The Carcajou

Early version of The Carcajou with center-hinged hood. Photos courtesy GM Heritage Center.

You may, as many have, once wondered what you would do if you owned a car company. If you were Paul Seiler, president of the Yellow Truck & Coach Mfg. Company, better known as General Motors Truck Corp., then you would get hold of a preproduction 1929 Z-250 Yellow Coach, eight months before the public debut. As the Depression hadn’t hit yet, you would convince someone in accounting to release about $25,000 to you, and have the factory build it into what was probably the most luxurious vehicle on wheels, The Carcajou (wolverine).

Does your Duesenberg have one of these? It does not.

Ostensibly, Seiler had it built to tour YT&CMC dealers and production facilities, and he did record at least 3,000 miles in it over the next couple of years. But it was also described…