Finalist: 1940s 1949 Cadillac Series 62 Sedanette

摘要

We didn't waste any time. We were three issues old, but we were already naming our first Car of the Year and establishing an award that would change the industry. As would often be the case into the mid-1960s, the award was given not to a specific model but to an entire brand lineup, in this case Cadillac Division. Whether it was founder and publisher Robert E. Petersen, co-publisher Robert R. Lindsay, founding editor Walter A. Woron, or someone else on staff who first proposed a Car of the Year award is lost to history. The task of selecting a winner and defending it to our readers was delegated to future Road & Track owner and publisher John R. Bond, who at the time was a contributor to the other magazine as well as a design engineer for Frank Kurtis, whose Kurtis Sport Car was featured on the cover of our first issue.