(First Posted September 5, 2013) Prolific CC Cohort poster William Rubano found a nice cache of big Generalmobiles. That very clean ’84 Coupe deVille really shows of its boxy, straight lines to best effect, if that’s your thing. And if it’s not, there’s a couple of sixties Chevies in the driveway.
The ’66 Caprice coupe has two points of interest. It doesn’t have a vinyl roof; guess it only seems like they all did. And it’s got a big block; the 396 no doubt. 1966 was the first year of the Caprice as a separate model line. And the 396/THM400 was the way to go; finally leap-frogging Chevy from the tail of the pack to the head. My December 1965 Popular Science says that the 396 Impala they compared to a 390 Galaxie and a 383 Fury beat them both hands down, with a quite brisk run to sixty in 8.9 seconds.
That undoubtedly pales in comparison to what this ’62 Impala can do. That’s a seriously tall hood scoop, but I’m noot too sure about that black plastic object sitting on top. Just a convenient place to store whatever it is?
I guess I haven’t seen a lot of Cadillac coupes because I had never before realized how overly long the trunk line was. It looks like GM shortened the roof of these coupes, then placed an oversized deck filler between the rear backlight and trunk opening. That puts the C pillar further forward and not directly over the rear wheel well.
Wierd looking.
They looked really stupid new for the same reason WTF were you guys smoking, there in that design department coz it got into the aircon and infected the top floor, they signed it into being it looks like a business coupe hardly Cadillac sales territory
I had the same thought when I saw the photo. Was the trunk of the Cadillac really that long? It almost looks like someone has done some customizing, or Photoshopping!
At least the Coupé deVille had the same legroom as the Sedan. But this is an exception to the rule that Coupés Look Better.
Both Cadillac & Lincoln had Town Cars. GM merely used the French name, & of course French always sounds cool.
I sure hope that lovely Caprice isn’t a donor car for that thing behind it. That Cadillac looks like it has the Astroroof. Nice.
Like the Caprice. Not crazy about the Impala.
Mixed on the Cadillac…was the tint really necessary? Also, where are the door guards, it looks slightly nekkid. The hubcaps look good and it’s always good to see some strong whitewalls. Still, I’ll tolerate the tint and missing trim if they promise not to ruin it completely by a) putting a sound system in it and b) jacking it up on some giant rims.
The windows ware darkened for 1 of 2 reasons.
1) The owner is embarrassed to be seen in it.
or
2) The trunk is full of bodies and the owner definitely does not want to be seen by the cops.
It’s now five years later and I do wonder if it now has a 65,000 watt sound system and is jacked up on giant rims.
When I went there this Corvette was behind the bushes, http://www.flickr.com/photos/99562773@N07/9664893389/. At the auto repair shop this guy has nearby there was also a crashed 55 Chevy, http://www.flickr.com/photos/99562773@N07/9664756679/.
Saw the 55 Ive just been uploading, shame really it lasted all this time then some fool runs into it
Horrible roof line on that ’66 Caprice. Not very evident here, but I saw one at a show two weeks ago. I had forgotten how bad it was.
Think that model was the beginning of GMs trademark GoofyRoof era.
Love the 66 and the 62 the white thing not so much, we have several 66 Chev coup’es locally though nobody brings in a base model mostly the SS variety it costs the same to ship and the value is with the hot one, shame really because I like em in just paint, dog dishes and blackwalls ive gotten plenty of speeding tickets with a 283 up front already a 6 would be fine, its for cruising Napier @ 30 mph even powerglide I dont care I like that model.
I assume the black thing on the hood must be for storing 8-track tapes.
The interesting thing here is that the garage seems to be about the same size as the house. The giant RV? Must be tons of car parts behind the closed doors. Life does have it’s priorities.
You wonder what is inside the garage that means the cars are outside – especially a project like the Impala
I am sorry big as much as I like big Caddies, the Fleetwood coupes(1977-1985) were just ugly. It looked like it was chopped out of a 4 door and that trunk is too huge for the style of car.
The 4 door Fleetwood and the later Brougham(87-92) were much better looking
I don’t like them as much as the sedan versions, but if you want ugly, try the ’85-’92 CDVs!
I’ve always loved the 80 up Caddy coupes, best in Fleetwood Brougham form. After learning that the 368 used the normal Cad block, I would avoid the miserable aluminum v8 problem with a 1970 500..come on, winning lottery ticket!
The disproportional rear length on the Coupe deVille really stands out with the dark windows and the missing(?) side moldings. It would look a lot better if the tail ended at the point where the fender extensions start.
Also a GM fancier. Does my ’81 CDV butt look big in this picture?
No, I don’t know what people are complaining about, it looks fine, the white car seems to have a slight rake in the front, which makes the rear look more elevated. The lack of trim doesn’t help either.
The trim is what I see as the real problem. It throws the entire profile of the car off. These are the last proper Cadillac coupes and came off so much better than the Lincoln Town Coupe Panther equivalents.
The more formal roofline and stainless rocker trim on the Brougham Coupe made it look nicer than the Coupe deVille.
The white CDV in Paul’s article also suffers from dark tinted glass, which makes the greenhouse look small relative to the body, and no bodyside moldings, which makes the body look thick.
The nose looks short in the pic, I think because my eye is use to seeing these in Brougham trim with the hood spears. Also I think there is a piece missing above the cornering lamp.
This one Tom K. shot a while back looks better. As Carmine mentioned the correct rake helps a lot too.
The one Tom shot, and Dean Edwards’ look fine.
Gee, a lot of hate for that poor CDV. I love these things. Just spotted an ’84 CDV d’Elegance Labor Day weekend; it was in the same town as the Pontiac 6000 wagon. Nice!
Here’s the Pillow d’Elegance interior. Very broughamy.
The pictured one needs those body side moldings, they are the key element on these cars. The stairs behind it sort of make it look longer too.
Maybe we need the downsized Coupe Deville, that has a nice short trunk on it. 😉
The facelifted one looked much better. Saw this ’93 just today!
As far as the downsized Cadillac coupe’s go I thought they looked great on the 1977-79 styling but awful on the 1980-84 styling and the same goes for the Buick and Oldsmobile cousins as well.
Agree. I was very happy to see the 77s come along as the 76s were getting to be a joke. Then the 80s came along….so much for that.
I thought the 1977-79 full sized Cadillac’s were the best ones since the 1970 models, I wasn’t really big on the 1974-76 Cadillac’s at all, unfortunately IMO I thought the 1977-79 models were the last great era of Cadillac’s.
My good friend had a 1982 black CDV about 8 years ago and really fell in love with it. It had a maroon interior and matching maroon exterior stripe and shockingly didn’t have a rear vinyl roof. He got loads of compliments on that car. It was powered by the mighty Buick 4.1 liter 4BBL V6 and stock peg leg 3.23 rear end and when we were done tuning it up and rebuilding the carb it ran surprisingly strong and could easily keep up with traffic and got decent mileage too. An accident ended the story a few years back but he still talks about that car to this day!.