed coachbuilder connoisseurs did not know this when it was found in a derelict state near Geneva in 1968. A later owner tried to wipe out the Hartmann-provenance by fraudulently replacing the coachbuilder’s badge and advertising it as a Figoni & Falaschi. So we won’t blame you!

Hartmann, after all, is not the best known of body builders. Well, it had built some groovy creations based on Hotchkiss, Mathis, Minerva and Issota-Fraschini chassis previously in the 1930s, but none of these was quite as outlandish as this one. In 1937 Willy Hartmann was commissioned by red-brick heir Philippe Barraud, who lived just miles down the road, to come up with what would have to be the most extreme Cadillac created thus far and one that would dwarf other coachbuilt creations.

Once the Swiss authorities had been convinced that this huge 6.7-metre long vehicle was in fact a road car and not a lorry, Barraud used it to ferry people around the Swiss lakes. He had it stored during the War years, only to have it repainted afterwards. It was repainted once more ― Barraud must have been a dedicated follower of fashion after all ― only to be found forlorn in a field (!) in ’68 and sold for 4,000 Swiss francs ― under a thousand dollars at the time.

Since then the number of owner changes, repaints, restorations and price increases have been hard to follow, but at least the car is still with us and looking now pretty much how it was back in 1937. What’s more, it is now fully recognized as a Willy Hartmann creation!

Words Jeroen Booij. Pictures and info newcadillacdatabase.org.

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