The Cadillac Elegante, an amazing and very ostentatious luxury cabriolet coach-built in 1954 on a Series 62 chassis for American sport car and motor boat enthusiasts Harry Birdsall and Joe Mascari. They sketched an aircraft-inspired body that then was refined by the famous German designer Albrecht von Goertz (who would go on to design the BMW 507: 1954 - 1956). They combined futuristic design with luxurious fittings and state-of-the-art technology. It took about two years and a bill of approximately US $ 22.000 (twice the price of a new Ferrari at this time!), but the Cadillac Elegante was a sensational car: a cabriolet with an electro-hydraulically powered retractable hardtop, finished in white iridescent paint mixed with power of real pearls, 24 karat gold-plated trim and red natural upholstery. The plan was to build ten more units, but Birdsall’s health deteriorated and the enterprise came to an end. The Elegante is still, however, the most expensive creation of Carrozzeria Motto and most likely in the whole of Italian coach-build industry.