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But there were a couple of
rungs missing from Sloan's carefully conceived ladder. One was
between Chevrolet and Oldsmobile. The latter cost nearly half
again as much as the former, which in those days was a tremendous
jump even for an upwardly mobile family. But help was on the way
in the form of a new light "Six" being developed at Chevrolet. The
Oakland division would ultimately market the Pontiac beginning in
1926.
An even wider chasm separated
the top-of-the-line Buick, at $1925, and the bottom-end Cadillac,
selling at $3195. For those who had reached the point where they
could afford something a little more elegant than a Buick, this
also represented a risky financial leap. Instalment contracts
rarely ran more than 18 months in those days, and many people
evidently felt that payments on a Cadillac were more than they
could comfortably handle. Thus, GM found that its more affluent
Buick customers were often defecting to Packard's smart new group
of lower-price offerings.
In the years just after World
War I, Packard management had been shrewd enough to sense the need
for a high-quality "pocket-size" automobile, aimed at the
owner-driver for whom the big, cumbersome cars of earlier times
held little appeal. This assessment spurred development of the
Single Six, which offered traditional Packard quality in a more
manageable package -- and at a substantial cost savings. On the
strength of this one model, Packard was soon running away with the
luxury market.
Sloan was determined to stop
these defections, and Pontiac's immediate high success suggested
the solution: another new "companion" make. It would be designed
and marketed by Cadillac Division but priced just above Buick, a
complete model line that would neatly fill out GM's product
roster. And since Cadillac had been named for the famed French
explorer, what could be more logical than to honor one of his
compatriots with the new junior edition. And so the LaSalle was
born.
A couple of additional
factors entered into Sloan's and Fisher's thinking. The first was
that the new make should have a more dashing and youthful image
than the staid Cadillac, which meant that it would have to be far
more stylish, at least in the mind of Larry Fisher. Having been
born into a family of coachbuilders -- he was, after all, one of
the seven brothers of Fisher Body fame -- the new division chief
was naturally concerned about looks. He was also aware that Don
Lee, Cadillac's California distributor, was operating a superb
custom body shop in connection with his Los Angeles facility.
Traveling to the west coast,
he became acquainted with Lee's stylist, a talented young man
named Harley Earl, and with the handsome designs he was creating
for Lee's moneyed clientele. Fisher must have been intrigued as
much by the stunning appearance of these cars as by the techniques
Earl employed in realizing them. Among the latter was his use of
modeling clay to evolve the forms he had in mind, a material then
considered highly unusual for this purpose.
Fisher was sufficiently
impressed that he hired the young stylist as a consultant to
design the first LaSalle. It was supposed to have been a one-shot
deal; Earl would be back in Los Angeles in a few weeks' time. But
it didn't quite work out that way, and Earl would remain with
General Motors until he retired as the company's director of
design some 32 years later. In the process, he changed the course
of the entire industry with regard to styling, and marketing
strategy, too. But that's a story in itself.
Earl made no bones about his
inspiration for the new LaSalle: the magnificent Hispano-Suiza. In
fact, Earl was never apologetic when it came to borrowing an idea,
a gimmick, or a design theme, especially if it happened to be one
that appealed to him personally.
Meanwhile, division engineers
were hard at work on a new engine for the forthcoming companion.
It was a V-8 per Cadillac tradition, but lacked the customary
fork-and-blade connecting rods. Placement of the right cylinder
bank 1-3/8 inches (35mm) forward of the left made it possible to
fit the rods side-by-side on the crankpins. It was a simpler, less
expensive way to build an engine and, in the long run, the LaSalle
unit proved superior in every respect. Of shorter-stroke design
than the Cadillac V-8 (3.125 x 4.94 inches) (79.4mm x 125.5mm),
the 303-cubic-inch (5-liter) powerplant was topped by a pair of
very handsome, ribbed cylinder heads. "For improved cooling," the
company said, which was pure balderdash: the ribs were for looks.
But the new engine performed so well that an enlarged version was
quickly developed for the 1928 Cadillac.
Formally introduced on March
5, 1927, the LaSalle was priced at $2685 in base four-door sedan
form, exactly $100 higher than the equivalent Fifth Series
Packard. Sloan had hoped to undercut his rival by a few hundred
dollars, but neither he nor Fisher were prepared to dilute
traditional Cadillac quality merely for the sake of a lower
advertised price.
Packing a rated 75 horsepower
-- though it was probably closer to 80 -- any '27 LaSalle was
capable of an easy 70 miles an hour (113 kph), and the lighter
roadsters could do a bit more. Indeed, in a grueling test at the
GM Proving Grounds three months after the new make's debut, a
standard production roadster, stripped of such impediments as a
windshield and fenders and fitted with high-compression cylinder
heads and a high-lift camshaft, covered 951.8 miles (1532 km) at
an average speed of 95.3 mph (153 kph) in the hands of division
test driver "Big Bill" Rader. That was only 2 mph (3 kph) slower
than the winning speed at that year's Indianapolis 500 -- and the
LaSalle ran twice as far!
The 1927 LaSalle has been
called "the first of the smaller and more maneuverable luxury cars
built to traditional standards in an attempt to extend the
prestige market." That's inaccurate, of course; it was by no means
the first such automobile. But it represented something of at
least equal significance: thanks to Harley Earl's genius, it was
the first mass-production car to be consciously "styled" in the
modern sense.
It was undoubtedly the
handsomest American car of its day. Its "clamshell" fenders were
long and sweeping, its silhouette was low, its radiator -- after
the fashion of the fabled "Hisso" was tall and relatively narrow.
And the two-tone color combinations, a novelty in 1927, were
sensational. Hoods and cowls were finished in darker hues than the
rest of the body, while "cheat" lines (at the bottom of the
pillars) and unusual belt molding effects served to accentuate the
car's compactness.
Designated Series 303, the
1927 LaSalle lineup comprised five body types. All were built on a
125-inch-wheelbase (3.175 meters) chassis, seven inches (17.78 cm)
shorter than that of the smallest Cadillac. Another half-dozen
styles were added later, three of which -- seven-passenger sedan,
seven-seat Imperial sedan, and five-passenger Imperial -- rode a
134-inch wheelbase (3.404 meters). All 11 models in the standard
line were bodied by Fisher. Besides the long-chassis offerings
there were a roadster, coupe, and convertible coupe for two
passengers; four-place phaeton, victoria, and dual-cowl phaeton;
and the five-passenger sedan and a closed-quarter town sedan
variant. Four semi-custom Fleetwood styles were available to
special order: two-place coupe, and a sedan, town cabriolet, and
transformable town cabriolet with seating for five. It's
interesting to note in retrospect that the Earl-designed Fisher
bodies were arguably more beautiful and timeless than the
coach-built styles.
By sheer coincidence, LaSalle
was born almost simultaneously with the death of Henry Ford's
history-making Model T. Though unrelated, the two events marked
the end of one era for the industry and the beginning of another.
By this time, the public had clearly tired of the drab
utilitarianism represented by the "Tin Lizzie," and was moving
swiftly toward cars that were not only more civilized but more
stylish. Ford's pronouncement that "the public can have any color
it wants so long as it's black" made sense at a time when black
Japan enamel was the only finish available that would dry quickly
enough to keep up with the pace of mass production, but that day
had long since passed. The advent of DuPont Chemical Company's
fast-drying, polychromatic duco finishes in 1924 paved the way for
a full palette of sparkling colors, and LaSalle was one of the
first cars to take full advantage of them.
With its dashing looks, fine
performance, and adroit pricing, LaSalle was enthusiastically
received, and it was largely because of this that Sloan hired
Harley Earl full-time. After completing work on the 1928 Cadillac,
the designer was asked to head up a new GM department called the
Art & Colour Section, the industry's first in-house styling
operation. (The British spelling for the word "color" was chosen
to impart a touch of class -- and, no doubt, credibility.) It was
a major development that would have important ramifications for GM
in the years ahead.
As usual with brand-new
models, LaSalle saw few changes its second year. A set of 28
narrow hood louvers replaced the original 12 broad ones, a minor
but attractive refinement. Also, the engine was now rated at 80
brake horsepower, though it was apparently unchanged otherwise.
Then came 1929 with an abrupt
departure from the original LaSalle concept. The long-wheelbase
models had proven unexpectedly popular, so all body styles save
the roadster and the two phaetons were mounted on a 130-inch
(3.302 meters) chassis in this year's Series 328 line. To some
observers, this growth robbed the car of some of its charm. That
was evidently a minority opinion, though, because sales showed a
sharp increase, even as Cadillac demand fell by more than half.
The inescapable conclusion was that the larger LaSalle was
stealing sales from the senior marque.
There were other changes for
1929, all of them for the better. The engine was bored out to 3.25
inches (82.5mm) for 328 cid (5.4 liters), boosting horsepower to
86, and LaSalle now adopted the "Syncro-Mesh" transmission
pioneered by Cadillac the year before. Brakes were improved, too,
though General Motors was still unwilling to take a chance on
hydraulic actuation.
The shorter LaSalle chassis
was gone altogether for 1930, and all body styles in that year's
Series 340 rode a 134-inch (3.404 meter) wheelbase. The V-8 was
enlarged once more, to 340 cid (5.6 liters) (3.31 x 4.94) (84 x
125.5 mm), and a taller radiator made the styling more impressive
than ever. Unhappily, the Wall Street debacle of the previous
October was beginning to cripple the market, and LaSalle
production dropped by about a third.
With the introduction of the
Series 345A for 1931, LaSalle became virtually a Cadillac twin.
Both makes employed the same 134-inch (3.404 meter) wheelbase as
well as the 353.3-cid V-8 (5.8 liter) that had been used in the
senior cars since 1929. The only real differences involved trim
and nameplates. Given its $500 price advantage in the face of the
Depression's tightening grip, LaSalle should have eclipsed
Cadillac in sales, but this was not the case. For reasons that
remain elusive, "The Standard of the World" outsold its
lower-priced stablemate by a margin of nearly two to one.
All 1927-33 LaSalles are
recognized as Classics by the Classic Car Club of America, but the
'32 is arguably the handsomest. It was nearly identical in
appearance with that year's Cadillac except for bowl-shaped
instead of bullet-shaped headlamps. Wheelbase on standard Series
345B models contracted by four inches (10 cm), and offerings
reduced to two-seat coupe and convertible coupe and five-passenger
sedan and town coupe. A 136-inch (3.454 meter) chassis was
reserved for a seven-passenger sedan, Imperial, and town sedan.
The Cadillac engine was retained, with rated horsepower up from 95
to 115, primarily through the use of downdraft carburetion. But
the national economy was plummeting toward rock bottom, and so
were LaSalle sales. Only 3386 of these lovely cars found buyers,
down from 22,961 just three years earlier.
Things weren't much better
for 1933. As with other GM makes that year, LaSalle styling was
modified via a vee'd radiator and skirted fenders, the company's
first steps toward streamlining, and Fisher's excellent "No-Draft"
ventilation windows were adopted. Otherwise, there were few
changes in the Series 345C. Cadillac Division was losing money for
GM in those dark days, so there wasn't a lot of capital available
for new product development.
Reportedly, there was talk at
this time of discontinuing LaSalle. That would have been a strange
move in a sense, because the junior line was again outselling the
senior one. In the end, however, LaSalle was granted a reprieve,
thanks mainly to another styling tour de force by Harley Earl.
It came with the 1934 Series
350, which has been described as being more like an Oldsmobile
than a Cadillac. It was. Replacing the traditional Cadillac V-8
was an L-head straight eight borrowed from Oldsmobile Division and
having the same 240.3-cubic-inch (4 liter) displacement. Cadillac
engineers replaced Lansing's heavy, cast-iron pistons with
lightweight Lynite aluminum units and made other, less critical
modifications, so the division could truthfully advertise this
engine as "Built to Cadillac Standards." The chassis was also
completely redesigned in a much shorter, 119-inch (3.023 meter)
wheelbase. A single-plate clutch replaced the double-plate type
that had been used since the make's introduction, adoption of
hydraulic brakes gave LaSalle a "first" at GM (shared with
Oldsmobile), and independent front suspension reduced unsprung
weight and solved the persistent shimmy that had plagued the '33s.
While all these measures amounted to cost-cutting, they enabled
Cadillac to trim $650 from LaSalle base prices, a dramatic
reduction.
Equally dramatic was the new
1934 styling. As Cadillac chronicler Maurice Hendry noted: "Harley
Earl and the Art and Colour Section came through with another
styling triumph equal to that achieved on the 1927 model." Again,
LaSalle was the industry's fashion leader. A tall, very narrow,
vee'd radiator was flanked by high-set headlamps in bullet-shaped
pods, and shapely "pontoon" fenders appeared front and rear. Hood
vent doors gave way to "portholes," not unlike those that Buick
would adopt a decade and a half later, and wheels were covered
with smart chromed discs. Bumpers took the form of twin slim
blades, separated by two bullets as on the 1927 Cadillacs. Spare
tires moved inside as trunks were absorbed into the main body on
all models. The lineup now consisted of a four-door sedan and a
new five-passenger club sedan, a two-seat coupe, and a rumble-seat
convertible coupe -- all with Fleetwood bodywork and rear-hinged
front doors. Despite the money-saving measures, quality remained
outstanding. As testimony to its excellence, the '34 LaSalle was
selected as pace car for that year's Indianapolis 500.
Predictably, 1934 sales were
more than double the previous year's dismal total, but they were
still far below expectations: only 7195 units for the model year.
Perhaps the close relationship between the $1595 LaSalle and the
$955 Oldsmobile Eight was more apparent to the potential buyer
than GM managers anticipated.
In any event, styling was
little changed for the 1935 LaSalle Series 50. Two-door and
four-door "trunkback" sedans were added in line with an industry
trend, and closed body styles adopted Fisher's new "Turret-Top"
construction, with steel replacing the traditional fabric insert
in the roof. Slightly higher compression boosted horsepower from
90 to 95. Mechanical changes were few. Sales picked up a bit, but
not much. The reason was Packard's new One-Twenty, which proved to
be a formidable competitor. About the same size as LaSalle, it was
marginally lighter and 16 percent more powerful, yet it cost some
$450 less -- and bore a more prestigious nameplate, a telling
distinction.
Cadillac responded for 1936
by slashing prices on a little-changed Series 50 by some $320. But
even this failed to stimulate sales significantly, and the
One-Twenty outsold LaSalle by better than four to one that year.
Clearly, it was time to try something different. Without a genuine
luxury aura, this higher-price Olds evidently had limited appeal,
even though it was ostensibly a product of GM's top-flight crew.
Fortunately, Cadillac
introduced its new "compact" Series 60 that same season, which
brightened the division's fortunes in a way LaSalle by itself
could not. Though the 60 shared the corporate B-body with LaSalle
and the Buick Century, it was powered by a brand-new 322-cid V-8,
Cadillac's first "monobloc" engine. Built on a 121-inch (3.073
meter) wheelbase, 10 inches (25 cm) shorter than that of the
Series 70 and Fleetwood Series 80, it was the least expensive car
to wear the Cadillac crest since 1908, and that made all the
difference. The new line accounted for more than half the
division's total 1936 model year volume, which went up by an
astounding 254 percent.
To no one's great surprise,
then, LaSalle became a lot like the Series 60 for 1937. Borrowing
the new V-8 with 125 bhp, 20 more than the previous straight
eight, made it more than equal to the One-Twenty in performance,
and it was more competitive in other ways as well. Wheelbase
stretched to 124 inches (3.15 meters), and there was new styling
that was especially attractive -- more so, in fact, than that of
the '37 Cadillac. Buyers apparently approved, because sales
increased two and a half times over, making this the best year in
LaSalle's entire history. Unhappily for Cadillac, the evidence
suggests that many of LaSalle's 32,000 sales came at the 60's
expense.
A deep recession in 1938
stalled the nation's fragile economic recovery, and sales were
well down throughout the industry. LaSalle changed only slightly,
and not for the better as far as appearance was concerned. Body
style choices now settled around the brace of trunkback sedans
(the old trunkless fastbacks were gone), five-passenger
convertible sedan (new the previous year), and rumble-seat coupe
and convertible coupe. With all this, LaSalle production was off
by more than half. Cadillac did better, comparatively speaking,
largely on the strength of Bill Mitchell's stunning new
Sixty-Special .
For 1939, LaSalle was treated
to a brand-new bodyshell. Wheelbase was cut back once again, this
time to 120 inches (3.048 meters), but the styling theme remained
the same. The tall, handsome grille was still there, narrower than
before and now set between auxiliary grilles with vertical chrome
bars in the "catwalk" areas between hood and front fenders.
Running boards were deleted, though they were optionally available
for those who still wanted them, and glass area increased. So did
sales -- by a whopping 41 percent -- as LaSalle beat the Packard
One-Twenty for the first time. Trouble was, GM was a much bigger
outfit than Packard, and its management naturally had much bigger
expectations. In this light, LaSalle's 1939 model year volume of
some 22,000 units was judged below par, so the decision was duly
made to cancel Cadillac's "companion" after 1940.
But the division saved the
best for last, and few would have guessed from the 1940 models
that LaSalle was near the end of its road. Wheelbase now
lengthened to 123 inches (3.124 meters), and horsepower edged up
to 130, thanks to a larger carburetor. Styling, an evolution of
1939, was hard to fault, and there were now two model groups for
the first time. The lower-priced Series 50 wore conventional
lines, again on the corporate B-body shared with Buick and other
divisions. The new Series 52 Special proved more popular by far
despite a $120 price premium. One factor was undoubtedly the
smoother, lower appearance of its new torpedo-inspired GM C-body.
Each series offered coupe, four-door sedan, and convertible coupe
and sedan. The last two saw very low production: just 599 and 125,
respectively, in Series 50 trim, a mere 425 and 75 of the 52s
(which weren't available until mid-season). The Series 50 also
included a two-door sedan, which was Cadillac's least expensive
1940 offering at $1240. At the other end of the scale, the Series
52 listed at just $81 higher than a comparable Buick Roadmaster,
thus representing excellent value in a big, high-fashion
automobile. Model year sales perked up to a little more than
24,000 units, the make's second best single-season total.
Then in the summer of 1940,
production halted abruptly and it was all over. Art & Colour had
prepared a full-scale mockup of the 1941 design before it was
decided to terminate LaSalle. It was a pretty car, with the
traditional narrow grille and catwalk fender inlets, plus thin
horizontal parking lamps and rear fender skirts bearing
non-functional "hubcaps."
Alas, it was not to be, and
for three very good reasons. For one thing, the make's
once-exclusive market niche had all but disappeared by 1940 due to
upward price escalation from Buick, which LaSalle had increasingly
come to resemble. That reflected a second reason, corporate cost
considerations, which dictated increasing mechanical and
structural commonality among GM's various car lines as the
Thirties waned. But the final and most telling reason in LaSalle's
demise related to label. As Packard had shown with the One-Twenty,
the best way to move a middle-class car was to market it with a
high-class brand. It took a few years, but Cadillac finally got
the message.
Accordingly, the low end of
the division's lineup was somewhat rearranged for 1941. Replacing
LaSalle was a revival of the Cadillac Series 61 from 1939, with
new fastback styling in standard and deluxe coupe and four-door
sedan. Essentially a twin to the broader Series 62 group, it used
the same 346.4-cid V-8 of earlier years, now with a horsepower
increase from 135 to 150 bhp, mainly through the use of
high-compression cylinder heads. Both lines rode a 126-inch (3.2
meter) wheelbase, midway between that of the final LaSalle and the
1940 Series 62, and sported impressive new front-end sheetmetal
that introduced what would become a Cadillac hallmark in future
years: the wide, eggcrate grille.
For customers, the best thing
about this new arrangement was price. The Series 61 five-passenger
standard coupe sold for $1345, which was actually $35 less than
the equivalent 1940 LaSalle 52 and a mere $105 more than the base
1940 LaSalle two-door sedan. In all, not a bad deal for the buyer
seeking the prestige of a genuine Cadillac. And in the end, a
genuine Cadillac was something no LaSalle could ever be.
In effect, then, Cadillac
dropped its larger V-8 into a slightly stretched LaSalle chassis,
substituted a name-plate with a strong luxury image, and held the
line on prices. The result must have made division officials
wonder why they hadn't done all this long before, because 1941
model year sales totalled 66,130 units, exceeding combined 1940
Cadillac/LaSalle volume by no less than 82 percent.
Viewed in this light, the
LaSalle was simply a marketing mistake. Apart from the
straight-eight aberration of 1934-36, it was a Cadillac in all but
name from start to finish. Yet only in its first two years did it
represent a concept that really set it apart from Cadillac, namely
a smaller, sportier, more nimble luxury car. And in retrospect, it
should have been obvious from the beginning that even a
medium-price Cadillac would be a lot more saleable if it wore the
Cadillac badge.
Nevertheless, the LaSalle
remains a landmark in automotive history, in some respects one of
the most significant cars ever built:
It was the first "stylist's
car" to reach mass production, a portent of things to come.
By prompting formation of
General Motors' Art & Colour Section, it paved the way for a new
approach to automotive design throughout the industry.
It made Cadillac quality more
affordable, thus expanding the division's sales base at a crucial
time. Though Cadillac's total production rarely exceeded Packard's
in the decimated luxury market of the Depression years, LaSalle's
share was usually substantial and often critical. In short,
LaSalle ensured Cadillac's ultimate survival.
And over its 14-year
lifespan, LaSalle bore some of the handsomest styling ever seen on
American roads.
For these and other reasons,
LaSalle somehow never really died in the minds and hearts of
certain GM people. Aside from its historical importance, the make
had always embodied distinction, refinement, and class. And there
was something undeniably appealing about the name itself:
French-sounding enough to be snooty, but with an all-American
heritage.
Stylists are a romantic lot,
so perhaps it's no surprise that several GM designers have had
visions of LaSalle's return in the years since 1940. Among them
was none other than Harley Earl, who conjured up two show specials
that he dubbed "LaSalle II" for the 1955 Motorama season. Both had
1940-style vertical grille openings and wore the "LaS" insignia as
used in the make's early and last years. One was a two-seat
roadster à la Chevrolet Corvette, with concave bodyside
indentations very much like the "coves" that appeared on the
production 1956 Corvette. An interesting detail was that its rear
wheels were exposed at the back, with the upper wheel arch line
extended rearward horizontally to form the outboard edges of a
very abbreviated tail.
The other 1955 LaSalle II was
a hardtop sedan, with center-opening doors like those on the
Cadillac Eldorado Brougham of 1957-58. Though it could seat six,
it rode a compact 108-inch (2.743 meter) wheelbase, measured 180
inches (4.572 meters) long, and stood just 50 inches (1.27 meter)
high. The latter resulted partly from the use of 13-inch (33 cm)
wheels, quite rare for a Detroit car in those days, even a
showmobile. GM described this as "a new concept in passenger sedan
styling, directed to recapture the distinctive exclusiveness and
high quality craftmanship of the original LaSalle." But to many,
it was just plain silly. Its construction was predictive, however,
with unitized floor, sills, engine supports, and bodyshell. The
sills served as main structural members and housed exhaust
components.
While both these exercises
were never intended to reach your local dealer, the LaSalle name
would surface twice more at GM Design in later years. The first
occurred in connection with the project that culminated in the
1963 Buick Riviera. Conceived as GM's reply to the Ford
Thunderbird in the burgeoning personal-luxury field, it was
originally slated for Cadillac, and early mockups bore prominent
"LaSalle" badges. But Buick's sagging sales at the time dictated
the car be given to that division as additional product help.
Then, in the early Seventies, GM again gave serious thought to
reviving the marque for the new small sedan that ultimately
emerged as the Cadillac Seville. The choice was virtually assured
until one executive came across a magazine article that described
LaSalle as "Cadillac's only failure," thus ending another comeback
chance.
Though the name still
possesses a certain magic, we will probably never see a LaSalle
revival. Perhaps it's just as well. Why run the risk of producing
a mediocre car that would spoil our memories of the gorgeous
machines that bore the crest of the ill-fated explorer Sieur de La
Salle? As with the dream of raising the Titanic, some things are
best left alone.
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