Motor Trend's Very First "Car of the Year": 1949 Cadillac

So wrote John Bond in the November 1949 issue of a new automotive magazine named Motor Trend. Launched two months prior by Hot Rod publisher Robert E. Petersen, "The Magazine for a Motoring World" declared the 1949 Cadillac its first Car of the Year. It was an inspired choice at the time and remains so 61 years later. A dozen American presidents, several wars, and the eight-track tape player have come and gone since then. But Motor Trend's Car of the Year award was the industry's original, and is still an elemental part everything we do.

General Motors had the first all-new postwar Cadillac's chassis and body design ready a year ahead of a new powertrain. The 1946-47 Caddys were quickly updated versions of pre-WWII models. The 1948's styling was as fresh as fresh could be, with substance and mass befitting a premium luxury marque, yet elegant proportions and tastefully restrained use of trim. The hints-of-fins-to-come that first appeared in 1941 were more pronounced, yet massive chrome bumpers and pool table-size trunklids were still a few years off. The only problem lay beneath the hood: The '48's ancient L-head V-8 was a carryover thing of the past. That would change for 1949, in as big a way as possible.

Work on a from-scratch overhead-valve V-8, led by then-Cadillac chief engineer Ernest Seaholm, began prior to Pearl Harbor, but the engine's development was halted for obvious reasons. The job recommenced after the war, now under the stewardship of Harry Barr, John Gordon, and Edward Cole (who also fathered the Small Block Chevy V-8 that came along in 1955, and later became GM president). The new Caddy V-8 was finished in time for the '49 models. Only modest changes were required to the rest of the package, as it was new the year before.

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