March 15: What is a "Ridler" award?

Question for a Friday morning.....what is a Ridler Award? No gold stars for the correct answer, but briefly it is the top award given at the annual Detroit Autorama. Strict criteria says that the car cannot not have been shown anywhere else prior to this show and must be a completely new custom build. Easy, right? Not so fast Bucko. Your competition would be cars like the 1965 Impala below by Chip Foose and built for a Canadian client. Looks stock, but this car has been downsized in every respect, but done oh so subtlely. Lots of hours and many hundreds of thousands of dollars created this Ridler Award winner from a few years back........

Now that's out of the way, look at what picked up this prestigious custom car award this year, the Cadmad.......

Just another station wagon conversion of a 1959 Cadillac, but with a few special features? No so fast. But first.......this car was on the drawing board and in construction for several years. So long in fact, that the client passed away before it was finished earlier this year. What makes the beautifully done Cadmad so special is its bones. You know, what it started out as.

Remember the '59 Cadillac? Of course, you do. This icon is the ultimate in 1950's excess. A mobile palace of fins and chrome.........

A driveable joke in reality and the last gasp of that aforementioned '50's over the top exuberance.

But this is not the 1959 Cadillac from whence the award winning Cadmad sprung. No, this custom came from the rarest of the rare, the 1959 Eldorado Broughham.......

"The what?", you ask. This rare Caddy was designed by the famous Italian design house, Pinin Farina, and mirrored the toning down that Cadillac and all the other cars would experience, as they moved into the 1960's. Only ninety-nine Broughams were built and no wonder, as they were about double the price of the average Cadillac. Only a few survive and from what I've seen. most are in poor shape, so ripping one apart to create the Cadman is not the travesty that many of you might suppose.

So another Autorama has passed into history. Another Ridler Award has been awarded. And another amazing creation has received its just reward. And just what goes along with that award, after the creator has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars?

A cheque for $10,000! Obviously the prestige is worth thousands more.

Until next time.......