Colorado’s Broadmoor hotel and resort, nestled against the Rockies a few miles outside downtown Colorado Springs, is one of the grand old dames of the West. Built in 1918 by Spencer Penrose, the place has stately, funky charm that can only come via lived history. In the hotel’s halcyon days, when Penrose needed to shuttle guests from the airport to his resort, he chose the Standard of the World to get them there. Starting in 1937, The Broadmoor commissioned fleets of Cadillacs to ferry its guests to and fro, specifying retractable roofs so passengers might better enjoy the sheer vertical grandeur of their surroundings.
For 1959, the Broadmoor ordered six Cadillac wagons. While earlier Broadmoor limos had been built by professional automotive coachbuilder S&S, this run of vehicles was constructed by the Superior Coach Company of Lima, Ohio. Built on the same platform that concern used for its Superior ambulance and Royale hearse, the Broadmoor Skyview differed from your average limousine of the time by presenting a wagonoid profile. Riding on a 156-inch wheelbase, the four-row Skyviews were 251 inches long. For reference, a modern Escalade ESV is more than two feet shorter.
In an age when full-on panoramic roofs were not a thing—unless you count Ed “Big Daddy” Roth’s bubble-top experiments—Superior and the Broadmoor brought the pano experience to the ritzy masses. Three plexiglass panels separated by thin strips comprised the majority of the roof area, carrying on Penrose’s tradition of offering guests stunning upward vistas in all-weather comfort. A big Caddy 390-cubic-inch V-8 backed by a four-speed Hydra-Matic provided the torque to move a pack of passengers in the thin Colorado air.
Superior supposedly built eight of the cars, six for the Broadmoor and two more for other clients, although only Broadmoor-specific variants are known to exist today, according to Bonhams. The car pictured here, which went on the block at the auction house’s Amelia Island event in early March but did not sell, was the last of the eight constructed. Owned by the hotel into the 1970s, this Skyview has spent most of the past 40 years tucked away in largely original condition.
Also of note, at least to Dodge Demon intenders and fans of the third Iron Maiden album, the Broadmoor Skyviews carried the Superior chassis code 666. Barack Obama and Donald Trump’s Cadillac Beasts ain’t got a patch on that.
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