@@jamesweddle184 My father had a 1991/1992 Eldorado. Mind you, it was an amazing car and in comparison a much younger Mercedes Benz felt like a tin box to drive in (97 E-Class).
In 1980 we had a senior mechanic at Bland Cadillac in Houston who had a home machine shop. He would snatch up any 500 or 472 V8 he could find from totalled 68 - 76 Cadillacs and rebuild them if necessary to max out horsepower and sold them as fast as he could crank them out. Never told me who was buying them - like me he loved the older vehicles - we had many pleasurable hours of conversation reminiscing about the good old days. In remembrance Bob J.
Before diesel pickups the 500 Cadillac was a good towing motor. They are limited in rpm, but under 3,500 rpm is adequate. The 500 is relatively light weight
The 1968 was the BEST year of this four-year styling era. The 1968 model gave you the all-new 472cid engine with 375hp, Dual exhaust option, longer hood with hidden wipers, square classic Cadillac mirrors, hidden headlamps, new Cadillac logo, parking lamps in the front fenders, and the best version of the razor blade taillamps. You can keep the '67, '69, and '70 models. I won't even mention the '71 through '78 models. They were just another Cadillac model with nothing sporty or unique about their styling.
Not to mention the the dashboard designs used in the 1967 and the slightly different 1968 design. Much better looking than the cheap looking dash and no color keyed steering wheel offered in 1969-70
GM actually began using Monoleaf rear suspension on the ChevyII / Nova in the early 1960's. On another note, I never understood the "partial frame" concept, not befitting a Cadillac of old. Cadillac engines were really great in this era.
Dad had a 1972 Eldorado. I remember him telling the story that some kid with a hopped-up V8 tried to race him from a stoplight. Dad said he just pushed the pedal down and left the kid in his dust.
I worked in the parts department at one Cadillac in Phoenix in the mid 90s and the owner of our dealership was Bob Lund who was president of Cadillac motivation from 1962 until 1973. We were the world‘s largest exclusive Cadillac dealership and if you need it old Cadillac parts, you called me! Bob is a great guy.❤😊
Yes! And don't look anything at all like each other! Both beautiful. GM was at the top of their game then. They are a shadow of what they once were. Olds and Pontiac gone; Buick reduced to marketer of boring Chinese SUVs.
Nice to see two cars featured in this video that once belonged to me: The Lucerne Aqua Firemist/white top and bucket seat car (pics were taken in my driveway for the listing on Bring a Trailer, where I sold the car about three years ago). I believe it had 23K miles at the time. And, Adam’s Black/red slicktop ‘67 was also mine for a few years. I sold it about ten years ago and knew the interim owners until Adam bought it. Of course, I always have at least one of these. In my view, the most beautiful Cadillac ever made. My current ‘67 is an Atlantis Blue Firemist slick top with dark blue leather.
Of course, what passed for "bucket seats" in those days were not much different from the split bench seats that were always available, so half of it was semantics.
Indeed...! The '71 looks obviously fatter than the '70. I guess part of me still doesn't believe the author; I'd have to research the stats to confirm that.
@@aloysiusbelisarius9992 The 71 is more rounded and buxom than the 70. The 70s was more in the 60s angular mold, the 71 marked a return to the buxom look of the 50s, so it looks bigger than it really is. It was actually the smallest Cad in the 70s.
@@jamesbosworth4191 Well, if one factors in the whole decade, I'd say the Seville takes that status, but that's beside the point. One thing I'm curious about is how the Toronados from '71 thru '78 looked a lot like the Eldos of '67 thru '70. It makes me wonder whether Cadillac decided to donate the old Eldo shell design to Oldsmobile for refitting into the '70s Toros. I also have the same feeling about the first-gen Seville shell, being that the sedan variants of Cutlass from the early-'80s looked a lot like the Sevilles of the late-'70s. It's only a guess, but the similarities to those respective models look too coincidental to me.
I enjoy this format and it is great fun learning more interesting facts about these awesome cars. Hard to imagine the '70 and '71 are the same size - the '70 looks so sharp and elegant, while the '71 appears enormous and bloated in comparison.
Thank you. I like the "Top 10" format and your usual formats. You are a "Rare" and perhaps "Classic" RU-vid content creator: no "click bait," no hystrionics and political intrusion. Keep up the good work.
I've always suspected the suspension would be designed to give a sportier ride for this model. Kind of a subtle "clapback" to the banker's hotrod.. We like this format and appreciate all that you do! Your channel is gold..
To me, this car has one of the most beautiful designs ever. But I bet it was thirsty with that 8.2 liter engine. I remember talking to a guy who was a parole officer about 1972. He spoke of a gang of kids who stole exclusively Eldorados. They knew how to bypass the security and they were so little they had to climb on top of each other to get in the car. Great initiative and ingenuity if only it could be properly channeled. I always appreciate your presentations.
Back on the 90s I saw a program where these two guys bought a 8.2L sedan Deville. They tuned it out and took it to a drag strip. Ran it down the 1/4 mile, came back, cut off the rear doors and ran it again. Shaved an entire second of their E.T.. And after every run, they would cut something else off. It ended up being a rolling chasis and drive train with a seat and a steering wheel. I think they were running in the 13s when it was over. I guess it was a fun way to show how power to weight ratio works and just how heavy those Cadillacs were.
Many first-generation Nova/Chevy IIs had mono leaf rear suspension, but that was a much smaller vehicle, and certainly not luxury. Always enjoy your channel.
Imagine if the EPA never existed and these engines were able to be improved over time. Imagine the 8.2 liter with direct injection, variable timing, variable intake, a cold-air intake tube, and made out of aluminum!!!!! Holy crap they would literally shred the tires off!!
Most everything the EPA forced to help hydrocarbon emissions was for the good and we probably never would have seen manufacturing costs drop low enough for producing and machining aluminum to gain performance, efficient fuel injection systems (even GDI), or VVT/VVL systems so they could make it to light vehicles. That said, every single thing pushed by the EPA to reduce nitrogens of oxides emissions killed power and fuel mileage so they can keep their EGR systems and low compression engines with retarded ignition timing.
@greggc8088 it has come at n enormous cost. Todays DI engines are in the tens of thousands. Turbos add to the problem. With safety regs, costs are unaffordable. Have you looked at the sticker on a new car lately? Even used clapped out pieces of trash cost 5k or more. Ill take leaded gas over this
I love watching your video's because you are so detailed on the cars you cover. I remember seeing these big cars back in the day, thinking there is no way people are going to want to collect these cars. They will all go to the junkyard once people are done driving. LOL How wrong I was. I actually like these big yachts now, probably because I'm older (47). LOL
Had a 60,000 mile ‘70 Eldorado in the mid 1980s, fun car to drive with the ability to annihilate the front tires at will. Pretty impressive top end speed as well although the 120 mph speedometer was a bit of a letdown.
I used to see Novas and Camaros crabbing down the street when they got old, nothing too serious, but the clamps that held the rear axle to the springs seemed to loosen up. I though at least some Novas had multiple layers of leaf spring, though they might have used single leafs on the base model. When that suspension was re-used for the '76 Seville, they put liners, Mylar or Teflon or something, between the leafs to keep them from squeaking.
@@pcno2832 I remember Novas with single leafs, and with multiple leafs. I got a ‘78 Nova for my stepson, and it had multi-leaf springs. My sister had a ‘76 or possibly ‘75 dark blue Nova, bought brand new, and I liked it. She was killed in that car by a couple of dickhead drunks, and I don’t remember for sure, but think it was multi-leaf rear axle. She didn’t have that car all that long….she was killed in October of ‘76.
The 67-70 design is by far the best, but the next two generations were decent-looking. The downsized 86 model was a complete turd tho and killed the model imo
I too am amazed that the '71 was the same length as a 70. In '74 I bought a beautiful light Mediterranean blue with white top and interior '71 (like the '71 convertible shown) . The front wheel drive was amazing. I got stuck going down a steep loose gravel drive which was almost perpendicular and had to back up to get out. The car just backed up without skipping a stone.!!! I ended up selling it cause I was going to college and it didnt want to park such a beautiful car with the terrible parking. Although it handled great, the ride was not nearly as soft as my then father in laws '72 Thunderbird which too was a large coupe.
Those 72 - 75 "Thunderbirds" were actually Lincoln Continental Mark IV with less standard equipment and a slightly lower price. Nice cars, but they were hardly the sporty cars that 'Birds of the past had been.
As always, Adam, a superior job. Always look forward to your work. 1) The retractable rear windows were also on the 1967 thru 1971 Thunderbird, when such cars were not equipped with the factory Landau roof. 2) Buckets and Console are exceedingly RARE on 67 thru 70 Eldorado, and also, there are 4 known examples with an Oldsmobile style full length operating console with floor shift. Cadillac dealers did their level best to discourage ordering stuff like this, as they felt it was "hot rod kids stuff" and not proper for a mature, wealthy clientele. Most likely, they didn't want cars coming back after being driven hard. 3) The 1969 Cadillac steering wheel was a "Rim-Blow" design, where you honked the horn by squeezing the steering wheel rim. There was a flood of complaints from (mostly) upper middle class housewives that they would be in an emergency situation and slamming their fist into the steering wheel, with no results. Hence, the hasty 1970 redesign, which looks like it was done very quickly (because it was) to alleviate this customer complaint. The 1969 wheel was initially supposed to be used thru 1970 as well. Many 1969 wheels were modified for more conventional horn actuation. 4) The 1970 was supposed to have dual exhaust all the way back, but, as you can see, it's dual to the muffler with a single outlet. Again, referring to #2 above, that was "hot rod kids stuff." 5) The 8.2 was capable of churning out 600 horsepower with a full, quiet exhaust and hydraulic lifters. GM was terrified of the bad press from the safety nerds and discouraged Cadillac from extracting this much. Even in later, Clean Air Act years, with low compression and unleaded fuels, the 8.2 could've blasted out way more than it did, as you've seen on your cars. Driveway tweaks unleash at least 50 to 75 horsepower. One Cadillac engine builder has a 472 ( the 472, 500, 425 and 368 were the same "engine family") with around 800 horsepower running unleaded pump gas, cats, and full exhaust. 6) Finally, the 500 was in advance response to rumors that Ford was working on (and did have ready but never released) a 514 cubic inch variant of the Lincoln 460 with about 400 horsepower. That engine wound up in slightly detuned form in Super Duty trucks and the 460 would soldier on in its regular form thru the 1978 model year.
Hello, Great Video Thanks. My 1970 Eldorado Had a Tilt and Telescoping Steering Wheel And it also had the Large Moon Roof . To this day I have never seen like the one I had in 1975.😂
My dad's 66 New Yorker had bucket seats similar to that with a semi-console in between them. I think that was a relatively rare option on the 66 New Yorker.
Of my 80+ vehicles only owned one '76 Eldorado a beautiful '76 Conv. / Canary Yellow With Camal Top & Interior! A Toronto Blue Jays pitcher bought it for his Dad, NICE KID!!
Thank you Adam. I loved hearing the Toronado and Oldsmobile facts mentioned in the video. I swear you can see the 1971-1978 Toronado in the 1967-1970 Eldorado. It is clear Eldorado influence Oldsmobile Toronado. The engineers and designers at Cadillac had imagination and forward thinking world class luxury with V-12's and other things.
The 70 was more angular and chiseled in the theme started by the 57 Ford, the 71 harked back to the buxom look of the early and mid 50s, so it looked bigger than it was, the 70 looked smaller than it was.
Love your videos! I'd love to see one on the 79 (I'm not sure of the year model but the 79 looks closest) Olds Delta 88. My grandma had one for pretty much my entire childhood, bench seats front and back, four door. My sister called it the "Lead Sled" because it was silver. Those were very reliable cars and their size made them safe for grandma's. Keep up the great work!
Back in the mid 80s I had the occasion to drive a '76 Cadillac Coupe DeVille. Amazing fuel economy, at 5.5 mpg! It did ride smoothly, however, and had gobs of torque to launch it off the line away from traffic lights. Felt like you were stopping a train to stop at an intersection, and did indeed tip the scales at 5050 pounds.
The 67 Firebird had two mono leafs out back . I was big into the second gen T/A's. A coworker had an originally 67 400 convertible . Really cool first year bird .
Thanks, Adam, for the great video. I love your idea of top 10 interesting facts. For me, the 67-70 Eldorados are the pinnacle of American automotive design and I think my fave is the 1970. I prefer the exposed headlights and just love the rear taillight design of this car. It’s sad that GM became so focused on cutting costs. They cheapened what was, at that time, a world class vehicle. Awesome channel!!
I like the hidden headlights, but like the bigger engine in the 70. My grandmother had the 70 brand new. It was a copper blown color. She called it the Cinnamon Streak.
A number of these aspects were also on the 66-70 Toronado as you noted. On my 68 I bought and installed the 2 small quad horizontal shocks for the rear suspension setup which was similar & had the leaf springs. The horizontal units were still available in the late 70s at the dealer. The rear power windows on my Toronado also went into the pillar but only slightly so, & then tilted forward while sliding down below. As you know the Toronado also offered its transmission set up to the Eldorado thus they both had basically flat floors front and rear. The Toronado also had the torsion bars up front. My 68 Tornado had the single horizontally mounted muffler that was on both the dual and the single exhaust versions so it was pretty easy to add dual exhaust by replacing the rear muffler with the dual unit. The ride of the Toronado was still, by even the standards of the late 70s, (I drove a 1972 Cadillac Deville as well) quite comfy, & it was relatively at least, pretty smooth & did not seem particularly rough to me. of course in 68 the ride was softened up a bit since customers were complaining about it being stiffer than a luxury machine should be. As you know in 1970 the Toronado had the W34 option available (and also for the previous years in 69 & 68) which put the hp at 400 instead of 375 with better breathing and a hotter cam.
Yup, it was still possible to get a performance Toronado, but Olds advertising was different - for the 67 and 68, the theme was the Youngmobiles, kind of an extension of the youth oriented advertising for the Rocket 88 and Super 88 of the 50s and 60s, but for 1969, they shifted to the luxury oriented theme of the 98 series and attracted a different clientele, who didn't care about handling.
Thanks, Adam! I really appreciate these auto-education pieces. My neighbor growing up ordered a new Eldorado every year. As kids we always gathered around to see what her new color would be. I remember thinking, as she drove up in the 1971, that the design had gone retro. It almost had some 1973 design incorporated. I was only 14 at the time, but I still thinks that today.
7:59 The most likely reason for the odd horn buttons and the cheap look of the '70 wheel was the need to get rid of the troublesome 1969-only "Rimblow" wheel in a hurry. Rimblow, which embedded the horn switch into the inside surface of the rim itself, was an annoyance that got worse as the car aged. You eventually had to mark the areas of the rim on which the horn still worked, then find them before the person in front of you hit your bumper.
I have always thought fender skirts make for a fatter, heavier look overall. They also tend to make the car look longer and lower. Never a big fan, they can make a car look classier or more expensive. This is a good format, Adam. I like history with specs and figures, manufacturer as well as model.
2:00: The 1971 looks larger because of the 'bulging body lines', as opposed to the crisp, straight body lines of the 1970. Also, those fake side vents probably make the 71 look bigger...
@@biglongcadillac my family had both back in the 70s that's how I know the eldorado didn't ride as good as a mark 111 or a mark v I remember the mark 111 rode the best
The 70 Eldorado is my favorite year, I had a 70 Eldorado and a 70 Fleetwood Brougham both in cinnamon firemist. I don't recall the heated seat option in the 70 but if I remember correctly it was available in 69, a very rare option like the sunroof.
7:29 Having the glass retract into the sail panel seems like a good idea, but it's too bad they didn't use the extra space under the sill to increase the elbow room for the rear passengers. 11:25 This is a nice view of what made the "totally flat floor" possible; it was really hiding a lot of wasted space. A floor contoured around the frame , springs, and exhaust system would have made the car less elegant but roomier; the 1979 redesign, which required 2 mats, did exactly that.
I've got a 1975 Cadillac Eldorado convertible fire thorn red with a red interior and I also have a 1976 Cadillac Eldorado convertible fire thorn red with a white leather exterior... My dream cars.
GM passenger cars and trucks circa 1966-1977 invariably shared a jewel-like faceted aesthetic on the front clip. This is very noticeable on the hood edge and corners. Sometimes it is subtle over the quad headlights, as seen on the 1970 Impala/Caprice and 1973 Caprice. If you look from above at the nose and tail of GM cars from this era, you'll notice the silhouette shape of a castle battlement as seen from the perspective of one corner at ground level and looking up. These designers were artists.
Thanks again for your always incisive descriptions of cars so many of us fondly remember and still admire and collect. You explained a puzzlement I always had as a child. My dad’s best friend had a beautiful triple dark blue ‘70 Eldorado, and it had a remarkably rough and noisy ride on less than perfect streets. We had a beautiful ‘72 Thunderbird-Ginger Glow with white alligator grain top and hopsack ginger bucket seat interior. I knew our Ford wasn’t as expensive a car as the Cadillac, but I was always amazed at how much quieter and smoother riding the Thunderbird was.
The 72 - 75 Thunderbirds were actually slightly cheaper Lincoln Continental Mark IV, and that car was about total luxury, whereas the 67 - 70 El Dorado was more about sporty luxury.
I think you meant " And one piece floor mat" in the note at 3:42, the beauty that it is. That view of the rear seat in the 7:42 does not look very deluxe, but I guess if you are rolling an Eldo, then you aren't chauffeuring extra passengers very often. I'm not sure if I would call those "bucket" seats, more like Barcelona seats maybe. While I appreciate these survey clips, I miss the detail reviews of cars from your fleet. Have you covered all of them or just waiting for the return of summer? How many jewels do you have in your inventory anyway?
The first time I ever saw the 70 Eldo was in a magazine advertisement. I was early in high school around 1980 just before I learned to drive and I was researching a paper in our school library periodicals section. In one of the old magazines I had to stop and look at the ad for the 1970 Cadillac Eldo. It was a stunning car and thankfully Cadillac didn’t screw up the original 1967 design too much like Buick and Olds did for later years of this generation of car. The 1967’s front end is still the best but the 1970 ain’t bad.
Always appreciate the informal yet professional style of your delivery. I can’t stand the other channels where the guys come on like smarmy game show hosts or out of control nuts.
There are sources/opinions that about the same era/time horsepower ratings were calculated differently beginning around 1971. I'm not sure of what they did however, a 1970 350-4V V8 had 300 HP and in 1971 it was 270 HP then in 1973 250 HP. At some point later, the 350 V8 was down to 150 HP, possible in their trucks. In any regard, today's Cadillacs don't come close to the smooth elegant ride that these old "boats" had. There was much room, comfort, plush, space etc. while today's products are more set up for sport ride, firm seats and much less room. Completely different vehicles today.
For 1971 GM mandated that all their cars had to be able to run on unleaded fuel, so the actual power output of many of their engines dropped. I believe Cadillac's compression ratio was about 8.5 to 1 for 1970 and 10 to 1 for 1971.
@@pcno2832 High compression was used in the 1960's up through 1970. In 1971/1972, compression ratios were dropped to 8.50:1. Unleaded fuel didn't start until 1975 and catalytic converters were equipped. They did change cams by 1973 and by then came the smog add-on equipment such as A.I.R. pumps, EGR etc. Even so, there are people/sources who claim the reason for the big power drops were related to the methods of measuring HP. I'm not so sure about that but that's what is being claimed. I know for sure HP suffered big in the real world so, when they went from 300 HP to 250 HP, you noticed it. That pretty much eliminates their theory.
You open my eyes up on these cars. I say mix up the format and appreciate your content. Let’s make sure we capture as much time with Bob and the like. Those guys won’t be around much longer. I would love to see more alternate brand content such as Buick and olds. You may discover more things you like For yourself!.
I recall some of those early Eldo's had a "suck-box" that would drop the power to the a/c compressor clutch after the intake manifold vacuum fell below a certain value for a period of time. It had a calibrated orifice to bleed off the vacuum slowly and the diaphragm failed occasionally causing a total loss of cooling. Though terribly vague in the steering, these were fun and powerful to drive. The first, early 500s would carbon-up fairly easily and develop a "rod-knock" if not taken out and driven hard (flogged, we used to say) once in a while. My then--boss bought a 3, or 4 yr old car that "needed an engine" for pennies on the dollar and a couple of quarts of water poured down the part-throttle Quadra-jet later, he had a great car for some years to come.
If I had one, I would replace that Quadrajet with a square bore carb. Maybe city gas mileage would be even worse, but part-throttle performance would be peppier - less need to dip into the secondaries.
The '69-70 Cadillacs all had black steering wheels with a deep binnacle lined in black plastic to reduce glare. A severe reaction to the chrome-filled early 60s models, but it stank of cost-cutting. The extra tumblehome of the '71-78 Eldos really made them look bloated--the earlier gen. wore its similar size much better.
