Radical fighter kick-started Cadillac design

[Bruce Nunnally]

P-38 fighter aircraft inspired the signature fins and flare of a generation of Cadillacs

In the 1950S, General Motors design became a fantasia of fighter-plane imagery: canopy-like wraparound windshields, simulated jet intakes, afterburner exhaust ports and enough towering tail fins for an entire wing of United States Air Defense Command interceptors.

We can trace many of those cues back to a day in 1941, when GM styling vice president Harley Earl took a group of senior stylists to Michigan's Selfridge Field, home of the Army Air Corps' 1st Pursuit Group ( Fighter), to see a remarkable new aircraft. To Lockheed, it was the Model 22; the Army called it the P-38 Lightning.

Read more: http://www.autoweek.com/article/20130418/carnews01/130419869#ixzz2QqNc3VcV

[Cadillac Jim]

As a kid, the P-38 was one of my favorite fighter planes, because it seemed to be two Siamesed fighter planes joined at the wing and tail. I also recall the Cad-Allard at the post-war sports car road races, and was aware that they used Cadillac engines. My parents drove mostly Packards so we weren't a Cadillac or even a GM family at that point. Cadillacs were always styling stand-outs throughout the 20 years when car styling was at its greatest heights, the 1950's and 1960's. The 1957 Eldorado is still an iconic car, and its silhouette is in the owner's manual of my old 1997 Eldorado Touring Coupe.