A beauty called Jacqueline
At the Paris Motor Show in September 1961, Pininfarina presented a coupé named Jacqeline in the hope of persuading General Motors to start series production of the Cadillac. The name was a reference to the American president's wife Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. The coupé, with its unusually straightforward design and barely recognizable similarities to Cadillac designs of the time, was well received by the public. However, it obviously failed to convince the GM decision-makers, as the car remained a one-off.
The coupé was shown again at the Turin Motor Show of the same year and Automobil Revue wrote in issue 48/1961:
"Among its creators, Pininfarina occupies a similar position to Fiat among Italian car manufacturers. The most beautiful car shown this time is undoubtedly the two-seater coupé "Jacqueline" on a Cadillac chassis, which was already on display at the Paris Salon. This car, named after Mrs. Kennedy, is finished in light metallic silver-grey and black, highly elegant plastic upholstery, and its clean lines make a real impression."
It was not until three decades later that Jacqueline was completed into a drivable coupé with contemporary Cadillac mechanicals in the mid-1990s; another decade later, the car was to be auctioned off, but fell short of the reserve price.
Some of the design elements already seen on Jacqueline could later be found on the Peugeot 204 (radiator grille), but also on the Corvette Rondine and Corvair Pininfarina Coupé Speciale concept cars (rear section, both designed by Tjaarda). And some later General Motors models also copied something from Pininfarina's Jacqueline here and there.
