Louie Mattar, a San Diego garage owner, converted his 1947 Cadillac into a four-wheel DIYers guide. The additional equipment his dealer provided when he purchased a brand new Cadillac four years ago was not enough, and Mattar began to add a strange array of items most carriers could only dream of.
He placed the pipes in a shower from his 50 gallon tanks around the exhaust collector for hot water for the most part. The cap was stuffed into a pumping machine. A drinking fountain and a tape recorder and a bar with whisky, water, and soda spigots went beside the taillight underneath the Dashboard. He put a washing machine, a stove, and even a kitchen sink in his back seat. It took four years for Mattar to do and cost him $14,000 more.
Matters ultra-tricked out Caddy set a world-class endurance record in Sept. 1952, after having been eclipsed, when three drivers traveled all over from San Diego to New York in one week working shifts and back, 6.300 miles. Later, it traveled from Anchorage, Alaska, to Mexico City, almost non-stop, thanks to Mattar’s innovations that allowed it to fuel while driving.
The car is now in the San Diego Auto Museum in Balboa Park.
