1938 Cadillac 75: A Life In Brazil

Images: Rexford Parker

deRivaz & Ives has recently devoted significant—and welcome—attention to Cadillacs of the immediate pre-war era. First, a 1939 Series 61 V8 convertible sedan from Udaipur covered on 28 December 2021, and then a 1939 Series 75 V8 formal sedan (also from Udaipur) covered on 14 April 2022. So why stop at two cars when we can now introduce a third?

Richard Parker (1911–2004) likely ready and seemingly delighted to board a DC-3. In this instance, probably going somewhere in Brazil.

For reasons long lost to the sands of time, my father, in 1938, decided to accompany his Packard Twelve and Lincoln KB V12 with a new Cadillac 75 7-Passenger Convertible Sedan. It was a cream colour outside with what appears to have been a saddle-colour all-leather interior. Seating for two in front, two more in central jump seats and three in the capacious third row rear seat.

Massively large, strong, heavy cast-iron V8 engine. Green but otherwise visually nondescript. Also buried in a tall and narrow engine compartment designed for upright V12 and V16 engines of prior years.

It had Cadillac’s astoundingly heavy and somewhat leisurely (142bhp at 3400 rpm, corresponding to 24.7 bhp/litre) cast-iron 5676cc L-head V8, an engine sufficiently robust and tough to power U.S. Army M5 Stuart and M24 Chaffee tanks during the war. Torque and smoothness, as opposed to power, were key.

Black-and-white instrument panel picture from the 1938 Series 75 brochure. Interesting as it features a woman driver. 'A car so easy to drive even … (will let you finish the phrase)'.

This was backed by a column-shift, three-speed all-synchro manual transmission and live axle with leaf springs at the rear. Front suspension was coil-spring independent, featuring GM’s new and highly touted ‘knee-action’ double-wishbone design. For the record, my father was 27-years old when he acquired the car. Surely you will ask what a 27-years old was doing with a car like this. Please don’t look to me. Having never asked, I don’t know!

Very Art Moderne gauge cluster, typical of U.S. design of the day. 'Safety First'? What safety?

At this point, clarification is useful. Following discontinuation of Cadillac’s V12 and V16 valve-in-head engines in 1937 and adoption in 1938 of an all-new, 135-degree L-head V16, Cadillac was down to two models in its senior line-up. The Series 75 featured the aforementioned V8, new for 1936, while the Series 90 the even newer 7063cc V16.

Prominent 'V16' grille badge on Series 90 vehicles. Whoever paid the extra wanted everyone to know what they were driving!

Dimensionally, the two models were identical, with the same ladder chassis and selection of Fleetwood bodies in identical sizes and configurations available for both. Bonnets and cowl structures were also identical. The Series 90 had three horizontal styling striations just aft of the front wheel openings to distinguish it from the lesser Series 75s, and also had ‘V16’ badges instead of ‘V8’badges front and rear.

Given prior wartime assignments in Asia and Europe, an understandably delighted (and relieved) Richard Parker in Forca Aerea Brasileira (FAB) uniform, 1943–45.

Otherwise, the V8s and V16s looked the same. All the customers fundamentally had to do was choose which engine he or she wanted, as everything else—except of course the price—was equal.

Richard Parker, this time suited as a civilian, likely in front of FAB Escola Tecnica, Sao Paulo.

These were big cars. Wheelbase was 3588mm. Overall length was 5604mm. Overall width was a massive 1972mm. Overall height an equally sizable 1768mm. Kerb weight? 2319kg. Fuel capacity? 100.4 litres. Fuel consumption? Don’t ask!

Same urban Sao Paulo location, different angle. Car has original whitewall tyres, though the left-front vertical bumperette has gone missing.

They were also expensive. In 1938 when the average car in the U.S. cost USD$763, the average annual household income was USD$1730, and the average home cost USD$3900, the Series 75 Convertible Sedan cost USD$3940.

The tower in the background, officially called Monumento Rodoviario da Rodovia Presidente Dutra, dates from 1938 and still exists, though in abandoned and derelict state. Note coating of mud from unimproved roads along the side of the car.

As suggested above, details surrounding my father’s motivations and purchase decision have been long forgotten. What is known is that he kept the car in Hollywood, California until the war led him overseas. Following stints in Asian and European theatres, he was dispatched in 1943 to Brazil along with his Cadillac, all courtesy of the U.S. government.

Richard Parker on a barge, or more probably a quay. Specific location, likely in the state of Sao Paulo, unknown.

Upon the car’s arrival at the Atlantic port of Santos, he was given unlimited fuel rations to operate the car. Just as well, as the few Brazilian and other-nationality civilians who qualified for gasoline rations received only 5 litres per week. Clearly the Cadillac consumed far more.

Persons unknown. Assumed urban or suburban Sao Paulo, though possibly a small town in the interior of Sao Paulo State, ca. 1944–46.

Years ago, my father related to me that at the time of his stay in Brazil, there were two Series 75s in the country. His and a black one, possibly also a convertible sedan, the latter used by then Brazilian leader Getulio Vargas. My father’s in Sao Paulo. Getulio’s presumably in then-capital Rio de Janeiro. This latter car may or may not have survived. I don’t know.

Another Sao Paulo countryside location. Persons unknown. Car looks clean and reasonably intact, though as noted before, left-front bumperette is missing.

Getulio was an interesting guy. Most national leaders of his genre start out as elected presidents, then gradually become dictators. Not Getulio. He started out a dictator, then was overthrown. This was followed by his running for presidential election. He won. As president in 1954, he became caught in a political squeeze play that for him represented a matter of defiance and honour. In crisis, he held a form of referendum and promised suicide if he lost. Well, he lost. Resolute, he shot himself. Through the heart. End of story.

Tennis anyone? Blurry picture stems from tiny original print. Note the old-style wooden racquets, likely made in Brazil using very fine hardwoods and laminated in beautiful patterns.

Returning to my father’s Cadillac, it appears he drove the car extensively in Brazil. So much so that at the end of the war and his tour of duty, he considered the car sufficiently worn as to not justify his returning it to the U.S. So he simply left it in Brazil, presumably with some acquaintance having some form of storage space in Sao Paulo. And, let’s assume, there it sat. That is, until someone decided to disassemble it. And once disassembled, it sat some more. Likely for decades.

Interlagos neighborhood in suburban Sao Paulo, April 1946. The Allison and Washington/Betty Riscado families in or alongside the car. Replacement blackwall tyres. Car clearly showing battle scars of extensive use in the difficult road conditions at the time in Brazil.

Then at some point, perhaps in the 1980s, though more likely in the 1990s, or even 2000s, somebody decided to reassemble and comprehensively restore the car. I don’t know who, where, or under what circumstances. Clearly, there remain many blanks and unknowns. And these will remain unanswered as all directly involved with the car, save its current owner, have departed years—make that decades—ago.

The very same car Richard Parker bought new in 1938 as it exists today in a prominent Brazilian collection. Different colour; otherwise beautifully restored and largely as new.

Regardless, the car emerged as new following reassembly and restoration, though in a dark green marginally metallic exterior colour, with chocolate-brown leather interior. Once complete, it found a customer in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, who also happens to be a family friend.

At home with the other ‘20s–‘30s classics (top left); Rear view that could only be American. Or even more specifically, GM (top right); Intricate die cast grille design that's again only possible in the U.S. (bottom left); Cast alloy detail at the leading edge of the running board. Very Detroit. Very Harley Earl. (bottom right)

And, as can only happen under the extraordinary circumstances of sheer coincidence, our daughters and I have spent time with the car. This, by my reckoning, over 65 years after my father left it and walked away. As he’s been gone for years, little could he have imagined the car not only survived, but his descendants have maintained contact with it.

Front seating area. In leather as it was new...but in a different darker colour.

It’s stately. It’s brash. It’s imposing. It’s very Harley Earl. It’s unmistakably and unabashedly Yank. And as such, now at age 84, it has a kind of cool, confident swagger I find ever so slightly irresistible!

Cuban dictator Ruben Fulgencio Batista y Zaldivar touring near the U.S. national capital in Washington, D.C. under the watchful eye of an American army officer (left); Even Tin-Tin got in on the act! (centre); Among 1938 Series 75 Convertible Sedan survivors, this beautiful black-tan example is likely residing today in the U.S. (right)