Cadillac V-16 1931 Trio: Cabriolet, Sport Phaeton and Town Brougham (Jo-Han)

[tim boyd]

On 9/20/2025 at 3:44 PM, Greasefinger said:

 

"Released in 1930, Cadillac became the first American car manufacturer to introduce a production car with a V-16 motor. In the early 1930s American car manufacturers were in a battle of “cylinder wars.” The likes of Packard, Franklin, Lincoln, Auburn, and Pierce Arrow all had created 12-cylinder cars by 1932. Marmon, a Cadillac competitor, thought about the idea of creating a 16-cylinder car in the late 1920s before Cadillac, but were unable to do so due to the lack of resources.

Unlike many of the competitors in the high-end market, Cadillac predominantly offered complete cars rather than rolling chassis to be bodied by custom coachbuilders. Many of the 'standard' bodies were constructed by Fleetwood (Ultimatecarpage.com)."

Jo-Han has released three of the Fleetwood styled bodies as 1:25 scale model kits first in the 1960´s: Two door Cabriolet, four door Sport Phaeton and four door Town Brougham. The kits were re-released and re-boxed in the 70´s.

For the Town Brougham Jo-Han used as a template a car which was a result of 20 years of research and restauration work. You can read more about it´s history here:

https://cars.bonhams.com/auction/23234/lot/43/1931-cadillac-v-16-series-452-town-brougham-chassis-no-703164-engine-no-7-3214/

All Jo-Han Cadillac 1931 models share the same chassis, engine, tires and lights. The kits have over 160 parts each and are very well detailed. The age shows, and the plastic was quite brittle, I broke several parts.

The cabriolet was built in 2023. The Sport Phaeton and Town Brougham were finished just this week. The most challenging part in the building process was probably attaching the Town Brougham´s interior into the body, it was a very tight fit. Otherwise parts fit quite well. Painting the Town Brougham required lots of masking because of three different colors. 

                                 

 

What a project to finish all three of these, and to such a standard as well.  Way to go Kari!  Cheers...TIM