The Carchive: '67 Cadillac

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It’s 21:30 and I’m on my own, so I can do a bit of secretive Carchive raiding. This time I’ll need breathing apparatus and a flashlight, because I’m going deep down into the chasm that is my “American” section.

In fact, what I brought back to the surface is one of my favourite brochure acquisitions. It may be relatively light on data, but it’s heavy on style. Set your original Star-Trek series one phasers to Shock and Awe, as we explore the 1967 Cadillac full-line brochure.

“The 1967 standard of the world”

“The name Fleetwood has, for years, earned the total respect and admiration of the luxury car world”.

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The toppermost leviathan in the GM portfolio for this year was the Fleetwood Seventy-Five sedan, and the limousine version thereof. This Nimitz sized vessel shared many of the facilities of the already impressive Fleetwood Brougham:

“…power operated vent widows front and rear, automatic level control and many other convenience features are provided as standard equipment”

But what we really came to see in ’67 was the:

“Eldorado…. dramatic blend of the best of two motoring worlds.”

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In fact, I’m just going to type out the whole passage verbatim.

“This brilliant new Cadillac combines the spirit and action of a true performance car with the comfort and five-passenger spaciousness of a true luxury car. It represents a whole new luxury car concept- yet its Cadillac identity is dramatically evident in a grille of striking simplicity and in its overall look of dignity and distinction”.

Pause for breath, sip of coffee, keep typing.

Eldorado seems poised and ready to go, with its long spectacular hood, its daring roof lines and its sweeping rear deck styling. Eldorado is the first motor car in the world to combine the precision of front-wheel drive with the manoeuvrability of variable ratio power steering and the balance of automatic level control. Eldorado interiors are especially luxurious. Unobstructed floors permit unusual room for all passengers; a unique ventilation system provides a draft-free flow of air throughout the car; and its quietness and smoothness assure a wonderful measure of Cadillac motoring pleasure. The Fleetwood Eldorado… the one car that must be seen to believed, driven to be appreciated and owned to be fully enjoyed.

It’s still a very cool car. I mean, there was Dalmation Cloth (so Cruella might want to upgrade from her DeVille…), there was a Strato Bench seat (B52’s and B47s were still hellacool), and there were those retractable headlamp covers. Like on Muscle Cars. Yeah, this was a muscle car wearing full dress regalia. A cloak, perhaps. Good grief this is a cool car.

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Anyway, we must go on towards those Cadillacs that less monetarily gifted members of society could aim for, those who’s belts were that tight that the Champagne Man would leave only TWO magnums of MOET on a Wednesday. Tough times. As it happens:

“The Cadillac DeVille series for 1967 has a spirit unique among luxury cars.”

And, they were, of course:

“…powered, as are all Cadillacs for 1967, by a highly refined and improved 340-hp V8 engine”.

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“great new beauty and graciousness will make it even more a favourite of Cadillac enthusiasts”

“Graciousness“? Is that even a word? I don’t think even Rolls-Royce would have used that word at any point after the Edwardian era. Yet here it seems strangely appropriate.

“It’s quiet dignity and its alert action are constant reminders that you are in possession of a truly remarkable type of motoring that only the Cadillac owner can really enjoy.”

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And then we have the Calais, priced so that the absolute scum of the earth, vagrants and transients could afford them. You know, the kind of folk who I aspire to be:

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“priced favourably with many cars of lesser stature”

Cadillac had the following modest prose to spurt about the Calais series.

“..(they) represent a remarkable investment in Cadillac craftsmanship, engineering leadership, luxury and safety. These majestic motor cars are beautiful examples of why Cadillac owners are the most loyal in the world.”

So there we are. Essentially, what Cadillac seemed to be saying was that none of us filthy, disgusting low-life ratbags would have been seen as fit to take possession of one of their gilt-edged dreamboats. Seriously, a Cadillac would be so far out of my league I may have well looked at space rockets and submarines instead.

“You’ll surely agree that the Standard of the World has never before been so surprisingly new, or so superbly Cadillac”

Is Cadillac today as “superbly Cadillac” as it was in 1967?

(Disclaimer: All images are of manufacturers original publicity materials, photographed by me. Copyright of the original material belongs to GM, who build a range of fine cars to suit all budgets. Even Cadillacs can be had on agreeable finance plans these days. Scumbags of the world rejoice)

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21 responses to “The Carchive: '67 Cadillac”

  1. Gooberpeaz Avatar

    "…Cadillac owners are the most loyal in the world.”
    Until they almost went extinct late in the 20th century.

    1. Alff Avatar

      Same for Marlboro smokers.

  2. Devin Avatar
    Devin

    The Eldorado is quite the machine to behold in person, I don't think that picture does it justice.

  3. dukeisduke Avatar
    dukeisduke

    Ah, the Calais. A friend of mine who loves old Cadillacs, and used to own a '59 six-window Sedan de Ville and a '62 Park Avenue (a short-deck model introduced to compete with the Lincoln Continental) refers to it as the "cheap Calais".

    1. Mad_Hungarian Avatar
      Mad_Hungarian

      Not only that, this was one of the last years you could order a genuinely stripped down Calais, with crank windows, manual seat adjustment, and no A/C, power locks, tilt steering or cruise control.

      1. Peter Tanshanomi Avatar
        Peter Tanshanomi

        Stop it, you're arousing me with that dirty talk.

  4. PushrodRWD Avatar
    PushrodRWD

    That body style Eldorado is beautiful. Arguably one of the best taillights ever. I was looking for a magazine article from that time period where the car was called "too sporty" for a Cadillac. I thought it was R&T, MT or C&D, but I could be mistaken.
    I found this though: http://www.eldorado-seville.com/67eldo/67eldohist
    While some of the designs are a bit ridiculous by today's standards you can tell they were trying to get a stylized "retro" car, where to them retro was the 20's and 30's. The current edgy Caddy look owes a lot to the 67 EL-D.
    And the 67 Fleetwood was Murph's car, which I believe is The Caddy that Elwood traded for a microphone (not the "P.O.S." he picked up Jake with)…

    1. stigshift Avatar
      stigshift

      The '67 Caddy you're thinking of is actually a Sedan deVille, not a Fleetwood.

    2. RegalRegalia Avatar
      RegalRegalia

      20s and 30s? huh?

  5. Van_Sarockin Avatar
    Van_Sarockin

    '67 Caddys are some of the nice of that batch, if not the absolute pinnacle. The Eldo is quite sweet. Tha Calais is the life preserver for those who have only barely managed to claw their way above Oldsmobiles. But helpfully, the trunk illustration demonstrates that even with the vacation luggage comfortably stowed, there's still room for the odd hooker or three. And, my gracious, graciousness is most certainly a word, your grace. Now say grace, Gracie.

    1. Alff Avatar

      Grazie.

  6. C³-Cool Cadillac Cat Avatar
    C³-Cool Cadillac Cat

    I'd give a kidney…albeit the one which generates stones on occasion…for that '67 'vert.
    Also, 'graciousness' is a word, just not used particularly often…especially in the past 30+ years.

    1. Vairship Avatar
      Vairship

      Graciousness, spaciousness and paceiousness!

  7. Mad_Hungarian Avatar
    Mad_Hungarian

    The '67 Eldo may have been poised and ready to go, but it wasn't quite so ready to stop. The 67's were notorious for having marginal brakes, which GM did improve in later years.

  8. salguod Avatar

    I love this era, well the American cars of the mid 50s through the mid 60s. So much confidence and bold optimism in both the cars and the brochures. These 60s Cadillacs after the boldness of the fins through '59, though, had an elegance and grace about them that hasn't been seen since. My neighbor has a '70 Convertible that is very cool, but not nearly as graceful.
    (Speaking of 60s American iron, Chris, did you ever see my R.A-S.H. tribute on my blog highlighting the '60 T'bird back when you did the 4 part series on T'birds?)

    1. Rust-MyEnemy Avatar

      I did, actually, and enjoyed it immensely. I love learning about the cars I didn't grow up with.

    2. longrooffan Avatar

      salguod: Would you mind passing a link to your blog over to this longrooffan at aol.com? And Happy New Year.

      1. salguod Avatar

        I hope I emailed the right address. At any rate, it's http://www.salguod.net. There's a contact page there if you want to email me. And Happy New Year to you as well.

  9. Sjalabais Avatar
    Sjalabais

    Very consistent and clean layout in the brochure, and just as much world-leading confidence in copywriting as in building roadeating machines. Beautiful cars, all of them in their own right.
    I would give a kidney to be able to live through that era in the position of a Cadillac-owner, obviously. Will there ever be a confident time like the late 50s/early 60s or the mid-90s?

  10. topdeadcentre Avatar
    topdeadcentre

    I'm fairly sure Cadillac marketing didn't anticipate an opened purple printed bag of peat moss being used as a reading table for their opened purple prose print media. 🙂
    I have a serious jonesing to own a '67 De Ville Convertible. I'd consider a '68, '69 or '70, too… but the '67 just looks great.

  11. dissertation writing Avatar

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