I used the Olympus E-330 to capture this perfectly restored 1927 Cadillac LaSalle in front of a Eureka, California home of about the same vintage. Period clothing and a turn of the century Kodak Pocket camera help complete the scene. The photograph was selected for the 2007 annual Janutol Printing Cadillac Club calendar.

Zuiko 14-54mm/2.8-3.5 at 29mm, 1/200 sec, and f8.0 to get some depth of field for the background. ISO 100, RAW capture.

Eureka Ford Dealer, Harvey Harper, finished restoration of the 1927 Cadillac LaSalle in time for presentation at the 2006 Pebble Beach Concours D'Elegance. Restoration specialist, Floyd Myers, and body man and painter, Tommy Smith, worked for two years on the red Series 303 Coupe with body by Fleetwood. With serial number twelve, the car is considered as the very first to be sold to the public, earlier models being dealer and design prototypes. Papers show that the original owner was a San Francisco Bay area doctor, who bought the LaSalle after Cadillac had displayed the car at several dealers around the country.

The doctor may have been part of the market demographics that General Motors had identified -- a younger, affluent generation, which could not yet afford the Cadillac V8 luxury car. The smaller six cylinder LaSalle at $4000 was still luxurious but more affordable

Also, demographics were changing from an older group of buyers to a younger crowd. Lawrence P Fisher was president of the Cadillac Division of GM at just the right time for the changing market, when he met Don Lee from Los Angeles. Lee built custom designed cars for the stars of Hollywood. One of his designers, Harley Earl went to work for Fisher and designed the 1927 LaSalle as his first project with GM in the newly created Art and Colour Studios.

With Earl in charge of design at GM, his new style and approach set the standard for every car manufacturer for over thirty years.

The Harper Lasalle restoration therefore represents the first of the first - the earliest know automobile of an approach to design that led the way for all the cars that followed.