(first posted 12/23/2016) It’s hard to believe we’re closing in on the end of Twenty-Sixteen. On New Year’s Eve of last year, I had spotted a vintage, 1989 Lincoln Town Town car on a main thoroughfare in my neighborhood, which had also caused me to reflect on the passage of time. Today’s featured Cadillac was one I had seen in traffic only a few times prior to getting these shots, while walking from my morning Red Line train to the office. I had been unsuccessful in getting any decent photographs of it until the morning of Game Seven of this year’s World Series, when the Chicago Cubs won it all for the first time in over a century. That both events happened on the same day was a beautiful, timely moment of serendipity.
I won’t pretend to identify myself as a die-hard sports fan, though I do enjoy occasional “armchair” participation when a team from any city where I’ve lived is involved. Part of the fun of watching with friends is when one or more in your group is really invested in the game, and I’m not talking about financially. Sometimes being among your sports-loving friends is just about showing your support and solidarity with them, even if you couldn’t name or identify one of the players before that afternoon. Much like I’ll never share a level of sports-related enthusiasm with some of my friends, some of those same people seem to find my often equally enthusiastic reactions to spotting and photographing interesting cars (with my “lightning reflexes”) a bit comical.
I say this having observed multiple reactions of “Daaang, Joe!…” that I’ve often witnessed, realizing minutes after the fact that someone has said something like this, and once my adrenaline level has started inching back toward normal. Some folks like sports, some like cars, and some like both or neither of those things. We like what we like, and my theory is that my love of cars was influenced both by nature (I was reportedly playing “Count the Chevette”, loudly, by age four), and nurture, as I grew up in the General Motors factory town of Flint, Michigan.
My perception is that 2017 is going to be a year of major transition for a lot of folks, and in a lot of ways. Similarly, forty years ago, model year ’77 was a time of sea change over at GM, with the venerable Coupe DeVille in particular shedding over 800 pounds (roughly 17%) of its base weight, dropping from a full two-and-a-half tons to 4,200 pounds for the new models. This was at little to no sacrifice in all the metrics that counted at that energy-conscious time, with the new ’77 models offering more head room, leg room, trunk space and fuel economy than the dimensionally larger cars they replaced.
We’ve covered the first-wave of downsized DeVilles here at CC before and it’s not really my intent to reinvent the wheel, so to speak. I was only in diapers when the right-sized ’77 GM full-sizers made their debut, but from what I’ve read, those cars won over a lot of people who were skeptical about the direction in which they saw things going in the automotive industry.
As the impending New Year relates to our featured car, I suppose my point is that four decades on, this Coupe DeVille looked and sounded great even if not pristine, having “lived” through a lot in the intervening years. All the things that led the auto industry to panic – gas prices, rollover legislation, etc. – seemed to have worked themselves out, for the most part. Not all of the cars I see in traffic, whether in congested downtown areas or on the open highway, are little, tinny, buzzy, weak tin cans similar to what might have been predicted by some for the future in the wake of the first (or the second) oil crisis of the 1970’s.
That this CDV’s driver even gave me a thumbs-up as he drove past while I was getting my shots seemed to reinforce that despite the manic highs and depressing lows of 2016, things might just be okay in the upcoming year, which is what I want to believe. And please, refrain from saying something like “big pimpin'”, as someone might likely have done if I hadn’t mentioned it. An African American gentleman in a vintage Cadillac does not a “pimp” make, and this car is, in my opinion, accessorized very modestly.
My sense is that regardless of what the New Year brings, some things will improve, and for the things that change for the worse, I’ll simply have to do my part to take responsibility for actively trying to fix what I can. Thinking about the insurmountable task of solving all the world’s problems all at once can be both terrifying and paralyzing. Why not start with the individual things within your control? The trick is to actually do something and not just complain. Famous New Year’s resolutions, but seriously…
The Whispers’ early-80’s R&B classic, “And The Beat Goes On” popped up on my MP3 player on shuffle just the other day and the lyrics, penned by the songwriting team of Leon Sylvers III, William Shelby and Stephen Shockley, hit me particularly hard as this year comes to a close, especially the first verse:
Do you ever wonder
That to win, somebody’s got to lose
I might as well get over the blues
Just like fishing in the ocean
There’ll always be someone new…
Amen. See you all in Twenty-Seventeen.
Downtown, The Loop, Chicago, Illinois.
Wednesday, November 2, 2016.
Your Thumbs-Up picture is an outstanding way to wind down the year. There are few things quite as refreshing as seeing the cars we loved being used and enjoyed.
Love that big ol’ red Coupe de Ville, and I love the driver’s optimism. Well, who wouldn’t be happy cruising in that beauty? It even seems to me that all the bumper filler bits are present and accounted for, so this Cadillac is safely ensconced in a loving home.
I see a Man enjoying the hard won fruits of his labor ~ not easy keeping a Vintage Caddy looking nice in Chi-Town .
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Beautiful car, nice photos .
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HAPPY HOLIDAYS ! .
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-Nate
My first car! Although no, this particular car was not mine. I had a triple red (body, interior, padded vinyl roof) coupe that had been beaten like a rented mule by its prior owner. The pictured car was mint compared to mine. But it was $800, I was a college student, and I had enough in the bank to cover the purchase price. The car proceeded to $5/$10 me to death (C’mon, it’s a Cadillac, you don’t get nickeled and dimed ?). Some things I recall:
8 MPG in stop and go.
Heaviest gauge sheet metal of any car I’ve ever owned.
The car was the very DEFINITION of understeer. Turn the wheel to take a turn and wait for the car to decide it should turn.
Headlamp indicators on the fenders: Yellow for turn signals, white for headlights, blue for high beams.
Turn signal indicators on the roofline in line with the rear view mirror that flashed when you signaled or braked.
High beam button on the floor.
The center of the speedometer had a little clear Cadillac crest that lit up blue when the high beams were on.
“Fat Man” Tilt & Telescope steering column.
Huge trunk with a working automated closing mechanism.
The biggest freaking hood I’ve ever had to open or close.
Disappointing a friend who wanted to see the 500 CID V8. I suppose he expected a 426 Hemi with giant valve covers when I opened the hood. ?
That park bench chrome plated steel front bumper!
Alas, my Firemist Red Metallic Caddy was probably crushed and melted down years ago, but it’s nice to see one cruising Chi-town that didn’t get eaten by the tin worm. Saw a dark green Sedan de Ville at a classic car lot. The Mrs. might be persuaded to let me relive my youth. ?
Mmack, those features sound so cool – especially those light indicators. If you hadn’t said so, I’d have had no idea that stuff ever existed. I had also thought automated trunk mechanisms were a somewhat recent invention, but bad on me – wrong again!
“My perception is that 2017 is going to be a year of major transition for a lot of folks…”
That really hit home for me, as my Dad has terminal cancer and has only a few months to live. 2017 will be a year filled with many tears, and I hope, some happy things to balance out the sadness.
Always liked these big Caddies, though they were really out of step with the times in 1976. I was 13 in 1977 and I remember the new GM B and C bodies and what a sensation they all were. They were an immediate hit with the public and one of the brightest spots of that decade. Thanks for posting this.
The 1971-76 wide body was dated by ’76 and family car buyers were ready for new styling. To many, the 77’s were a “new look”, versus predictions of being “too small”.
While some die hards switched to Ford’s left over tanks, GM hit a home run over all.
Frank, I am so sorry. I actually did lose my dad around this time of year, and it’s hard not to think about that when the winter holidays arrive.
As for the newly downsized DeVilles, around the same time I was playing “Count the Chevette”, these new DeVilles left an impression on me. Weren’t there some with body-colored wheelcovers? All the best to you in 2017, my friend.
Thank you Joseph. What makes it even harder is that we’ve been estranged for quite a while; but I saw my Dad last week for the first time in 5 yrs and it was a good visit. He wants to have some sort of relationship before he dies.
As for the color-co-ordinated wheelcovers, here’s a pic of a Fleetwood Brougham with them. I always liked that look and I think several brands offered this in the ’70s.
I seem to recall that the “Fleetwood Brougham” quarter panel emblems were also color-keyed, so instead of plastic chrome on a black background, the background was body color.
It’s now the 40th anniv of the downsized ’77 Caddys and other B/C bodies.
Bon Voyage to the 40th of the last big tuna GM cars, 😉
Thanks for your perspective. Well said, and good advice, which I will try to keep in mind in the new year. I’m going to need it…
Thanks, Paul. I realize I’m just going to have to be more deliberate in making 2017 a good year.
I’ve also got to thank you for giving me the opportunity to contribute to this great site. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens at CC in 2017.
I am very grateful for this creative outlet and platform that you’ve given me and the other contributors.
Beautiful car, but I wonder what the purpose of what appear to be 2 dragging straps on the rear bumper is, if any.
I seem to remember years ago see something similar in a JC Whitney catalog, I think they were supposed to ground the car to prevent static electricity.
Yeah, the static straps. A lot of people bought into that bunk a few years ago. So you screw them to your bumper and how is the static electricity supposed to travel from the metal bumper through a rubber strap to the ground? Keep in mind at speed unless you have a really long strap, it will not touch the pavement.
I believe the theory behind it was to eliminate static electricity inside the vehicle and provide a more comfortable driving experience.
Oh! I was wondering what those were for also, and I’ve never heard of “static straps”. Interesting.
If you wear the right kind of clothes you can get a jolt when you open the door. That anti-static strap should have enough time to drain the voltage to earth before you get stung. I think that was the idea behind the fad.
Hah, I’ve stepped out of a few newer cars in the past that would always give me a shock. Can’t come up with any specific models right now. I don’t think any older cars would do that. But you’re probably right that clothing would play a part in creating static electricity.
Still not sure the anti-static strap did any good.
You’ve just got to love that pic of the driver’s thumbs-up. Good for him. There’s a man who’s happy with what he’s got and appreciative of obvious admiration from an onlooker.
Despite the bloat, the crapola quality of a lot the materials, and the build quality issues, this generation of Cadillac is my favorite thanks to Joan and Sam, my neighbors growing up. Joan drove a ’74 Coupe DeVille with that fantastic green “Maharajah” (or whatever they called it) brocade interior throughout most of my grammar and middle school years. She and her husband were both under 5’5″, so the front bench was always pulled all the way forward, and I can still see her punching at that big gas pedal in her high-heeled “Candies”, which she ALWAYS wore, just to add a few inches. It was the Disco era, so in my memory the soundtrack to all of our travels in that car or my Mom’s ’77 Monte Carlo includes Donna Summer, Blondie, the Bee Gees, etc. I have great memories of that car and those days, so in spite of my more rational preference for the older Caddies with their “Standard of the World” quality or the downsized ’77’s just for their near perfect balance of old & new, I’ll always have a HUGE soft spot for the last of the big, wallowing bloatmobile Cadillacs. This is truly a car that will always bring a smile to my face, probably until the end of my days.
As for 2016: From my perspective I can’t wait to bid the year adieu.
And in re the musical link provided: Joe, I want your iPod!
Beautiful shots, Mr.Dennis! This is a dead ringer for my dad`s `75 Coupe de Ville. Nice to see one again.
Great story and photos! The second, third and fourth photos really emphasize how big the windshields were in this generation of Cadillac, and how thin the front roof pillars were, as well. I recall that cracked windshields were a common occurrence on this generation of GM full-size cars, due to body flex. My parents’ 1976 Oldsmobile Delta 88 Royale hardtop sedan experienced this. The bodies of these cars were flexible even by the standards of that time.
It’s funny you should mention the body flex and cracked windshields. My Dad bought a brand new 74 Impala, but also kept his 68 Impala, rather than trading it in. His first complaint was that the 74 was not as solid feeling as the 68, and looked like it had been put together in total darkness, as nothing lined up and squeaks and rattles drove him nuts. Our 74 had three windshield replacements in its lifetime but, all of them were due to rocks hitting them. I will say that every time that happened and we ended up with a star type chip, they cracked clear across the windshield due to the body flex. That 74 seemed to be a magnet for flying objects though, in addition to the rocks hitting the windshield, once, a Toyota Corona threw its rear wheel cover on the Van Wyck Expressway and it bounced off the left 1/4 panel of our Chevy, leaving a scrape and slight dent. I can still hear my Dad screaming about those idiots who buy those damned foreign tin cans.. But the oddest, funniest one was once, my Dad had the sunroof open (he had the dealer install that and the opera windows in place of the huge triangular side windows) and my younger sister was in the back seat, Dad was driving and I was in the passenger seat up front. All of a sudden we heard a splat and my sister screamed…a Seagull had pooped and it went through the open sunroof, splattered on the inside rear window and all over my sister…my sister and I still joke about it to this day.
On top of not using the Big Pimpin’ Stereotype; let’s remember this bit of history:
“Dreystadt said he had a plan to make Cadillac profitable in 18 months, Depression or no Depression. The first part of his plan resulted from an observation he had made traveling around the country to the service departments of Cadillac dealerships. Cadillac was after the prestige market, and part of its strategy to capture that market was its refusal to sell to African-Americans. Despite this official discrimination, Dreystadt had noted that an astonishing number of customers at the service departments consisted of members of the nation’s tiny African-American elite: the boxers, singers, doctors and lawyers who earned large incomes despite the flourishing Jim Crow atmosphere of the 1930s. Most status symbols were not available to these people. They couldn’t live in fancy neighborhoods or patronize fancy nightclubs. But getting around Cadillac’s policy of refusing to sell was easy: They just paid white men to front for them.
Dreystadt urged the executive committee to go after this market. Why should a bunch of white front men get several hundred dollars each when that profit could flow to General Motors? The board bought his reasoning, and in 1934 Cadillac sales increased by 70%, and the division actually broke even. In June of 1934 Nick Dreystadt was made head of the Cadillac Division.”
http://www.forbes.com/2009/04/30/1930s-auto-industry-business-cadillac.html
At least redlining and predatory mortgages were exempt from Cadillac Dealerships. I guess it takes enough boot straps to get to that level though. But maybe we could learn a little something about unity from Cadillac Board Rooms from 80 years ago.
Laurence, I’m glad to see you on here again. I like your new website, but miss your presence (particularly your photography) here. Don’t be a stranger and come back soon.
Plenty of what I’ve written for Curbside Classic gets dragged up like the ghost of Christmas past around here so it’s like I never left in the first place.
It’s easier to find my own time commitment …and easier to write from a more diversity minded perspective that automotive enthusiasm doesn’t occur in a vacuum devoid of diverse cultural contexts around it, in my own environment than contributing to CC.
I drop in from time to time though if I see a piece that chips away and tries to broaden minds a little bit, and thought the tidbit of history was in parallel to some of Joseph’s assertions in his piece today.
That Forbes article is a great piece; the intro touches on the fascinating subject of behavioural economics but from a biological point of view.
I’ve put this on CC before, but it’s worth repeating as another example of this biological, or perhaps evolutionary, force.
‘(Berry Gordy’s Tamla Motown) even operated a protocol involving the type of car you owned. “You weren’t allowed to have certain cars until you reached a certain level,” explains keyboard player Johnny Griffith. “It was like a class system. If a musician bought a Cadillac before it was considered proper, they’d stop calling you on sessions for a while. Every weekend I’d fly somewhere to do a session, and I’d have me a Cadillac convertible waiting at the airport. When I came back home, I drove an old Buick.”‘ – Mojo March 1999.
I missed your pieces for CC the first time around, so it’s a real pleasure when Paul pulls another out. The writing and knowledge is first rate, the portraiture superb and it all still comes across morning fresh.
But for what its worth, of all the automotive sites bearing a similar or larger commentary mass as CC (very few though there are), I find that none are as accepting and embracing of knowledgable alternative points of view. Your own contribution is a telling example. Cheers.
Given Berry Gordy’s super industrious family, especially his sisters Anna, Esther and Gwen (Anna, especially beat him to the punch in being a record executive and helped with national distribution of seminal Motown classics like “Money” by Barrett Strong) and him being the never-do-well into his Mid 20’s compared to the bulk of them….
….I’m not surprised that prohibiting artists access to things they could do with their own earnings, lest they negate their station on the ladder was another layer of the type of psychological mind game of achievement and ROI that weren’t dissimilar to the type his family used on him used on others. Stories like the Gordy “Family” aspect of Motown remind me to be critical of collective units at all times, and a healthy family unit strives to be better and aware of all family members needs.
It’s worth of note that a lot of the outsiders, like Brenda Holloway, Kim Weston and most remarkably, Gladys Knight and The Pips found such ultra competitive mind games not worth the trouble and Weston and Knight in particular had long recording, performing and community activism careers long after they left the label.
I saw Gladys Knight at the San Francisco Symphony 2 weeks ago, and noted the dearth of her Motown output in her selections, which she finally commented on it, she did so in terms of “only being valued while walking out the door” and how her offerings have been repackaged for the past 50 years to someone else’s benefit. The burn at the time of the work leaves enough of a bad taste, that, despite racking up enough hit records for two greatest hits packages at the label, she rather keep moving into the future.
Given Gladys Knight is a Gemini like me….there might be a bit of metaphor I’ve working with here.
I don’t know if that was healthy for the vast works of Motown in the long term, because it left lots of disgruntled, underpaid artists (and intimates, pretty much from bottom to top, only Stevie Wonder of the classic top flight stars stayed through all of the mind games) that have mixed feelings about what they created.
Treat your artists well, respect what they do, and they might actually stick around. So goes all the people that had enough with Berry Gordy. So goes how plenty of people who contribute writing and photography for free out of passion for their subjects.
Plus also I’ve been more busy with writing and podcast production for my music writing and DJ work, so there’s less time to dedicate to car writing in general.
I understand where you’re coming from, but I think the Berry Gordy family thing was legitimate, though it wasn’t founded out of social purpose. It was good business; putting their charges through deportment classes et al. was a part of their competitive advantage. It has to be acknowledged, though, that they still took a highly paternalistic approach when it came to actually doling out money.
But it was nevertheless a good system (while it lasted). You only have to look at Chess, Stax, Fame on the top tier (and labels like Roulette beneath them as an even more rapacious example) to see that Motown was not so much exploiting their charges as trying to extract the best out of them.
But for serendipity there would also have been those ‘no-hit’ Supremes – so the vagaries of chance for pop stardom afflict even the most talented artists. But look at Marvin. Would ‘What’s Going On?’ have emerged in that perfect form anywhere else? Is it not the product of Marvin’s own enormous talent saddled with an encroaching ennui, but most crucially catalysed by the session and writing talent as well as the powerful distributional means provided by Berry Gordy? Yes I know Berry was the last holdout for releasing the single, but did his combative relationship with his brother-in-law actually fuel the absolute supremacy of this suite of music? And then look at the glorious run after that album (Hear My Dear – hehehehe). And Berry’s flight to LA also gave us all those insanely good Commodores albums and Jacksons singles.
Please bring it to Melbourne, Laurence, and I’ll see you on the dancefloor.
I will say, 1) I’ve always been “meh” on “What’s Goin’ On?” because, well, it isn’t an LP I return to for repeated listens and that 2) Curtis Mayfield had a longer line of socially aware Civil Rights Commentary and reasonably popular R&B work under his belt starting with his “Keep On Pushing”/”People Get Ready” single/LP work with The Impressions from late ’64.
I understand the place of importance of Gaye’s work in the context of the respectability politics orientated crossover mission that Berry Gordy mandated for all of his stars, *but* I will point out that the finishing school aspect, from a 20/20 African American person’s perspective hindsight might be seen as a necessary evil to access monetary success based on white standards that, at a base level, taught minority performers that they weren’t good enough based on their talents and refining them, given that they normally had to work twice if not more as hard to make headway in the first place.
Within that structure, biography by biography, individual performers at Motown had a wide spectrum of feelings about it, Martha Reeves will probably go to her grave swearing to the bible of Maxine Powell’s finishing school.
Florence Ballard of The Supremes felt that it was yet another item that made her group phony and plastic and took away another layer of joy in performing. It lead to her interjecting her acerbic ad-libs into their live act, which got her notoriety for her natural comic timing, which Berry Gordy turned around and made sure she scripted her routine, defeating the personal choice aspect of her doing so.
For me, the message of What’s Going On is secondary to the sonics, but as with that other perfect album Superfly (coincidently to your point, though there are quite a few others of his almost as good) – the message enhances the experience.
These two albums are as song-after-song wall-to-wall perfect as I’ve Never Loved a Man…, Rumours, Back In Black, Guitar Town or (Frank’s) Only The Lonely. That’s my context.
Yes, Hitsville was obsessed with maximising crossover potential, and yes that resulted in a distortion – not corruption – of the source material to appeal to wider tastes, but for me its ultimately just about the musicality presented. I’m probably in the minority for preferring the post-Ross Supremes of Up The Ladder To The Roof and Love The One You’re With to all the Diana stuff except Love Child. This later-period stuff is to me superior in both melody and rhythm. That splendid ear-warming sound the result of commodification and progress.
So that’s the view of someone who grew up tens of thousands of miles and years away from the moment.
As I understand , Martha and the Vandellas were to have been what The Supremes became. Berry Gordy and Martha Reeves had a falling out of some sort, which prompted him to transfer his efforts to Diana Ross & Co. Also, do see the picture The Five Heartbeats, which is based on The Dells.
Martha Reeves didn’t exactly have a major falling out with Berry Gordy during The Supremes ascendancy. It has to be remembered before The Supremes had their 5 #1’s in a row, Mary Wells was the top star at Motown, having landed one of the few US Produced #1 hits during the British Invasion during early ’64 with “My Guy.” When she left after her birthday in late May, it threw Gordy for a loop (and he offered Wells a lot of things he thought would make her stay).
In Wells’s departure at the beginning of that summer, it left a lot of open doors for many women, including The Supremes, Martha & The Vandellas, but also newcomers like Brenda Holloway, Kim Weston and Carolyn Crawford, all who received fresh Smokey Robinson works most likely bookmarked for Mary Wells. Nobody was counting on the new direction Holland-Dozier-Holland was going away from their “Heatwave” sound to take traction the way it did with The Supremes barrage of hit records.
A lot of how The Supremes gained traction was a series of acts of serendipity; 1) The Marvelettes turning down “Where Did Our Love Go?” 2) The Supremes being added as a package deal to Dick Clark for his “Caravan Of Stars” tour during the Summer of ’64 when Clark only wanted Brenda Holloway, who was riding the waves of her Top 20 hit “Every Little Bit Hurts” and 3) Berry Gordy’s invested personal interest in Diana Ross was increasing, and would eventually bloom into them dating by early 1965.
In reality, Reeves’s resentments were more directed towards Ross herself, who still being lower on the totem pole in most booking agents eyes, The Supremes were often earlier in the show, and Diana Ross more or less would “borrow” elements from other performers shows to improve her stage act (often at the chagrin of the other two Supremes). This included literally buying the same style of dress in a different color than higher up in the bill Martha & The Vandellas would wear in the same show, so the more prominent act would have to scramble for new wardrobe during their shows.
Also, I saw The Five Heartbeats in movie theaters in 1991 when it came out. It’s a movie quoted often.
So awesome, Laurence – thank you for this. I also agree with your last statement.
Hear, hear.
“maybe we could learn a little something about unity from Cadillac Board Rooms from 80 years ago.”.
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One hopes but I’m not always so sure….
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-Nate
Great pictures- love seeing the old land yachts you photograph around Chicago. Also very nice message about the new year and looking at the positive things you can do around you, instead of becoming overwhelmed about everything and giving up. Have a great Christmas and 2017.
What a fabulous looking Caddy. The thumbs up and smile from the driver put a smile on my face as I wait for my flight to Seattle this morning. He’s got a lot of reasons to be happy. Good for him to have such a nice ride.
Merry Christmas everyone and lets all have a good 2017 no matter what comes our way.
This is the epitome of Cadillac.
Never mind the build quality, weight, or fuel mileage. For being well within the established “Generation X” definition, this was my first impression of what a Cadillac is – large, imposing, yet somehow sleek.
That this gentleman appears to be fully aware of what he possesses is to his everlasting credit.
If I were to seek an older Cadillac for a special occasion car, I would be sorely tempted by a deVille of this generation.
And so, the last of the full-sizers goes on. Slowly chugging gasoline as it putters along into the new year. Surely, it is an image that makes one take notice.
By the way, you ever notice that you never see these things anymore? I don’t just mean the Cadillacs, I mean any of the 71-76 GM fullsizers. I haven’t even seen them on sale on auction sites, let alone in the wild.
I will admit, despite all the rather, interesting, stuff that happened. I will admit, I like 2016 better than I did 2015. That’s not to say this year was perfect, but speaking for myself and the context of my life, there was more stuff that went right than there was stuff that went wrong. Last year, felt like a steady stream of kicks to the face, one after the other, and only when the year started to wind down did I feel any sense of improvement. This year, things went a lot better for me, and I feel like I’m entering the new year confident and looking forward to what comes next. Granted, things could get worse, but I have faith they’ll get better. If nothing else, you can at least say the next year won’t be boring.
Agree with everything you said, both on the ’71-76 models, 2015 and 2016.
As for finding them for sale, I’ve found most, including theNinety Eight, on craigslist. They are, I guess, not yet beloved by most collectors.
I haven’t seen a BIG old car since I sold my ’67 Lincoln. I’d like to see some land yachts from the ’60s and ’70s out in ‘The Wild’, but it ain’t happenin’. As it is, the only old car I see around is my own automobile from model year 1964.
I’m still keeping my eyes peeled, though . . .
I suspect it will always seem weird to describe as “vintage” an automobile made in or after the 1980s. A fair chunk of that is just ordinary get-offa-my-lawn-you-damn-kids type of stuff that’salways been this way, generation after generation. But that’s not all of it; in my case, at least, that effect is amplified by having spent many years enthralled with Darts and Valiants. That made anything pre-1960 an “antique” and anything post-1973 “late model”, and thoroughly (permanently?) warped my perspective on car age.
Great photos as always Joseph. Really like how you draw out the subject with sharp focus and the background is subdued/out of focus. Your scenes are always outstanding as well.
I can’t remember the last time I saw ‘static strips’ on a car. They used to be so common, especially on wagons it seems, back in the 70s. The sound they made as they dragged along the pavement was so common to a kid’s ears.
I was always impressed by the Whispers big late 80s comeback with ‘Rock Steady’ in 1987. Great song. I still enjoy them.
Looks like the Caddy has the clear plastic deflector mounted to the leading edge of its hood…….Those deflectors were a popular aftermarket accessory back in the 90’s……Autoparts stores kept a decent supply of them on hand. The idea he hind them is that they were supposed to deflect the airstream upward over the top of the vehicle, so that bugs would not splatter on the windshield…..The other benefit was that the deflector would protect the leading edge of the hood from stone chips.
Great photos of a great car, and I too love the thumbs up from the driver. Keeping that car in good shape in Chicago is definitely a labor of love and he certainly seems to be on top of it. Cheers to him, and to you for photographing it!
I’m looking forward to 2017 as well. 2016 had its high points, but in general I’ll be happy to see it out the door.
One of the coolest features on these old Cadillacs is the ALC Automatic Level Control and its successor ELC. Both systems pump up the rear shocks to raise the back end when there are rear seat passengers or a heavy load in the trunk. Without such a feature the choice would be stiffer springs (and the resulting worse ride) or a saggy rear end which could cause an unbecoming, overloaded look. You can see how loosely coiled, and thin, the rear springs are in the pic below.
When the system fails you don’t notice it much on newer (1990 on) Cadillacs. They have a higher ride height to begin with and there was a move towards stiffer springs like everyone else, at least until MagneRide and other more active suspensions became available.
But when the system fails on an older Caddy, especially one with fender shirts and a long rear overhang like this ’76, the car gets that super cool raked look like you see in Joseph’s pics. On most cars that wouldn’t be cool at all, especially if it has FWD.
The drivability with one person on board isn’t affected in the least, unlike with the hyper-lowered cars you see today that require airbags all around to compensate. Look at how happy that guy is in his car, just oozing along.
Getting off on a tangent here but these old Cadillacs remind me of junior high where the cool kids wore their jeans low. It was called the lower rider look. If your socks showed you were definitely a high rider and would be called out as such with a well timed “waiting for a flood?” observation.
Trends come and go. Harleys and Choppers were cool, then came the sport bikes. We’ve seen baggy jeans and then skinny jeans. About five years ago I noticed the low rider look was making a bit of a comeback. Not knowing anything about it I asked one of my younger friends to please explain. Apparently in jail they take away your belt, for safety reasons. The guys have to walk around slow and with low hanging pants and that’s where it came from. An unintended consequence like on a 70s or 80s Cadillac with ALC/ELC.
Thanks for the write up “quick draw” Joseph.
When the read end droops, the car gets squirrely at interstate speeds too…something to do with airflow under the car. We had Buick limousines at a funeral home I worked at in the 80s; the ones with load leveling were OK with a full load, the ones that were coil-sprung without load leveling were a handful over 50-55 MPH. The directional stability was awful.
My only direct exposure to these full-size Cadillacs was a neighbor’s 75-76 Calais coupe…tan with brown vinyl seats, later repainted metallic gold. Big but kind of basic.
Large, powerful, richly colored and very grand – this is how a Cadillac should be.
My knowledge of the Cubs is limited to “Tinker, to Evans, to Chance” almost a hundred years ago, and watching Ernie Banks’s fluid, almost musical swing at every at-bat for all those years that poor guy toiled for the Cubs with a big smile on his face. I rather wish that, during the 1968 World Series, it had been the Cubs rather than the Cardinals against my beloved Tigers. Ernie deserved that chance. Mickey Lolich still would have struck him out every time he faced him, but it would have been a beautiful repeat of (I think) the 1945 World Series.
1976 Caddys, meh. They were far too oversized, and full of wretched excess. Hard to believe how far downhill that marque had descended from (what I consider to be Cadillac’s acme) the 1965-66 models, what with their understated but emphatic elegance. I remember seeing one of the 1976 models at the A&P where I worked, virtually brand-new, and when the window was halfway down it rattled when the door was closed the way a 1965 Chevelle would do at eleven years old. Hell, my ’65 Corvair Monza was a tighter build than that ’76 Cadillac.
Thanks for the look back, but I’d love to see a ’66 Pontiac – any series, any body style – or any LM Corvair before seeing another of these accretions of excess sheet-metal.
Well, you are I fun.
Wretched excess is what makes these cars enjoyable. It’s not what I’d build today, but it’s fun to appreciate, even somewhat ironically.
Speaking of wretched excess I’d really not mind owning a ’74 Fleetwood Talisman with that ‘divider-type-thing’ in the back seat that won’t move up effectively making the car a 4-passenger monster. 😀 I dig it!
Great shots, Joseph!
I suppose your photographic tricks are using a wide angle lens, burst mode for for several pictures as long as you are on the trigger and panning the camera like a skeet shooter with a shotgun aiming for the flying target. I’ve got to try that one time.
Thanks, Wolfgang! I actually have my SLR set to “auto”, then just pan, steadily, with the subject car and click, click click. I love my Canon.
Love the pictures and can totally relate to the thumbs-up. I really like the ’71-’76 C-Body cars, Cadillac, Buick, and Olds alike.
I test drove one of these ’76 Coupe DeVilles about 2 years ago in aqua with aqua leather and white cabriolet roof. It was really a pleasure to drive and that leather smelled great, and the 500 was soo smooth.
I passed because I wanted a 4-door hardtop and then, unable to find any DeVilles in my price range, went for a baby blue ’75 Olds Ninety Eight Regency instead (I will do a CC on it, I have been slacking). From CC and elsewhere I had known all about the negative aspects of the ’71-’76 line. But in the end, not all of them are present in my particular car (I noticed that both the ’76 coupe and my hardtop have minimal squeaks and rattles, for example, although I agree the ’77+ are notably tighter, structurally). The 455 is brawnier and slightly less smooth than the 500 but still, these are much easier to drive than I expected and they certainly make a statement. If I had the room, I could not own enough of them (though I like the contemporaneous Lincoln and Imperial/New Yorker, too). For all their quality shortcomings (both actual and exaggerated) they stand out a mile, have very servicable engine bays, parts availability is great, and cruising around in them is just effortless. I have a system on the working original radio that allows you to play music on an FM station through your phone…it’s fun to play the Billy May, Basie, and other big band classics in these. In fact, I ripped some old jingles from radio stations that one finds collected on YouTube and made one of my playlists into a vintage radio station–the jingles are tracks as well and on shuffle they cut in at random.
Having driven both this generation and the next one, it is amazing how much closer the ’77 cars are to today’s cars than I think they are to these. It’s an easier transition to hop out of a ’77 DeVille and into a ’16 Lexus 480 than it is to hop out of either and take the bridge of one of these big boys. But the experience, the feelings, the sounds, the sensations, are just exceptional. As are the responses of passersby. They are not practical, manageable, or reasonable in any way, but they sure are cool.
That’s what I mean when I say I totally get that thumbs-up picture because that’s exactly how I feel in mine. Unmitigated glee.
As for the year, 2016 was one of major transitions for me, 2015 was difficult and many of the disappointments, acrimonious ends to certain associations, etc. seemed to carry over from that year into the first half of this year such that I felt I couldn’t take it much longer. Suddenly, after a year of trying to do so, I was able to switch to a much better job with a notably better salary and maybe even more important, a much more normal/sane culture. When the switch happened, I was in this state of shell-shocked relief/disbelief for about 4 months, and more recently, having realized that ‘hey, this really happened, things are actually better’ I am feeling on track and hopeful about the future for the first time in probably 4 or 5 years. So, I am excited for 2017 and want to make the most of it.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all. It is always a pleasure to come back to CC again and again.
I bet those non-downsized beasties of the ’70s would probably scare at least 75% of today’s youth. Imagine a 16-year-old in 2016 coming face-to-face with a ’76 Cadillac Fleetwood (or a ’75 Olds 98 Regency!) with its acres of metal, hood and trunk and being asked if he or she wants to take a turn at the wheel. Teenager then runs away screaming “What is that thing, Mom? I was standing in front of it and it breathed hot air on me!”
the 1976 Cadillac was the end of the line for the very large land cruisers. Ford kept their big Lincolns rolling along until the end of the decade, I would hope that there are some aficionados of these great beasts that are preserving them for posterity. They would make a great show car since mpg isn’t a factor then. I loved the big Fleetwoods, El Dorados as well as the Lincoln Mark IV and Mark V.
As to the future I shared this gem from the Sixties with my kids. “You are either part of the solution, or you are part of the problem” I think that this can be applied to most aspects of our lives. That, and the “Golden Rule”, Enjoy the Holidays.
I know of a couple families who are still holding on to their big caddies neither of which looks as good as the feature car. Glad some people are preserving them.
You also reminded me of the older gent who pulled into a handicap spot in a rather sad looking Mark IV the other day as I shopped with my aging mother. The smaller grill makes me believe it was a 76 model. Dirty, with some rust and non-original wheel covers it would have been a striking luxo barge back in the day.
Garry, the Lincoln Mark IV you described reminded me of one I had spotted a few years back in my neighborhood and wrote about last March (2015): https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/cc-outtake-a-lincoln-mark-iv-passes-a-gas-station-for-a-change/ . It also must have been quite striking in its day.
Heh, heh. Yes, Joseph the big Mark you captured looks very much like the one I spotted the other day. Not sure which is in worse condition.
The 76 Mark IV always reminds me of the owner of the newspaper when I was working at the radio station in St. Paul, Alberta. He had a shiny, bright blue Mark loaded with options and always parked in front of the newspaper office. This grey haired gent had the thick sideburns, bright coloured leisure suit, shirt opened exposing grey chest hairs with some sort of gold medallion hanging from his neck. Get the picture?
The Whispers – what a kickarse track. A slight aside, Nile Rodgers is just about to put out a new Chic album. If he tours, I can’t recommend his shows enough.
Nice motion blur, Joseph.
Nile Rodgers is just the man. He can do no wrong, not even in 2016. I liked some of the latter-day Chic stuff (i.e. “Chic-ism”), but I hope he has brought original vocalists Norma Jean Wright, Luci Martin and Alfa Anderson back into the fold.
Thanks also for that great link, Don!
Love The Whispers (not to be confused with The Winstons). “And the Beat Goes On” is in my playlist, along with Brothers Johnson’s ‘Stomp” and “Strawberry Letter 23”, the great Shuggie Otis song. I could talk about this stuff all day, so I’ll shut up now, look for my headphones, and just listen.
Cough *Inspiration Information*
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone! I was traveling yesterday and then doing family stuff, so I wasn’t able to chime in as much as I perhaps might have liked, but thank you for the thoughtful commentary. I do consider it a reward of sorts for putting a piece together.
“So that’s the view of someone who grew up tens of thousands of miles and years away from the moment.”
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The important thing is ; fifty years later the music is still good and relevant and reaching many new people daily .
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-Nate
Hey, I just saw this exact car rolling through the Loop today, 2/23/2017. It was heading North on Franklin, a block or two from Union Station. I recognized it from this article. Still rollin.
It has been a mostly salt-free winter, so I do not blame the driver for wanting to take it out!
Fabulous car and write-up! Having had several mid-’70s 98s and a ’75 Sedan DeVille I know exactly why this car’s owner’driver is having a great time, because for all their faults there’s nothing to compare to motoring in perhaps the most comfortable to ride in automobile ever, an artifact from a bygone age. It’s a diminished world without them, and its very cool to see someone who appreciates what we’re missing, completely summed up by that thumbs up! How sweet it was!
Merry Christmas to Joseph and all! … this lady’s is certain to be unforgettable!
I think that I read an observation here on CC that the ’76 Cadillac was the last car of the 1950’s. I think that is true, at least for GM. Longer, lower, and wider had been the design religion since the actual ’50’s. Things changed with the downsized ’77’s. Ford held onto the past for a few years longer. I hope that these cars are preserved, they represent a period in automotive design that won’t be repeated.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a ’74-’84 Coupe de Ville with a full vinyl roof and only a handful with a full slick top, and those were probably repaints after removal. It must be unique in the history of optional equipment that the landau roof went from zero to 99.44% in one year. The ’71-73 full vinyl were cut with the halo effect, a narrow strip of visible paint around the edge, which probably didn’t work well with the new B pillar.