2010 Cadillac & LaSalle Club Grand National Convention was in Kansas City. Part 2: 1961 and newer

This weekend, the 2010 Cadillac & LaSalle Club Grand National event, hosted by the Cadillac Club of Kansas City, was held in Overland Park, Kan. The Doubletree Hotel near Corporate Woods was loaded with some of the finest examples of GM's flagship brand in the country.

In the first part of this story, we studied the opulent Cadillacs from the first 60 years of the company's existence. In this segment, we'll look at the more restrained cars from 1961 and on-up-through the 1980s.

We chose 1961 because this was a transitional year for Cadillac styling. Harley Earl, Cadillac's legendary design chief, retired in 1958. His successor, Bill Mitchell, was a big fan of clean lines and simple elegance. Of course, the 1959 Cadillac was among the most gloriously garish vehicles ever conceived, but Mitchell's influence started to show with the slightly less overwrought '60 model, and was even further realized with the completely redesigned '61.

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