General Motors needed a response to Chrysler's growing fins on the 1950s cars, and they had famous Stylist Harley Earl apply his ideas to a new Cadillac model, called the Series 62. Earl took much of his influence from the aero industry, and it showed. Huge tail fins, the biggest to appear on any car ever, stood to a point and reflection of itself, with four shotgun-style lenses, the upper two of which automatically came on at dusk and dipped from high to low beam when they detected oncoming traffic. The car used coil springs and telescopic shocks, but the top Eldorado models could be ordered with air suspension. The all-cast iron big block was enlarged for 1959 and came in two states of tune, either a 325bhp (242kW) single carb version, or the 345bhp (257kW) triple carb unit.
