{"id":498762,"date":"2020-06-02T17:56:33","date_gmt":"2020-06-03T00:56:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportscardigest.com\/\/?p=107428"},"modified":"2024-05-31T19:53:02","modified_gmt":"2024-05-31T19:53:02","slug":"the-last-lasalle-1940-lasalle-series-52-special-coupe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/the-last-lasalle-1940-lasalle-series-52-special-coupe\/","title":{"rendered":"1940 LaSalle Series 52 Special Coupe – The Last LaSalle"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Back in 1982, I bought a 1940 Packard coupe and spent the next couple of years restoring it. Once I had the engine extracted, I decided, upon sober reflection, to have a pro do the rebuild. The guys at the parts house referred me to classic car expert Paul Schinnerer in Long Beach, California.\u00a0 He did a great job, and even helped me set the engine back in the chassis.<\/p>\n

He drove over to my house in a 1940 LaSalle Series 52 Special coupe, and I fell hopelessly in love with it. It\u2019s sensuous curvy body, distinctive grille, and the throaty rumble of its big V8 were magic. Paul also has two 1930 Cadillac V16 classics that are masterpieces in their own right, and each is worth more than my house, but Paul\u2019s LaSalle coupe was like a Brancusi sculpture on wheels. It was shear beauty from any angle. I told Paul at the time that if he ever ever<\/em> wanted to sell it to give me a call.<\/p>\n

Thirty-six years later Paul called me. I was 7,000 miles away, but I arranged a wire transfer then and there without even consulting my spouse. That would normally have been a very dangerous mistake, but she knew full well how much I loved that car, and that era of design in general.<\/p>\n

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I have had a special love for the \u201930s era cars almost from birth. However, to me the most beautiful of them are not the great early \u201930s classic Packards, Duesenbergs, Marmons and Cadillacs, as magnificent as they are, but the later cars with what was called streamlined styling. The classics are stunning in their own right, but in a different genre.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The design thinking was part of a broader movement called Streamline Moderne, which grew out of Art Deco design and involved not just automobiles, but locomotives, airplanes, consumer appliances and architecture. And actually, the Art Deco era was born in 1925 as a result of the Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs Industriels et Modernes held in Paris that year.<\/p>\n

Auto styling gained more critical importance in the 1930s because of the depression. Engineering all new cars proved prohibitively costly with the economy in such a shambles. However, making this<\/em> year\u2019s model look<\/em> new and exciting, and making last<\/em> year\u2019s model look<\/em> like last year\u2019s model, was a much less expensive way to go. This strategy was soon referred to as designed-in obsolescence, because it made an automaker\u2019s offerings look new even though they were essentially the same car with a new hair do.<\/p>\n


\nBuying Paul\u2019s LaSalle was actually nothing short of a lifelong dream fulfilled. My father was in the navy during World War II and was stationed at Treasure Island, near San Francisco. I was four-years old at the time, and my mother and I stayed with my aunt Dolly nearby in Berkeley, in order to see him off on a voyage that ultimately took him to Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and finally Tokyo Bay.<\/p>\n

Aunt Dolly was well off, lived in a big house, and drove \u2013 you guessed it \u2013 a 1940 LaSalle. I found cars exciting even then, and to me it was the most beautiful car in the world. I wanted one from that day on. I was kind of a weird kid. Most of my contemporaries swooned over Corvettes, Thunderbirds and Eldorados, but I lusted after Art Deco-era Cords and LaSalles.<\/p>\n

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Even though Shinnerer\u2019s LaSalle had only done 7,000 miles in the last 15 years, it started easily as soon as fresh fuel got up to the carburetor. I had learned much of what I know about car care and restoration from Paul over the years and he became a good friend. He is a well-known restorer, electrical whiz and mechanic in his own right, and he had taken excellent care of what was a beautifully preserved original car. It is not perfect, but after 80 years it is in extraordinary condition.<\/p>\n

The mostly original interior smells the way cars of the era did. It is an m\u00e9lange of old wool upholstery impregnated with crankcase and fuel aromas, plus a redolent residue of cigarette smoke. Sitting in it, I am suddenly back in time with my folks. My Pop is puffing on a Lucky Strike, while mom is making sure the netting on her hat is properly arranged.<\/p>\n

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The steering wheel is huge, as are the pedals on the floor. I have plenty of headroom for driving even with my 1940 Humphrey Bogart fedora at a jaunty angle. The dash is way up in front of me, and I have plenty of room under the steering wheel to move about.<\/p>\n

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I pull the column shifter into gear. The linkage is still tight and precise. This car is big<\/em>. Looking out over acres of noble, hood with its pointed prow, I see that stylized nose ornament in the distance and aim it in the direction I want to go. I wrestle with the big steering wheel while the car is barely rolling, but once I am lined up I give it the gas and its later replacement 346-cubic-inch, 150 horsepower, flat head V8 engine comes to life with alacrity. It is in fact a tank engine. World War II Stuart tanks used two of these big Cadillac mills to power them.<\/p>\n