The Cadillac Orleans was a
concept car
A concept car (also known as a concept vehicle, show vehicle or prototype) is a car made to showcase new styling and/or new technology. They are often exhibited at motor shows to gauge customer reaction to new and radical designs which may or ...
designed by
Cadillac for the 1953
auto show circuit. It was the first four-door
hardtop concept.
The hardtop design eliminated the traditional
B-pillar
The pillars on a car with permanent roof body style (such as four-door Sedan (automobile), sedans) are the vertical or nearly vertical supports of its window area or Greenhouse (automotive), greenhouse—designated respectively as the ''A, B, ...
found on most cars of the era. Powered by a Cadillac V8 engine with an output of , the Orleans was never put into production. The design innovations on this car would not be put into a production car until the 1956
Sedan de Ville. The car also featured
suicide door
A suicide door is an automobile door hinged at its rear rather than the front. Such doors were originally used on horse-drawn carriages, but are rarely found on modern vehicles, primarily because they are perceived as being less safe than a fro ...
s, a wrap around
windshield
The windshield (North American English) or windscreen (Commonwealth English) of an aircraft, car, bus, motorbike, truck, train, boat or streetcar is the front window, which provides visibility while protecting occupants from the elements. ...
, full
air conditioning
Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C or AC, is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior environment (sometimes referred to as 'comfort cooling') and in some cases also strictly controlling ...
, and several safety improvement attempts, such as a feature which resulted in the doors only being able to be opened if the car was in neutral. Another unique luxury feature was the addition of an
AC/
DC converter and a normal household outlet to allow electronic devices to be plugged into the car. A compartment in the backrest held a men's electric
razor
A razor is a bladed tool primarily used in the removal of body hair through the act of shaving. Kinds of razors include straight razors, safety razors, disposable razors, and electric razors.
While the razor has been in existence since bef ...
, a vanity case, and a
mirror
A mirror or looking glass is an object that reflects an image. Light that bounces off a mirror will show an image of whatever is in front of it, when focused through the lens of the eye or a camera. Mirrors reverse the direction of the im ...
.
References
External links
The Cadillac Database: Dream Cars
Orleans
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