Cadillac Club brings the bling at the City Market's Art of the Machine

How can you like cars and not dig old Cadillacs?  Even the emblems are cool.  I mean, you look back at those big fins and all the chrome doodads and you can't help but smile.  They're just so lavish ... almost to the point of being ridiculous.  I love 'em.

And so, I made it a point to be at the City Market on Sunday, where the Cadillac Club of Kansas City was the featured display for Art of the Machine.  No, it wasn't the biggest display of cars I've ever seen, but there were some good ones.  And old Cadillacs are such that even a small number of them gives you plenty of little details to study.

Art of the Machine takes place in the City Market on Sunday mornings throughout the summer.  They usually invite a car club to display some cars in front of the first awning.

This event does draw some neat vehicles, but it is also sort of a study in anthropology.  When you go to the Goodguys show or World of Wheels, you know you're going to get a bunch of people who are there because they like cars.  When you go to a show called "Art of the Machine," and they hold it in a downtown farmer's market, you definitely get a different crowd.

There have to be some car people, I suppose, but you don't see too many Camaro T-shirts.  The word "Art" is a draw for some, and they take a lot of fancy pictures with fancy cameras with big lenses.  Other folks seem amazed that these cars even exist.  It's like someone opened a time capsule and unearthed these rare and exotic curiosities, seen for the first time since they were new.

Of course, if you come around this blog very often, you've seen most of these cars at various car shows around town in the photo slideshows.  Automotive "art" shows up all over town every weekend.  That's a little secret that we car nuts know.

One of my favorites was a white '60 Coupe deVille with black and white leather.  By today's standards, a 1960 Cadillac may seem a little radical, but in spite of their size, I really think they're a clean, restrained design.  And compared to a '59, they're practically spartan.  The one at the show was particularly nice, obviously pampered in an extra-long garage.

I also liked a white-over-red '71 Eldorado convertible.  You can make fun of these cars all you want, but in the 1970s, an Eldorado was the ultimate.  They didn't have Lexus. BMW's were not luxurious.  People of means very often bought Eldorados.  And I still think they're cool.  All that red leather and thick carpeting makes for a very opulent place to spend time.

There were maybe a dozen Cadillacs on display this time.  As always, I enjoyed looking at them.  I hope you also enjoy looking at the pictures below.