I remember 1976. Quite well, in fact. For those too young to have been there, let me tell you a little bit about it. The economy was good and everyone was in a festive mood due to the Bicentennial. Gas prices were coming down and incomes seemed to be recovering from a nasty recession in 1974-75. All of which conspired to bring about a very good year for sales of big American luxury cars. All over America (and particularly in the eastern 4/5 of the country) we saw neighborhoods full of sights just like this.
Lincoln was on a roll and Chrysler was selling a lot of New Yorkers (that looked suspiciously like Imperials) but Cadillac was still the boss. Or the boss’s car. This was indeed the American Dream, at least for those over forty back then. Doesn’t this scene look like it has the makings of a picture for a brochure or an ad in Smithsonian Magazine?
This picture, however, is not from 1976 but from just a few weeks ago – and in my own neighborhood. Since that time I met the man who owns it and snapped several more pictures. But until I get around to writing it up, this taste will have to whet your appetites.
Another great modern time capsule photo. Remember the Bicentennial celebrations well, 4th of July at the Rose Bowl, New year’s all night party on Colorado Blvd and the Rose Parade the next morning, and who could forget all the Bicentennial special edition ’76 model cars?
Holy cow, substitute that SDV for an Olds 98 and that could have been in my subdivision in 1976. Colonial with a circle drive to show off the family’s rolling stock…
Am Imagining things or did Chevrolet roll out red white and blue “bicentennial” cars in 1974?
You’re NOT imagining things!
http://www.impalas.com/blog/independence-day-special-the-1974-spirit-of-america-impala/
I think it was also offered on the Nova and Vega, and maybe even more models. And just to confuse matters, I seem to recall a “Spirit of America” package in ‘76, as well.
The Nova’s been a CC here. I drove one daily from ’83 to ’87. It was a beater by then but I just loved that small block V8.
Does any of my CC friends knows what size engine(Engines) GM Used on mid seventies Cadillac?
Up through 1974 the 472 cid (7.7 L) was standard and the 500 cid (8.2 L) was optional. In 1975-76 the 472 was dropped. In 1977-79 the downsized big Cadillac got a new downsized engine of 425 cid (7.0 L).
Beginning with the 1970 Eldorado, the 500 cid engine was standard for the Eldorado, but not optional on the rest of the line. The 1974 brochure indicates the same. The entire full size line got the 500 for 1975.
Wow,Gigantic Engines.Thank you&Thank you Jo cavanagh For Answering my question.
The concept of trying to keep white vinyl seats clean, like the ones in the Chevy Spirit of America models, fills me with trepidation. ALL of my parents’ cars had vinyl seats, from the 60s to the early 80s, but never really light colors. Couple hot, dark vinyl seats with my father’s distaste for running A/C in his cars (said it gave him a headache) made for hot, sticky trips to Florida.
A spray bottle of Formula 409 or Fantastik was the best friend of those of us tasked with keeping white vinyl seats/interiors clean in the 70s. My mother’s 74 Luxury LeMans had white vinyl seats with an otherwise maroon interior (an exclusively Pontiac thing, best I have been able to determine) and my stepmom’s 74 Cutlass Supreme had a full white interior with blue dash and carpet. With my trusty spray bottle and a clean towel I could have those interiors shipshape in about a half hour (double the time on the Olds).
And I thought scrubbing the buckskin vinyl top on my mom’s 76 Cutlass was a lot of work…
I have a ’17 VW Jetta with “cornsilk” pleather seats that are tricky to keep clean too. And one of my belts must have transferred some color to the car seat, I have a faint brown stripe across the seatback where my belt must rub. I may try some 409, if they still make it. Nothing I’ve tried has worked so far.
The vinyl tops were much worse as the grain was always deeper and got exposed to so much more dirt. I finally found a product in the early 80s that worked great on the pale beige vinyl roof on my 77 New Yorker. It involved working on a 1 square foot area at a time and came with a little scrub brush to get down into the grain. I have forgotten what it was called (there was a red 70s Toronado on the package) but it made that roof look like new when I was done. About a 3 hour job, as I not-so-fondly recall.
The grain on the seats was never very deep and so a good terry towel and some elbow grease would have no trouble getting all the dirt out of the vinyl after you had liberally sprayed it with the cleaner.
I used the same product and little scrub brush (that I still have floating around in the shop somewhere) on my grandmother’s ’86 Mercury Grand Marquis when I lived with her during college.
Obviously you need Lestoil.
All you needed was a few Magic Erasers! Oh, wait. They weren’t invented yet!
NOOOOOO!!!!!
Never use 409 to clean the inside of your car. I have vivid memories of using it to clean the vinyl covered dashboards of several of my family’s cars and the vinyl then turning white and buckling from whatever caustic chemicals were in the 409. I went back and covered up the whiteness with shoe polish, but I could never get rid of the bubbles that the 409 created.
Stick to Armor All.
I used to own a 75 Buick Lesabre convertible, red with white seats (red on the rest of the interior) and white top. I don’t recall having a lot of trouble keeping the seats clean. A mild cleanser would do the trick. I had more trouble with the top. It would get real grimy and had to be cleaned with a brush.
I had white vinyl seats in my ’75 Duster, but my job as a surveyor, soil technician, and construction inspector frequently left me dirty. Keeping the seats preentable was a chore but liberal amounts of J P Cavanaugh’s recommendation of Fantastik or Formula 409 did the trick.
Your time machine is in a good state of tune!
Please forgive Off Topic but I think this will be of interest to many CCers. Somebody made a great photostream of vintage and modern British hardware and assorted scenery. Railways, engines, buses, trucks, road signage etc. Be warned, you will spend hours browsing (just like CC after a longer break):
https://www.flickr.com/photos/28083135@N06/25797812920/in/photostream/
Driving back from my USMC boot camp graduation at Parris Island, S.C., I was driving my family’s SDV. Cruising serenly along, I looked down at the speedometer, and was shocked to see that I had just passed 95 m.p.h.! If I’d been stopped by a LEO, I would’ve sworn that I couldn’t have been doing more than 75! Smooth, insulated from the road outside, GM at its best!! 🙂
Your comment about good times for people, financially, rings true for me.
In ’74, my mother bought a new Hornet Sportabout. In ’76, she traded it for a new Pacer. Well, needless to say, the Pacer wasn’t exactly what you might call “reliable”, so in ’77 she traded it for a newly-downsized Buick Electra 225 sedan.
I was too young to know why these things were happening, I just know she had a different car every year.
The sight of an older Cadillac in the driveway of a stately home also evokes a lot of images in my mind. Your shot looks like it could be from the beginning scenes of a TV mini-series.
A few years ago, I shot this late-’80s Cadillac Brougham parked in a circular driveway in front of a once-grand, but now somewhat run-down house — your shot reminded me of this one, even though the car’s from a different decade.
I dig the big Caddy. ‘Nuff said. Wish I had a neighbor with a big ol’ beastie; I’d go over and gawk at it all the time.
In 1976, I was ten years old and my uncle Andy gave me one of the real, porcelain USA-1 license plates that came with every new Chevrolet in ’76. Had it up until 2 years ago when I gave it to a good friend of mine who is a diehard Chevy guy, as a birthday present.
Was reading and not so obvious at first embedded add below, “from in neighborhood” had me wondering where article was going. LoL.
Fantastic shot! And yes – it looks straight out of a period Cadillac brochure.
And as Andrea True sang in 1976, the last of the big Caddies were about “More, More, More”!
What a great and elegant photo of the ’76 Caddy! Thank for sharing this. It is a treasure. For CincyDavid: Try cleaning the stain from the seat belt with a solution of ammonia water. Be sure not to get it on your clothes as it does bleach color out of fabric. Rinse with fresh water afterwards, of course. I hope that this works for you.
I remember 1976 as well. I was 12, just finishing grade 6 and starting grade 7 in September. In the earlier part of the year I remember seeing tons of these GM B & C bodies everywhere, they were very popular here in southeastern Ontario. Bionic Woman was my favourite TV show and “Play That Funky Music” was all over the airwaves. A great year!
I spent 7/4/1976 in California! I went there with my family, by car. I’ll never forget that trip! At my rich uncle’s house. It was the best time I’ve ever had. I was 17. Oh, btw, that ’76 Caddy is gorgeous!
Very cool photo and I’m looking forward to the full write up!
There were 2 or 3 76 Sedan de Villes un Uruguay. If I remember correctly, none had a vinyl top. Two were white and one was black..The black one had been brought by the Japanese embassy and sold in 1978 to a chemical industrialist whose children went to my school. I even remember the first 3 digits of its new, non CD 1978 license plate. For me that car was the best I had ever seen in my 13 years. Just like the ones featured in the National Geographic Magazine. The guy didn’t take much care of the car, and shortly it had small dents, a door in primer, a hole in the muffler (great V8 sound for my ears). The SDV probably ended its life with a 6.2 diesel, which was a common swap here. The owner went on to a 1982 Renault 18 Turbo. Same car as the Fuego featured today. I guess he missed space, power everything, and automatic. But I don’t know. Never spoke to him!
Odd that the Japanese embassy went for a Caddy instead of a Toyota Century or Nissan President.
But I remember that generation of Caddys when they were around ten years old, and they didn’t age gracefully at all.
I also wonder why they didn’t just get a prestige Japanese car. They went for one or two more Sedan de Villes. The last one was a blue on blue Diesel. If I remember correctly, the flagship from then on was often a Mercedes, but there were several Toyota Crowns. You’d be surprised about some diplomat cars here. My dad got in 1971 a 1968 Nova first titled by the Soviet embassy…
For me, the most significant automotive event of 1976, at the time and 40+ years later, was the launch of the Honda Accord. If I think about it, I suppose the downsized GM’s announced in the Fall rank second. I still remember the Road & Track cover photo and road test on the Accord vividly. On a more personal level, I bought both a Honda 400-4 and my Vega GT that year, so it was a good auto and moto year.
I need to no more
1976 was the year of the Rover 3500 SD1. In an example of the CC effect, I saw one on the M4 yesterday.
Think I’d take one over the Cadillac, for the UK amyway.
“Real Rescues” featured a vintage Rover SD1 police cruiser in “Jam Sandwich” livery, alongside other old-timers like the Daimler SP250, used to catch Café Racers.
The uninformed host at first called it SDI, not SD1!
1976 Eldorado convertible…my first new car, it was a good year!