Danville Street Sighting - 1970 Cadillac Eldorado

I'll be the first to admit that the post-1967 front-wheel-drive GM luxury coupes aren't on my short list of cars I'd have in my garage. But I do respect them. It takes a particular sort to fall in love with a big, floaty couch on wheels. The personal luxury coupe market segment enjoyed a couple of decades of popularity in America, largely supplanting the muscle car during the 1970s. The king among these was the Cadillac Eldorado, billed as the World's Finest Personal Car. And this one is amazing.

It's been years since I had an Eldorado of this vintage worth featuring. The last one was in 2013 and was a much rougher example. The dramatic, knife-edge exterior styling offers plenty of details to keep the viewer's attention during a walkaround of its nearly 18.5 foot length. This is a very solid looking car with just enough patina to make me think the paint and body are either original or a very old repaint in what appears to be Cinnamon Firemist. I'm a sucker for classic cars in metallic brown with white trim. Note the keyhole on the driver side cowl. That's for an old anti-theft alarm. Note also the little badge on the grille. 8.2 Litre. That's right, 500 cubic inches. The 8.2-liter V8 was new for 1970 and was the biggest-displacement engine Cadillac ever built. The giant lump was rated at 400 horsepower (gross) and 550 pound-feet of torque. I'm not sure how that translates to actual net power output -- compression ratings were already on the way down by 1971 (365 hp gross and a shockingly low 235 hp SAE net). It seems like a lot of horsepower was being lost somewhere. But if you need to pass someone on the highway, those gobs of torque will get the job done.

This lovely Eldorado was looking for a new home at a time before America knew $6 gas. The seller was asking $17,500 for it. It's a heck of a lot of car for the money.

Photographed June 2020