Many of us remember the vehicle we drove to our high school prom. It was, after all, part of our outfit, and part of the entire experience. When Thomas Durisek drove his date to the dance his junior year at Central Dauphin High School in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in 1989, he picked the right car for getting him there in high-class “Cadillac Style”: His dad’s 1984 Seville.
While Tom’s relationship with his girlfriend at the time didn’t end up being very long-term in nature, the relationship with the car certainly did. And this is that car’s story. Her name is Barbara Seville.
Little did Thomas know that 30 years after that prom, he’d be digging the same Seville out of his father’s garage in Enola, Pennsylvania where it had been in isolation and storage for over two decades. The windshield had such a thick coat of dust on it when Thomas arrived with friends to retrieve the car in the fall of 2019, he couldn’t even see out the windows. The car had slept through Y2K, been dormant for 9-11, and completely been oblivious to the world around it. One of the pieces of paper in the car’s archive was a service receipt dated September 24, 1996. The car had 39,474 miles on the odometer at the time.
The next time Barbara saw the light of day was in September 2019. The odometer read 39,500 exactly when Thomas arrived to become reacquainted with that car from his past. His 75-year-old father had decided it was time to move on, and Thomas took the opportunity to take ownership.
Re-awakening the Seville wasn’t without its hurdles, as a 36-year-old Cadillac does not readily return to daily drivability. She rode a transport truck the 2,352 miles to her new home in Phoenix, Arizona before undergoing a mechanical and cosmetic revitalization. The fuel system needed to be refreshed, the tires were old, and a variety of leaks became evident. Even the radio needed convincing to wake up, as it promptly blew a fuse when powered up. Thomas was able to source some body parts that the car needed and have them color-matched. Barbara began to look young again.
Little by little, Thomas got the car back to roadworthiness, and it was a labor of love. He says the nostalgia came flooding back each time he took the wheel. “It was the wildest flashback feeling that thin wheel spinning with just a light finger pressure and looking down the long hood at the dealer-installed Rolls-Royce style grille with the wreath and crest proudly sitting on top. It was the first time I’d driven a vehicle from my early driving years in decades, and it made me smile so wide,” he reports.
Thomas has already shown the car at some small local shows in Arizona and enjoyed putting her through a road test on a drive to Palm Springs, California. “It was so wonderful just floating across the desert on I-10 for 4 hours each way,” he said. “She got me there and back with no incidents and got plenty of attention in the process.” Barbara has seen a couple thousand joyful miles added to her odometer since last fall.
Accompanying Barbara on the road to rehabilitation was her garage-mate, a pristine 3,900-mile Mazda Miata. That car’s story is equally special, so stay tuned and we’ll share it here.
Thanks to Thomas for letting us in on your special Seville story!
What a great story and a beautiful car! I have always admired this Caddy. In its day it was maligned by critics whose voices, as usual, are just talk. There is no accounting for taste – that of the critics or mine. Enjoy your wonderful automobile. May it stay in your family for countless years – to be enjoyed. I await your story of the low-mileage Miata, too. Here in the Northeast we know when spring has arrived because the Miatas appear on the local roads, tops down and with pleased expressions on the faces of their owners.
What a great story! Although the 84 Seville may not be my favorite car in the world, I can only imagine what a fabulous flashback it would be to have ready access to your “Prom Car” all these decades later. And one with such low mileage too.
The story resonates because I got to drive my father’s 6-month-old 78 Town Coupe to my senior prom. The difference is that Dad traded the car in late 79 and it is surely long gone.
I also love the car’s name. I wonder if anyone under 65 would know anything about The Barber Of Seville had Warner Brothers never made the Bugs Bunny cartoon takeoff on the opera.
Isn’t Barbara Seville related to Lisa Catera?
Wonderful story! Thanks for sharing.
I’m trying to imagine how I’d feel about this generation Seville if my dad had one and I drove it to the prom. Now there’s a whole lot of alternate reality in that mind game. 🙂
Did you even go to the prom? Is there a picture?
To my own? No. I dropped out in February of my senior year and hitchhiked west.
But the following year I attended the prom of my then GF in Iowa City. It was for the University High School, in 1972, meaning highly alternative! I bought a 1940s jacket from the thrift store to wear over my jeans; she made a simple dress, as she normally only wore jeans. She had (slightly) hairy legs and underarms, which I found rather sexy.
There were maybe 50 or 60 kids in her class. It was at a modest sized banquet/wedding room at a motel out by the freeway. A very local band played Grateful Dead covers and such. She drove us there in her dad’s Toyota MKII. Afterwards we all went out to someone’s rural property, went skinny dipping in their pond, and in the morning made whole wheat pancakes with honey from their place.
Very crunchy; in a good way! And not a Cadillac, limo, or any other fancy car to be seen anywhere. Or frilly tuxes.
Ok thanks! I was having a really hard time visualizing you in a frilly tux. Don’t know why.
Amazing story. I love the style of those Sevilles, one of the last times GM displayed complete confidence to pursue a unique style and design that wasn’t compromised by trying to compete with other brands.
As a kid I rode around in a couple when new and their quiet isolation made a favorable impression. 20 years ago I almost bought one.
A note on the pimp grille…. my 89 Deville has one, afaik they were a dealer option, perhaps for those buyers envious of the Parthenon prow of their neighbors Mark V. Not my cup of tea but an appropriate nostalgic accessory. They’re heavy high quality chrome and stainless, much more substantial than the plastic we’ve come to expect.
This is great! May Thomas get many years and more great memories from his Seville.
Reading this also hits somewhat close to home. Mrs. Jason drove her father’s 1983 Seville to her prom.
I really enjoyed your Caddy! Thanks! I can relate. 2nd owner of my Town car bought 10 yrs. ago. Little bit of love and garage kept. A pleasure to drive. My summer buddy. Have a great summer!!!
Part way into the article I thought, “LABOR OF LOVE”. Then came upon those same words in the 6th grouping of words.
I too drove my pop’s Seville to prom, probably one of a handful of times I drove the car. His was an ’81 with the V8-6-4 engine. Unlike you, I harbor no great memories from the car. My pop was ‘buying American’, the only time growing up that we owned a GM automobile.
Like my prom date, fit and finish were iffy. Also like my prom date, the initial torque was promising, but failed to impress when called upon.
I must say, the two-tone brown color combination works really well with the lines of this automobile.
Enjoyed your Caddy. Thanks! I can relate. 2nd owner of an 84 Town car. Had her for 10 yrs. Such a pleasure to drive. My summer ride. Unrestored. Well kept. Goin on 82,000. I know that smile when behind the wheel. Enjoy!!
What a great story and write up. That car is beautiful with the two tone, velour, and burnished in its golden glow with golden memories. Cannot put a price on those.
Seventeen chariots has it exactly right. These cars were unfairly sneered at by the buff books when new but they were unapologetically cadillacs and unapologetically american luxury. Brash, ostentatious, silent, extremely comfortable, and with lots of power gadgetry, they were uniquely suited to american style traveling from Chicago to florida. Other than the Escalade, cadillac hasn’t come up with a desirable idiom.
Wonderful story. I liked these Seville’s about as much as the very first one and the styling it had. 🙂
Wasn’t this the year with a 2 _4_8 engine that sequenced according to load ?
The Cadillac V-8-6-4 was standard in all 1981 Cadillacs except the Seville where it was an option…the awful Oldsmobile Diesel was standard. It was discontinued on retail Cadillecs after only one year. Commercial chassis could still have it. The system was often bypassed anyway, do the engine became a full time V-8.
My uncle had a green Seville with the 8-6-4 engine. It never worked. He had it very short time and then it was gone. It was replace by a Volvo Bertone chip top coupe. The. He got a Mercedes S-class Turbo-Diesel they belched smoke and made some horrible noises. He got my aunt a Peugeot Station wagon. She had that a while? Peugeot had left the USA by that time. But it broke down a lot. One day another black wagon appeared in the driveway. I found out they he purchased a “parts car”. All of these cars were purchased NEW, not old clunkers. My uncle had unique taste in cars. As a child, is remember he had a 63 Rambler. Then he had a 74-76 Ford LTD sedan and wagon. When he hit the “big time” he went from one crazy car to another and it started with that Seville. It looked great in the driveway, because it barely ran.
These had the HT4100, the aluminum 4.1 liter V8 with cast iron heads.
And a whopping 135 hp and 190 lb.-ft. of torque. In my Dad’s ‘84 Fleetwood, acceleration was leisurely, to put it nicely.
I’ve become friends with Thomas on Facebook through a few different groups. Such a nice guy. I’ve followed along the story from acquisition to restoration and it’s been great to follow along.
At some point Thomas and I will be getting together so that I can do a full photo shoot with Barbara!!
Ha! It is where I thought it was! If you google street view the address, it’s still a car dealer and zoom in you’ll see a late sixties MGB parked in the adjacent lot .I had a twin to this car that I bought 20 miles away in Lebanon PA in 1994 but mine was a solid color(the upper color on this one) with the same interior. Yes it accelerated leisurely, but it would turn out some good MPG’s with that 4100. When I went into the USAF in Dec. 1994 I gave it to my dad as a second/knockaround car and he drove it for a few years until he called me one day and said sheepishly that he sent a piston through the block. Oh well, it was just a 15 year old used car at the time, nothing special. But I sure would love to have one now. They actually were pretty cool cars. One of my buddies used to call it the “garbage truck” because of the rear design and one day in his garage I closed the power trunk and he said “Look even the compactor works on this garbage truck” He was a Lincoln guy…Touche!