As we continue our little two-week journey through Tokyo’s Most Wrecked Classics, I can state that there are two marques that (probably by sheer coincidence) are overrepresented in my files. One is Nissan – not a real surprise. The other is Cadillac. And that elicits a number of questions, the first being: is this because Cadillacs are popular here, or because they’re actually not popular any longer?
This is one of three examples I found of the (sub-)Standard of the World gathering moss in my neck of the woods. The other two are more recent, but they are also RWD Fleetwood sedans. The aforementioned Nissans are a more varied sort, but for Cadillacs, it seems the bigger they are, the deader they get.
And this here is the biggest Caddy non-limousine four-door sedan ever made, if I’m not mistaken: 233.7’’ (5936mm) long and 79.3’’ (2027mm) wide – the Fat Elvis period of the marque. And you need a lot of fried bacon PB&J sandwiches to get that thing to leave the building.
For 1975, the Eldorado’s 500ci (8.2 litre) V8 was graciously added to the rest of the range – except for the new Seville. Makes sense to marry the biggest production V8 of the time to the largest body variant. It’s actually surprising they didn’t do it sooner, at least for the Fleetwood. With only 190hp to motivate close to 2.5 tons of car though, patience must have certainly been a virtue for Cadillac drivers at the time.
But the overwhelming majority of you know all this. And this poor thing is not likely to be moving anytime soon, whatever may be lurking under the bonnet – if you can still call it that. You’d have a job getting it open without it disintegrating completely anyway. I mean, even the chrome trim that used to live on the hood left that sinking land yacht ages ago, landing right ahead of the grille, on the bumper.
And isn’t the gloriously over-the-top (and under-the-sides) amount of rust this car’s main feature? The lacework here is so intricate, it’d almost be fashionable… in 1975. The paint is slowly turning into a mosaic, too. Art is being created by nature itself before our very eyes.
The rear end was nigh on impossible to capture, sadly, but displayed a similar amount of delicate deliquescence. Incidentally, we can just about see the additional amber turn signal on the bumper – proof positive that this car was sold here new.
Hey, what gives? I thought free-standing taillights were an Imperial thing? Well, thanks to GM’s magically biodegradable plastic fender extenders, Cadillacs ended up involuntarily imitating that Exnerian affectation and making it their own.
The interior seems to have aged more gracefully than anything else on the car. Well, except that useless plastic woodgrain trim strip dangling from the steering wheel. Cadillac luxury sure wasn’t what it used to be, by this point in time. Except the velour, of course. They still really crushed that.
As I’m sure we’re all aware, getting a full set of antimacassars is the thing to do, in Japan. But for your Toyota Crown or your Mitsubishi Debonair, those doilies can be found off the rack, as it were. These, on the other hand, had to be tailored-made especially for this gargantuan Fleetwood. Got to admire the original owner’s commitment to the bit.
Of all the Cadillacs of this era, the Fleetwood is the one I like best. The thickness of the greenhouse, with those rounded windows and that blanked out C-pillar, makes for an appropriately consequent design element to go with the massive overall look of the car. It might have even looked better without the obligatory vinyl top, but I don’t know that deleting it would even have been an option.
On the other hand, our top-of-the-range Brougham d’Elegance (I’ll forego the acute accents on the second word – it should be written as “élégance” – because GM did so first) seems to have come sans opera lamps. Perhaps the original owner ordered it that way, or maybe it’s another quirk of the Japanese automobile regulatory framework. i.e. “Add turn signals on all corners, but no other lights allowed”? A stand-up wreath and crest should also grace the hood, but that was likelier blown off by a typhoon or nicked by someone in passing. Stealing is a rare thing here, but then so is finding an abandoned Cadillac. Or so I thought until I found three, each in a different part of town.
Few cars make it to their 50th birthday. This one might just about put it off, if you can call it roadworthy. Hey, at least it still has a license plate and, improbably, air in its tyres. But I have grave reservations about its ability to pass the next inspection. Nothing a quick service, a little skilfully-applied bondo and a good respray couldn’t fix. Or am I seeing this Caddy through rust-tinted glasses?
Related posts:
Curbside Classic: 1975 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham – The Brougham’s Brougham, by Tom Klockau
Curbside Classic: 1976 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham – Tired, But Soldiering On, by Joseph Dennis
A symbol of the USA today.
Once fat and arrogant
Now junk
Fat and arrogant American you say……hmmmmm
Odd that the blue headliner faded so much more than the velour. Bad dye?
I had a ’74 Fleetwood in the 80s, and I can’t remember if it had opera lamps or not. It had rust around the little posts holding the side trim on but nothing on the hood or trunk. The hood hinges were already worn out, so I had to push it down at the cowl before lowering the front.
This Cadilac reminds me of the rust damaged cars I remember seeing in South Florida as a kid. It usually had nothing to due with coastal salt spray. The untreated steel would be quickly found by the copious rain and further helped by the unrelenting humidity.
Despite this, these rust heaps would keep running, usually with rotted out exhaust manifolds and pipes, as rolling mildew colonies with squishy carpets and waterlogged trunks. Unlike snow belt cars, the frames would stay in one piece. Our neighbor had a rusty old Coupe De Ville of this era with a 500 that chugged like a freight train leaving for work everyday. It looked like a giant canary yellow exhumned coffin rolling down the street. He worked in a bad area and would joke that nobody would ever steal it.
A Cadillac (particularly of this era) is one of the few cars that can look like hell but still maintain its presence. This one is a prime example. Some cars achieve this condition and somehow look feeble; not a Cadillac.
190 hp from 500 cubic inches is rather pathetic, but these Cadillacs still made prodigious torque for the times. My 1975 Ford Thunderbird weighed close enough to this Cadillac and was motivated by a 460 (7.5 liter) V8. While not a drag racer by any stretch of the imagination, its abundant torque helped much more than it would seem.
I can remember when Caddies and Lincolns were the choice for Japan’s finger-challenged organized-crime bosses. Then they all seemed to switch to the S-Class like everywhere else.
As deteriorated as this old girl looks there are still lots of good usable parts left if it ever becomes a parts car…
I like it. Say what you want, this Caddy has presence, or at least it did when new. Kind of unfair to disparage a unrestored, fifty year old car left to the elements. What car in similar condition would come off any better? In 1975 this baby had the biggest body, biggest engine, biggest personality. Certainly not for everyone, but still unmistakably a Cadillac.
CPJ: Agreed.
It looks fat, heavy, and lazy in the brochure pictures. And still does here even after shedding a few hundred pounds of itself onto the ground. This era was the harbinger of Cadillac losing the plot and starting to become the car that people were mocking, first discreetly with a hand covering their mouths, then more and more publicly and loudly, all self-inflicted. Now we have the Escalade, surely the second coming of this vulgarity. And judging by the appearance of many first, second and increasingly third generations of the Escalade still on the road, a similar fate awaits that one.
Most remarkable is that the marque is still somehow standing, certainly propped up, like a fighter that’s been on the ropes too long now swinging more and more blindly, just waiting for the bell to be rung. Or, perhaps it did ring, but our fighter didn’t hear it over the ringing in their own head, and just keeps swinging into thin air while its audience has left the building some time ago. Very, very few of those still singing the praises of its glory days is buying a ticket for the current show.
A remarkable Junkyard Find, Mr. T. The turd in the Tokyo bowl of punch.
It’s a head turner!
The 0-60 time for these was in the 12 second range, which was quite decent for the times, thanks to the abundant torque.
Having grown up in the salt belt (mid-west) where snow and ice and salt and brine and humidity all played a larger role in vehicles with a lot of rust, I can honestly say that I don’t ever recall seeing a car this bad.
Unlike some others on here, I loved these big old Caddy’s a lot. My parents first of two Cadillac’s was a similar car to this but in the 1975 DeVille series. The second was a 1979 DeVille. Still today when I see one of these on the road or at a car show, I’m smitten. Unlike today’s “Cadillac’s” where you are lucky if you can tell it’s a Cadillac from 10 feet away or it’s just another ugly box SUV.
Whoa, Nelly! That’s a whole lotta’ tinworm right there! Someone should put this formerly fine Caddy out of it’s misery!
Sad but I too see a lots of good parts left .
-Nate
Reminds me of a few 70’s trucks parked along the Avenues in the Outer Richmond of San Francisco. Some of them would laugh at this Caddy saying you think you are bad.
Nice, there was a Seville parked roadside near where I used to live in similar condition I thought it was a parts car until it moved to a lawn with several other high end rust buckets a Mercedes Holden statesman and Toyota Cresta, and in use from the look of it mildly rusty Camry was in the driveway and this was in a dryish part of the country gawd knows where these got driven to het like that,maybe underwater on the beach.
It might still be wearing plates, but no way that would pass the dreaded Shaken.
That must have been a stunning sight in Tokyo traffic when it was new, even in white with a black roof; even in a conservative colour scheme on such an absolute anti-conservative car.
It forgot to shower after taking a dip in the ocean.
There are so many choices when it comes to identifying the nadir of Cadillac. For bodies and maybe interiors, it would be these. Or maybe the whale Fleetwood of the 90s that takes the crown for interiors. There are more choices for mechanicals. Let’s see, is it the 4.1 V8? The Northstar?