Turbocharged 472ci Powered DeVillamino: We're Done. Everyone Go Home.

While they have their fans, a 1974 Cadillac DeVille hardly represents the brand’s pinnacle. The massive 472 and 500ci V8 made low-200s horsepower and only high-300s lb-ft of torque with a wheezey 8.5:1 compression ratio. One upside of low-compression engines? They take well to turbocharging. While he’s spared us the details, the seller’s equipped this DeVille with what looks like a decent sized hairdryer on a baffling set of plumbing. From what we can see in the pictures, it’s clearly a draw-through setup. Looks like there’s a big adapter between the carb and the block, with one massive pipe coming out of the carb towards the turbo, then another return dumping into the intake manifold.

The simplicity is attractive, as the carb is blind to the fact there’s actually a turbo downstream; it just feeds in air and fuel in response to the vacuum pulled on it. The downside is now the air/fuel mix is heated up by the turbo, though the presence of the fuel supposedly has a cooling effect compared to a typical air-only compression scheme. The new air cleaner and absent-due-to-damage hood suggest there may have been a few hiccups getting the setup working completely right.

And then there’s the bed. Cadillacs frequently served on hearse and flower car duty back in the day, so this might’ve been an “original” flower car…or just a backyard special. There seems to be a provision for a snap-on cover of some kind and the interior’s got a decent coat of trunk/truck bed paint.
All-in-all, looks like the perfect ride for the owner of a firearms dealership in Bakersfield, California. The reserve’s unmet at $1,000 and four days left; what do you think it’ll go for?
1974 Cadillac DeVille Pickup – eBay Motors