I agree, the 49 Cadillac, especially the Fast Back was beautiful and graceful, with flowing lines and curves, with the perfectly proportioned taillights and wings. One of our neighbors had a deeply faded black model that begged for some TLC restoration.
Always loved how the '50s and early '60s Caddie (& other manufacturers) advertising art always added several inches in length and wheelbase to their side view renderings...
They also made the wheels look smaller yet they appear to fill out the wheel wells more in a attempt to make the cars appear more substantial in size, they’d even use strakes to insinuate speed. They also included jewelry in the drawings, I can remember old advertising in National Geographic magazines that had the V logo in the background made out of rubies to accentuate wealth and class
It’s the total opposite what they do now they put smaller wheels to make the cars look bigger and actually the ride better with 14s and 15s on them Great information =)
great video. I own a '49 Cadillac, let me fill in some of the blanks. The knob on the dash next to the wipers turns on the fog lights and turns off the front parking lights (the light under the headlight is the fog light, turn signal and parking light). The upper and lower knobs are not vents but control the temp and fans for the upper heater (defroster) behind the dash and the lower heater (main cabin heat) that is under the seat. The underhood vent controls are the chrome pull knobs under the dash on each side.
Thank you so much for the corrections I really appreciate it I’m generally able to find an owners manual but I couldn’t find an owners manual that was downloadable for free for this car.. Greatly appreciate it greatly appreciate it What do you like the most about your car what do you like the least I talked to another owner today and he said it’s a fantastic car to drive.. they also said the hydraulic windows are great until they break not very easy to fix
I assume it's like the '49 Coupe DeVille I owned long ago, which had two fans under the front seat (passenger and driver side) that directed heat to both the front & back. Very quiet system, but a little more oomph would've been nice, presumably to come with the 12V system in '53.
Hello, my turn signal, gas gauge stopped working all of a sudden on my 49 Any suggestions for how to fix. I’ve had the car for about a year. I absolutely love it. Also the break lights are not working since I’ve owned the car any suggestions on that also. Thanks a bunch.
WYR - Packard (because it’s always the Packard). As far as the fastbacks - any of them because I love the fastback styling from that era. I wonder if those side hollows betwee the door/IC may be to distribute the defroster air to the door? I’ve never noticed those before and now I’m on a mission. Great content as always - thank you! Chuck
I have always considered the bathtub Packard design to be an extremely unattractive looking automobile, with the '49 Lincoln and its '''frown grille" not far behind. So for my WYR the Caddy wins hands down. Lincoln improved their design in both '50 and '51 before introducing an entirely new model the following year, but not so with Packard which kept making the same ugly looking car until dealers were unable to even give them away as they would like to say following which a new and better looking design was introduced in '51.
Great views of the Caddy! For what I'd rather, #1 would be the Caddy. The baby fins are cute. For #2, the Buick. The lines are more appealing to me and I do like the hood vents.
I totally agree it would be really hard to pick a car that’s for sure this one was absolutely incredible.. I really want to drive one I wanna know what one is like to drive I heard they’re phenomenal cars to drive. Glad you dig this episode
Cadillac offered 2 door hardtop, known as Coupe DeVille. Buick Roadmaster offered 2 door hardtop as of Riviera, and Oldsmobile 98 also offered 2 door Holiday hardtop in 1949.
Always liked the 1949 Cadillac for its gentle fins and the secret location for the gas tank. the fins became a safety hazzard for bicyclists and motor cyclists by the late '50s and '60s. All Cadillacs made from 1941 to 1958 had the gas tank behind the taillight, with the exception of Eldorado from '55 on. I also liked the suicide doors on the "49 Lincoln, but by then they were on there way out. The suicide doors went out of fashion, but always returned. Even the recent Lincoln Coach and Rolls Royce has suicide doors. My pick would be the 1949 Packard because it is the rarest of the three.
The 1948 Cadillac was my favorite. One year only instrument cluster and cleaner lines. BTW, the AMC 327 was a stump puller of an engine and had a lot in common with the early Cadillac overhead valve V8s. I had one in a 66 Jeep Wagoneer.
Yeah AMC made a bulletproof 327 and honestly one of the most underrated engines of all time in my opinion far better than Chevy’s version those two engines don’t even share anything in common other than the 327 name.. I’m going to make an edit The engine episode is going to be on the first two generations because the second generation was only produced for four years
The 49 is sooooo much better than the 47. The 49 dash is the Cadillac standard going forward….and I love it. Look at the quality! And wow on the hydraulically controlled windows. The hollow areas wee called something like airflow for natural cooling. That is quality for the time. ❤️ this car.
Lincoln used the hydraulic window lifts and used hydraulics for the front seat adjustments, the hydraulics were so much quieter and smoother Mercedes used hydraulics on the 600 grosser
Sixty Special really were something special. When Caddy struggled with the ill marketed CT6 I hoped they would come out with a six inch stretched version with extra interior features named the CT60 Special.
Another great episode, Jay. These 60 Specials always had great interiors. FYI, Chrysler built 7 Town and Country hardtops in 1947. I don't know why only so few, perhaps another viewer does. And they weren't the first, some hardtops had been built prior to WWII, but they were not called that. Nonetheless, GM is the company that popularized the bodystyle!
I love the simple, clean styling of these cars, especially compared to the huge, over-the-top, be-finned barges the Big-Three were cranking out by the late '50s!
Great vid! WYR 1: I'm torn, I agree with Chuck, the Packard simply because it's the Packard but I prefer the Caddy style-wise. 2: the Caddy Sedanet. Torn again between the 47 and 49, leaning toward 47 due to the front end styling. It has the presence that is lacking in the 49, to my eye. Agree, the 49 looks rather Chrysler-esque. Of the dashboards, definitely the 49.
A '49 Cadillac. The original Fishtail Cadillac. At the beginning of the movie "A Place In The Sun" an absolutely gorgeous white 1949 Cadillac Series 62 convertible passes by Montgomery Cliff on the highway that is driven by none other than beautiful Elizabeth Taylor. 😊😊 I believe that the 1949 Buick Riviera was the first hard top model. Inspired according to legend by the wife of a Buick executive who always kept the top of her convertible up.
the 1948 Cadillacs introduced the distinctive fishtail look styling of the rear taillights area that would identify the cars through about the 1955 year after which the ugly shark fin tailfins appeared.
For those too young to remember those days, this was the Cadillac which started the whole "tail fin" fad that the American automobile industry. It actually debuted in 1948 but the '49 did not look much differently. Every year for the next decade every American car had tail fins and every year the fins got taller and more extreme. By the end of the 1950s the public had gotten tired of it, so Chevrolet took the fins and FLATTENED THEM OUT, making them horizontal. From then on, and for more than a decade, car lines became more and more horizontal and less and less vertical.
I don't think the Cadillac rear end was like the ugly tailfins of the later 1950s,the only ones of those later tailfins that appeal to me were the smaller ear tuft ones that were part of the Ford Owl Eye taillights such as seen on the 1957 and '59 Ford full size cars also early Thunderbird I think the designer working for Studebaker started the sharp tailfins with some of the Hawk cars around 1956 and then the designer for Chrysler picked up on the fashion but had to exaggerate it and then Cadillac decided to outdo them all with the horrendous 1959 Cadillac shark fins. '49 and later GM cars such as Pontiac I think had higher mounted taillights than earlier models I suspect out of concern for visibility (safety) considerations,the Cadillac appearance might have started out of a desire to get the taillights up high where people would hopefully see them and not run into the back of the car. A forerunner of the modern high mounted third brakelight?
I wish Cadillac had left the styling extremes of the ‘50s to its stablemates. The ‘58s & ‘59s get all the attention for their extremes, but the ‘57 was just as wild, if not more so, IMO. For example: the grille in ‘56 is a very elegant, V-shaped design, with a fine-meshed texture, the classic script being placed so distinctively on an angle. Even though it is gold anodized, it’s still not over the top, especially compared with what was to come; it’s my favorite feature of that year’s model. As for ‘57, I present for your consideration the grill placement, which can only be best described as a morphed, bottom-dwelling catfish, with obscene “Dagmars” as the morphed whiskers! And how about those obnoxious wheel-well openings, looking like a “Lady-of-the-night” raising her skirt for advertisement. What looks good on a sexy sports car, doesn’t always translate to a luxury car, especially a flagship division’s models. My dad in ‘83, bout a ‘57 Roadmaster from the original owner’s widow. She said they purchased new Cadillacs every 2 years…until ‘57, that is! Hubby brings the new ‘57 Caddy home to misses, who took one look and said, “No, just NO! That’s the ugliest car you’ve ever brought home!” That’s when he brought home the Roadmster 75. Sadly, he was murdered shortly thereafter by a disgruntled former employee. Since she never learned to drive, the car was garaged for roughly 25 years, only moved when the son visited once, or twice a year.
Hi Jay!: Wow, you know, even though I grew up in the '70's and 80's mostly, THIS is the car that says CADILLAC to me! Can you imagine what GM cars might have looked like if it hadn't been for Harley Earl and Bill Mitchell? I just don't think they would have been the automotive powerhouse for nearly FIVE decades that GM was. The 1948-56 Cadillacs were really fine cars that LOOKED like they were! It would be interesting if you could do a comparo between the 1949 Packard and the Caddy! Both quality cars, but. . . .The styling is NO contest! That fastback body style was GM's NICEST body style of the 1950's! They even applied it to the Corvair show car in the early fifties! The Corvair show car was a 1953-55 Corvette with the fastback body style! But they were having trouble selling Corvettes in those days, so I don't know if the fastback version would have helped much. It was the V-8 engine and the 1956 restyle that saved the 'vette. But I digress. . .WYR#1 Pretty easy, although the Lincoln was a cool design. . .Caddy on that one on styling and engine. WYR#2 if It was a 1950 I would pick Buick, because Mom and Dad had one! But since it is 1949 I will go Caddy on that one as well.
Hey buddy my kind of cars but the 49 I never was fond of them I like the 52s and down to the 56s but all are nice to me I just like the 55s and 56s because of the big boxy grill ..good video bro you are the best 👌.
Harley Earl was Chief Stylist and Designer at General Motors from 1927 to 1960, and Cadillac was his own special domain as the luxury Cadillac designer. Mr. Earl exclusively designed Cadillacs and later, in the 1950s, worked with the assistance of two excellent designers, Chuck Jordan and Bill Mitchell. Chuck Jordan's first work on Cadillac design was on the 1948-49 models for Mr. Earl, and together, they created the first tail fins on American cars for 1948-49. Harley Earl's Cadillac design creations were sensational and iconic, until his final design for the 1960 Cadillac, retiring from GM with high honors at Christmas 1959. Chuck Jordan and Bill Mitchell picked up where he left off for the 1961 Cadillacs.
'Would You Rather' poses difficult choices. It is difficult to choose an Oldsmobile over a Cadillac, yet the Olds is beautiful in its body style. The Packard has a great engine and it also has fine workmanship.
I love many Cadillac designs this one being my favorite of this era. I really love the Sedanettes and agree they are super sexy designs!🤩 I would pick the Caddy's , with the Buick Sedanette running an extremely close second! Cool video 😎
The 1949 Lincoln in the would you own was a 1949 Cosmopolitan which was technically placed above the Lincoln as a replacement for the Continental the Lincolns used a body shell like the Mercury.
Thanks for another great video Jay that Cadillac looks like an original survivor. The WYR is tuff but I think I’ll take the Lincoln just based on personal preference and the Buick for the same reason I think that is one of the best looking Buick models and the straight 8 is so smooth
This Cadillac is the one that put the nail in Packards coffin. I think its the best Cadillac ever with the cleanest elegant lines and they only went downhill as the 50's went on.
Thanks for another great video Jay, I love these early 50’s cars especially the luxury models. The early 50’s😂luxury cars were built to a higher standard both through engineering and the quality of materials used imo the latter cars supplanted fine luxury with electronic gizmos and gadgets. For the wyr I’d take the 49 Lincoln as the the styling represented the era, especially the front end styling and they were more exclusive than Cadillac’s and better looking than those particular packards . For the sedanette’s I’d have to say the Buick as the styling was beautiful and the straight 8 was a great engine. Those hollowed out passages in the doors might have been for fresh air and heat to be carried to the rear seat compartment, did you see any venting in the B pillar or the rear foot well ?
Sweet choices I didn’t see any vents in the rear that would’ve been really cool to see that really baffled me how it was open for both the dash and door but there wasn’t a vent from which I could see in the door itself maybe the air defog the window.. I agree cars are more computer than car now and there are positives and negatives to both.. The crazy thing is we have been making cars for over 100 years and nobody has figured out how to make the perfect car, some cars have come close.. but all have compromises of some sort
56 Cadillac coupe DeVille has similar fins and those hub caps were also used much later they were referred to as sombreros Spanish for hats cool content ✅💯
I prefer the '49 Caddy S62 to the '48 and '47 big Caddys. But I prefer the '48 S62 to all the others. Cadillac and Oldsmobile got the new postwar bodies a year ahead of the other GM divisions. The '48 is the only one with the "cathedral" dashboard. I would call the color of the steering wheel "bone."
49 Packard only because I really love Packard's. I actually think that Caddy is a better looking vehicle but I've always had soft spot for Packard's 49 Caddy fastback is hard to beat. A beautiful automobile. Looks great hot rodded too. When I saw those channels running through the front door up at the top I thought at first it might be vents that ran in for the back seat area. But I didn't see any outlets in the back for those. So maybe those were just a styling design for the doors and hollow inside to lighten the weight. That's part of the charm of these vintage automobiles taking a look at stuff like that and trying to figure out exactly what is intent was at the time. That's a really beautiful Cadillac though. And a great representation of the top of the GM line during that era.
The crazy thing is this was a basement model Cadillac that wrote a long wheelbase I was always a huge fan of this style Cadillac I would take this in any format but really love the sedanette I’m not a huge Packard fan from this era but I’ve never been in one I think they called this era the elephant packard era..
@@What.its.like. The narrator doesn't have it quite right: Series 61 was entry level, followed by Series 62, then the 60 Special, and finally the Series 75 limo. The 61 was dropped after 1951. By the mid '50s, Sedan DeVille models were being offered as tricked-out versions of the regular Series 62 sedans, the latter then becoming the entry level Cadillac. (Entry-level 62 models were renamed Calais in 1965.)
1. Heated defroster/defogger air could be directed into the front doors, and it came up through the brushlike material at the top to help keep those side windows clear. 2. The 49 Cadillac was way ahead of those other 49 luxury cars, with the looks, the OHV short stroke V-8 and the Hydramatic. 3. Sedannet looks choices 1. Caddy, 2. Buick, 3, Olds. -The 49 was indeed a milestone car. BTW, never mentioned was that fact that from 49-51, this engine had a 2 barrel carb and single exhaust.
Watching the video and seeing the pictures on the Classic Auto Mall website, where is the battery on this car? BTW, I hope to get to the Auto Mall later this year. Great video and nice car!
Let me know when you were going out there next I’ll totally come out and meet you if you’re up for it I’m not entirely sure when the next time I’m going to get the chance to go there I know I’m going to Hershey probably all three days..
KDKA-TV hit air in 1949 as WDTV on channel; 3, moving to channel 2 in 1952. It was built and owned by the DuMont Television Network. Westinghouse didn't buy it until 1954.
Dude, I just thought about something neat you might do. When somebody does name the tune and band take a quick google search and if you find it out there (I suppose youtube is the best source) add a reply with a link to the tune if you can.
I've been looking for another Packard - will be my 3rd - for a few years but the 2-door coupes are rare to the point of being unobtainable.@@What.its.like.
The crazy thing is if you wait five or 10 years you’ll be able to buy any Packard that you would want to buy except for the custom cars those will always be expensive.. like the 34 custom LeBaron bodied cars those will always be worth a fortune and the Darrens. Just curious where are you located and what Packards do you have. I’m always looking for Packards to do on the channel if you’re close I would love to feature your cars on the channel if you’re up for it. 1941 Packard 120 episode is today I thought it was a 110 I got through most of the writing portion of putting the episode together to realize it wasn’t a 110 it’s a 120.. I really wish it was a 110 though because that story was a cooler story than the story that’s going to be told still a cool story but it was better.. with 110
I'm in Tucson.Mid-late 1970's I had a 1953 Pacific convertible with Ultramatic and in 2000's a 1951 Clipper 300 3-speed overdrive, which I preferred and is what I'm looking for. There's a pretty light blue 1953 coupe advertised but the seller doesn't respond to questions. It's a 3-speed but the seller won't say if the overdrive is operational. Also, the Cormorant has no wings. - @@What.its.like.
If I ever go out west I will let you know cause I’m really interested =) I shouldn’t say if I should say Wynn because I definitely want to get out there I just don’t know if it’s going to happen next year me and my wife were sitting down planning out a year it doesn’t look like it will be next year probably be the year after that but who knows things can change =)
Well, it's been bored to .030, so it can go anymore i'm pretty sure, and it's served well. In fact I wasn't even expecting it to last a drive a round the block. My '52 has been in the family since 1963 and its a plain sedan series 62 in black. I love it and i'll probably never sell it haha
@@What.its.like. ru-vid.comItC0buIg-Ck so this was a while back when it ran high, it has since been fixed but takes a while to warm up. It will not idle without gas unless warm.
I am a huge fan of independents, always get my attention over the Big Three. However I have plenty of exceptions the 49 Caddy and Buick are among them, easily some of the best work GM did post war. So I can't really decide between the Cadillac and the Packard, too close for me. As for the GM cars, I would go within the Buick there's just something with it's overall design that just speaks to me.
Look at that metal dashboard. Those cars were built so strong that if you got into an accident they just hosed them down and sold them to the next customer.
It's pretty well accepted that the fins were a copy of the twin fins of the Lockheed P38 aircraft. (Get a photo up and you'll see exactly what I mean.) Now I'm going to take issue with the term 'suicide wipers'. I guess that the term has come from the relative actions of suicide rear doors and normal front doors, which was common in the late 30's. But right through the first half of the 30's, many cars had both front and rear doors hinged at the back in the suicide manner. So if your benchmark was, say, a 34 Ford, you could equally say that the modern style of wipers were suicide wipers. A much better term for the old style wipers is 'clap hand' wipers. On the origin of the term suicide doors, they were dangerous. If a door came unlatched while the car was moving, the natural instinct of the person next to the door is to grab the handle to prevent it opening. But many people were thus dragged out of the car to their death when the wind caught the door. On one more matter, it's a risky business judging the quality of the upholstery material of a 70 year old car. If you can be certain that the upholstery is original, that's fine, but you might be passing judgement on a 30 year old reupholstering job. Cheers.
I've always thought this model would have benefited from a grill with a finer texture. It makes me think of an old fashioned sewer grate. But I love the car overall.
The '48 grill is a bit more distinctive, whereas the '49 grill very bland/nondescript. They should have left the v-shaped point in it, like so many models before and after. (I'd still take the '49 over the '48 for the power plant though!)
@jaysverrisson1536 Yes I agree. I have always thought the 1954 restyling of the Cadillac was brilliant. Every line that was disappointing in the previous several years was corrected . To me, the '54, '55 and '56 were the most beautiful versions of the Cadillac look that they'd been developing for decades.. Then, in '57 they ruined it.
Especially the grille in ‘56…it’s my favorite feature of that year’s model. As for ‘57, how’d you like those obnoxious wheel-well openings, to say nothing of their grilles, which looked like some bottom-dwelling catfish! My dad in ‘83, bout a ‘57 Roadmaster from the original owner’s widow. She said they purchased new Cadillacs every 2 years…until ‘57, that is! Hubby brings the new ‘57 Caddy home to misses, who took one look and said, “No, just NO! That’s the ugliest car you’ve ever brought home!” That’s when he brought home the Roadmster 75. Sadly, he was murdered shortly thereafter by a disgruntled former employee. Since she never learned to drive, the car was garaged for roughly 25 years, only moved when the son visited once, or twice a year.
It's funny, the 1949 Fleetwood 75 series didn't get the new body style that other Cadillacs got in 1948. That older body style is what I associate with a Mafioso Cadillac. !949 was the last of the single drive range 1st series HydraMatics. The HydraMatic Factory burned down in 1950 and was rebuilt from the ground up. So, 1950 Cadillacs used the Buick DynaFlows or a 3-speed manual. When the new HydraMatic re-opened, the transmission itself received upgrades, add a 2nd drive position and ushered in the 2nd series HydraMatic. GM cars of this era had hydraulic power windows. The hollow tunnels in the doors was used for air circulation. Cool air in the summer and warm air in the winter. If air conditioning was available, it would have been located in the trunk, and, I know not too much later, if not back then, the A/C vents would run along above the doors. Mercedes-Benz had air vents into the door panels for decades. Combined with MB-Tex coverings in the center of the door panels, being a perforated material, cold or warm air would be emitted through the door panels.
I respectfully disagree with your dates: The first dual range Hydramatic was '52, and the Hydramatic factory fire took place in Aug. 1953. Cadillacs & Olds got Dynaflow and Pontiac got Powerglide for the remainder of the '53 model year. (There was a pale green '53 Dynaflow 60 Special offered a couple years ago on RU-vid. It was not identified as such by the car dealer, but it was discernible during the drive test portion of the video.) I think they tweaked the rear axle ratio on Dynaflow-equipped Cadillacs to compensate--unsuccesfully--for Dynaflow's sluggishness getting away from stoplights.
That car sounds super interesting Chrysler town and country is definitely a car that I want to feature on here one day I’ve only seen one this year and I didn’t do it I did a couple other cars besides that car it was parked right next to a Packard woody wagon I did the Packard instead..
For WYR, I choose the 1949 Cadillac, and the '49 Buick...I always liked the back end of that year's Buick. I would agree with you, the Cadillac does somewhat resemble the Chrysler.
Yeah I was thinking Chrysler the badge.. i’m dyslexic it happens a lot sometimes I say the wrong car when describing another car it especially happens whenever you’re 20 cars deep the same day lol forgot it edit that part out
To answer the question if there was a hard top built before GM introduced the 1949 Buick, Cadillac , and Olds, according to my Chrysler history book, in the 1946-48 era, with one going to a Chrysler executive there were 7 prototype Chrysler C-39 Town & Country convertibles fitted with a steel hard top, but was not put into production until sometime in 1949 with the redesigned models, after the Buick, Cadillac , and Olds came out first, so GM beat Chrysler to the market. First pick the 60 Special, 2nd pick the Buick sedanette, it looks sportier.
Additional note on your specs page. Auto-correct mis-named the generator/electrical system. The name is DELCO-REMY, not Deacons-Remy. Delco stands for Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company. Remy is Remy Electrical. The two were combined when they were purchased by GM in 1916.
It must’ve auto corrected I’m gonna turn auto correct off of my iPad I do everything from the iPad I’ll have to go back and look at that slide if it’s anything to do with subtitles I don’t do anything with subtitles somebody from RU-vid does that
Bill Robinson of Briggs Auto Body Company of Chicago actually copied the 1949 Cadillac front chrome grille for the 1950 Chrysler. Briggs was making all of Chrysler's auto bodies at that time from design to shipping them to Detroit until 1954.
I'd take the Cadillac and the Cadillac. Sorry about the stutter...... Had a late friend that had the 49 Sedanette. It belonged to his uncle who bought it new.
Haha yeah I said that I would think 16 candles for any car that I would buy at the end but I wanted to do it differently every time I do the 16 candles I’m gonna do it differently
I notice on some cars, the overhead lights, fluorescent, I assume, actually block and distort the car's appearance and lines. We can't see the same detail as you are seeing in person.
1) Sorry, Lincoln, gotta go with the Caddy. See you in '52 🙂 2) Actually, none of them. Not a fan of the fast back thing. But if I had to make a choice, it'd be on dashboards, and with that, the Caddy wins out, Buick a really close 2nd. Now, explain this rear seat blanket hangar to keep warm thing. You mean to tell me this Caddy doesn't come with individual climate control and seat warmers? Shocked, I tell ya! LOL The other thing the '48 ushered in was the age of the tailfin. After that, they just grew and grew, culminating in probably the most iconic symbol of the 50's, the '59 Caddy tailfin. This is a gorgeous car!
Great guess by no I’ll give you a hint it’s an 80s or 90s country song the best era of country music in my opinion.. heavy hitter But I’m not sure if this was a huge song of his
The goal is to cover them all I will look and see which episodes of Cadillacs we’ve already done I’ve done a couple 50s Cadillacs in the past The format has changed a little since then they were last year but I will definitely look for a 58 Cadillac Fleetwood 60
huh 🤔 I made sure it was turned up it was only a couple guitar strings the song was called lefties gone by George Strait it was about lefty frizzell, who was a country singer back in the day
Those windows are hydraulic operated. There's hydraulic cylinders in the doors and the switches operate valves that move hydraulic fluid from a pump under the hood. This was a very touchy system and a nightmare to repair if anything breaks. Cadillac would not to go full electric windows until 1954.
Hmmm...what happened to the 1948 model 60 Special? I stopped listening after he compared the 47 to the 49 as if there was no 48. No 48? What? Well I'm calling BS on that because I had a 1948 Fleetwood 60 Special. It looked exactly like the 49 but it was different in that it had a flat head V8. Another great episode? Maybe but mis-informative.
There was a 48 but the 48 was virtually the same car so instead of comparing it to the 48 which you’d almost be looking at a mirror that’s why we went to 47.. it’s stated right there that it was a carryover body design that started in 48 Major difference being the 48 had a flathead V-8 versus the 49 got the overhead valve V8 but other than that most everything else was the same.. The 48 might’ve had a different interior as well but externally everything was relatively the same
Had two 49's in my collection one rare stick shift. Auto would get over 20 at 60. GM bought this engine design from the Italians in 41. Not durable though. Had to overhaul both around 89k, my friends same thing. I'm used mopars that never need overhaul, at least below 250k.
I thought the '49 engine design was copied from Oldsmobile's. Was the Caddy engine less reliable than Oldsmobile's ? (the overhead valve V8s of 1949) Was the older style flathead Caddy engine more reliable than the new overhead valve one? (I would be surprised and disappointed if it really only had 3 main bearings in which case it would not have been so reliable) Early Ford flathead V8s might have only had 3 mains but those were not very high compression and probably not as fast or good as people now seem to think they were,also I think the Ford Flathead got updated and strengthened a couple of cycles before the last ones were built in the early 1950s also I understand that the larger block (than Ford's) Lincoln flathead V8 was not as highly regarded as Cadillac's large heavy flathead V8
The 49 cadillac I believe actually had the 315 CID V8 engine and not the 331. It was superior to the packard engine because it had hydraulic lifters as to where the packard V8 used solid lifters. Oh yes the packard engine as a great engine for sure but the cadillac engine was superior on 49. The 49 Oldsmobile used the 303 CID v8 which was just as good as the cadillac and was actually the same engine family. Even today if they would use the Cadillac 315 in full size pickups they would last longer than the junk made today
That’s what this channel is =) thank you so much.. The Internet there’s a wall once you go back so far 50 stuff is pretty easy to fine but if you go back to before World War I there’s like a giant wall.. Do you know all of Cadillac engine displacement before mono block design Also do you know all of the Cadillac engine displacement during mono block design those are engine families that I really want to do for the channel one day but I can’t find enough information I found the 315 cid the heads don’t detach also Northway build engines for Cadillac
@@What.its.like.Who told you the deads dont detach from the 315 CID. Of course they do. The 315 is the same block and heads used for cadillac all the way up to 1964. In order the 315 OHVin 1949 then in 1956 the 331 and then in 1959 the 390. After 1964 you had the 429 and then the 472 in 1967 and then the 500 Cid for eldorado only in 1969 and standard in full size for 1974 to 76. Then 425 CID from 77 to 79 To dig bacl to 1894 you had inline flat head engines and in the 1926 to 1928 the V12 and V16 OHV were available and then a shift back to flat head V8 until 1949. There you have it
We’re not talking about the same 315 I’m talking about the engine that came before the monobloc.. I was wrong about the cubic inch displacement I’m talking 314 from 1914 through 1935 then Cadillac went to the mono block in 36