Cohort Outtake: The Long and the Short Of It, One More Time

(first posted 9/21/2018)      Yes, a Smart and a Cadillac posing together isn’t exactly original, but with a ’62 Fleetwood 75? Probably not, so we’re going to add to the cyber collection of the genre, thanks to Nicky D, who shot these two in Fairfax. And just how much longer is the Fleetwood, as in multiples? Two and a half times as long? Three times? More? Looks can be deceiving.

2.28 times as long is the right answer. The Smart is 106.1″ long, and the Caddy spans 242.3″.

But then the Smart only seats two, and the Fleetwood up to seven with the jump seats up; eight if a third rider cozies up to the chauffeur.  And then there’s the trunk, and the fins.

When it comes to engine size, the Cadillac really trumps the Smart. Although it only has a fairly modest 390 cubic inch V8, that’s still six times as big as the Smart’s one liter three-pot mill. It probably slurps about six times as much gas. Ok, that’s probably exaggerating. More like three and a half to four times as much. But on a per-person basis, if the Fleetwood is carrying a full load (not likely), the difference is slight, to none.

And how about weight? The 75 is 3.23 times as heavy (5500lbs vs. 1700). Any other vital stats we should be comparing?