The very first definition of “steadfast” that I had found on the internet when I wrote this was “resolutely or dutifully firm and unwavering”. I like it, as it very succinctly fits the context in which I’ve both heard and used this word. I’ve never eaten at the restaurant behind our featured car, but I remember having wished at the time of taking these photographs that its name was on this Eldorado’s custom plates instead of “RALPHIE”. If it’s Ralphie’s car, it’s his choice, but still – “steadfast” seems like a very appropriate word for this car, scene, and time of year in Chicago.
I wonder if Ralphie is the original owner of this Eldorado, which might put him in his mid-70s. This might explain why an established, wealthy restauranteur, perhaps, might have the only car double-parked on West Jackson Boulevard right before afternoon rush hour. No big whoop. He has likely paid his dues and has earned all the respect given to him. Perhaps he had purchased this car new and remained steadfast in his belief it might be worth a nice chunk of change some day. I also realize that “Ralphie” could simply be the nickname bestowed on this car. “Ralphie” would fit this Eldorado, sounding both patrician enough to seem upscale, and yet informal enough to befit the spirit of breezy, top-down motoring.
“Resolute” might be one way to describe how this two-and-a-half ton car moves in traffic, with its 190-hp 8.0L V8 and three-speed automatic transmission. It needs all those horsepower just to fight its inherent, and quite substantial, inertia that comes with 5,200 pounds of heft. I’m sure the needle on the gas gauge is hardly “unwavering” in city traffic. A friend of mine had owned a similar-year Eldorado, a ’74 if I remember correctly, but he sold it about ten years ago before I had a chance to drive it (or write about it here). I’ve always wondered what driving one of these is like, especially in a place like Chicago.
When the reintroduction of a Cadillac-official Eldorado convertible for ’84 helped to eventually torpedo the assumed, predicted value of the “last-of-the-line” ’76 soft tops, this ’75 might have been seen as immune to all of that hullabaloo. Being from the then-penultimate model year for the Eldorado convertible, it might have been seen as something of a relative bargain when new compared to many of its price-gouged ’76 counterparts.
One thing is true about Chicagoans. There’s a certain steadfastness that helps us get through our oft-brutal winters. When we first start seeing convertibles in traffic in the spring with their tops retracted, it’s a genuine, harmonic “Aaaaaaaa… ♪♫” moment accompanied by angels, harps and bright sunbeams. That’s how it feels to me, anyway, when it’s clear we’re done with snow until November. With Memorial Day just under a few short weeks away, here’s to wishing Ralphie – and the rest of us in the Northern Hemisphere – lots of sun and fun this season.
Downtown, The Loop, Chicago, Illinois.
Tuesday, April 25, 2017.
Related:
For that year, the best face on GM cars. The rectangles worked here. Second-to-last shot shows those front blades to great effect. Opening shot is my fave though; no reflections on the body. Really pure representation of the shape. With that shot you can see the profile of the 63 Riviera.
Don, you and I are really having trouble agreeing on cars today. 🙂
hehehe
You know, Don, until you mentioned it, I hadn’t seen any similarities between the profile of this car and the original Riviera. It’s not entirely obvious, but it’s there. Thanks for pointing that out.
To my mind, the ultra-square front end treatment’s hardness fights against the softness of the bodyside contours expressed in the fendertop curves. While they’re squared up somewhat, and the bodysides seem flat rather than having the subtle curve my eye would prefer, there is still a disagreement between front and side – as seems common to most of the cars that introduced this headlamp treatment. And the whole thing would look better two or three inches lower, which is doubtless how the stylists would have drawn it. It’s no Riviera.
Joe you have come as close as anyone can to making me appreciate this car. A top-down convertible on the streets of Chicago brings with it a certain amount of good vibrations – and a 75 Eldo convertible needs every good vibe it can get. At least for me.
I prefer the earlier version of this body. These late ones with the exposed rear wheels still carry the association with the gawdawful hype of “The Last Convertible!!!!!!!!” It was a hype that I found really annoying in 1976 and I have not fully recovered. It was like the double Elvis album my mother bought from a TV offer shortly after Elvis died. “It’s a collector’s item” she said. No Mom, this TV offer greatest hits reissue is not a collector’s item now and it never will be. I still view this Eldo convertible as only slightly more collectible than that album. 🙂
I also find excessive hype really annoying, so I completely understand your reaction to the to-do over the ’76 Eldorado convertibles. And I’m laughing over here at your recollection of your mom’s Elvis double-LP. (I plan to hang on to my CD collection for as long as possible. 🙂 )
The only thing even close to a collectible Elvis album from that time was the ludicrous “Having Fun with Elvis On Stage”, a patchwork collection of between-song banter from a mid-’70s concert with no music whatsoever, designed to take advantage of a legal loophole that would result in Colonel Tom Parker making all the money from its sales since it had no songs on it and thus fell outside his usual record contract terms.
The one truly collectible TV offer album I know of is this circa-1991 compilation called PUNK, made by some buffoon at a company called Westwood Promotions who obviously hadn’t a clue as to what punk rock actually was. Great for laughs though, even if I haven’t managed to snag one for my own yet…
Oh, my gosh – *outstanding*. This was the ’90s… there was no excuse for not knowing what punk rock was, even at that point. This sounds like a great ’80s new wave mix, though – and for that, it didn’t sound half-bad!
$26.95 for two CDs in the ’90s? Wow!! Adjusted for inflation… At least something has gotten less expensive since then.
I remember actually listening to that album one day while driving around in my friend’s (who’s a big Elvis fan)1986 Pontiac Parisienne. There was a lot of Elvis going “Well, Well, Well……”
CD collection, Joseph? I still have all my LPs and my parents’ 78s!
78s! Yay!
JP, I just happened to read about the record player that Chrysler offered in the late ’50s in one of the Mopar magazines today in my local Barnes & Noble. It was pretty detailed on how it operated. It’s too bad that it could only play a special kind of record & that there were many choices.
There is just…something…about a Cadillac convertible. Not always tasteful, not always well executed, but they do say something to the world. Big, brash, and by definition, conspicuous consumption at its best. It was the best shorthand to tell the world that you had a bit of extra money and were not afraid to use it. These were not used to haul the family around. They were to take the driver, and perhaps one lucky passenger, on their merry (mis)adventures. They told the world that you had made it, and you were now flaunting it. For many, that made it a turn off. However, I can only imagine that every time Ralphie hits the road, the driver is grinning. A lot. And why the heck not?
Beautiful photography that shows the Eldorado and Chicago from their best angles.
I was never a big fan of this generation of Eldorado, but I think they look best as convertibles, which avoid the cliches of opera windows and vinyl landau tops. The 1975-76 versions look best with smoothly integrated rectangular headlights. With 500 cubic inches of V8 power, these smog-choked torque monsters accelerated not quickly but with determination.
I spent a summer during my high school years working as a valet car attendant at a country club in the Chicago suburbs. These Eldos were particular favorites of the rather elderly clientele and I remember two sets of golf clubs barely fitting in the trunks of these behomeths. I’d like to think “Ralphie” was heading out to the links after work to get in a round on the back nine before dark.
Thanks, William – and I completely agree that the top-shorn versions of these cars, absent the opera windows and padded vinyl roofs, look cleaner.
I liked the golf imagery – I worked as a greenskeeper at a golf course in my 20s, and I could completely imagine this car, even in the 1990s, rolling up to the parking lot behind the main clubhouse.
Cc effect today. I see a white convertible Eldorado on my way to work every day ( but with fender skirts). It never moves. But I did see a really odd one after picking my cat up from the vet this morning. I was moving to fast to get a pic on my phone but a google search pulled up one in the same color as the one I saw.
If a convertible on a beautiful spring day doesn’t put a smile on your face then you are seriously jaded. I am taking my one family owned 75 Olds droptop out of winter slumber this weekend and will have a grin ear to ear as will all the people I pass with an accompanying thumbs up!
A few weeks ago, I saw a ’75-76 Eldorado convertible parked curbside along an ’84-85 model. As soon as a I saw the pair, particularly given the urban setting, I thought “this looks like something that Joseph Dennis would photograph.”
I wasn’t able to stop that day, but below is the StreetView image from that block. Clearly, a Cadillac admirer lives there.
Your shots of this ’75 Eldorado are incredible. I keep checking back just to admire them.
Eric, thank you so much. I find it somewhat incredible that these cars were streetparked also when the streetview picture was taken, but then again – and judging from the beautiful-looking residences and landscaping, this looks to be a really nice area. I like that they have two!
Believe it or not, they were joined by a late-80s Brougham and a second ’84-85 Eldorado convertible (parked on an adjoining block).
I drove by there several times in one day, and the cars had moved during the day, so not only does a Cadillac collector live there, but he drives them regularly as well.
Wow looking at those 2 the size difference is incredible……..looks like Dad and Son. nice picture!!
We love the ’79-on generation nowadays, but what must the Cadillac customer have felt when first seeing the newer model?
I was never a real fan or even admirer of these, but then I bought one. I am still less than enthusiastic about certain individual elements of its’ almost kitschy, era-specific styling pastiche. However, they seem to work in combination – but only in a period-anchored context.
It’s huge, its under powered (though arguably less so than many of its’ spectacularly anemic contemporaries), it’s gauche and people everywhere love it. It is smooth, quiet and has a presence – in other words, it does what it was specifically designed to do. Maybe that is damning it with faint praise, but it is inarguable in my now first hand ownership experience.
It was not engineered, built or for or intended to lap the Nurburging. This is not a defense of its’ sloth or slovenly handling but it helps to recall the specific design purpose behind a vehicle when critiquing it. One’s personal antipathy towards any specific automobile’s primary design purpose should not inform on the success or failure of any specific vehicle to meet it’s own design objectives. These Eldorado’s are lousy cars by today’s standards, but so is absolutely everything else built in 1975.
Driving these requires a complete re acclimation to a different time. The steering is numb, slow and the body yaw in anything other than sedate corners is formidable. They brake OK in normal use – they have 4 wheel disc’s after all, but the steering and handling is from a completely different time. I am used to driving a truck that is 16″ longer than this car so the dimensions are not an issue for me, any more than they were 30 years ago when I routinely drove all manner of behemoth Detroit sleds. Contemporary drivers managed to do just fine in the ’60’s and ’70’s with these sleds, we can manage them now.
A particular note about weight – my 2011 2500 GMC truck weighs 2300 POUNDS MORE than this car, and my wife’s new Mercedes GLE 43 AMG weighs about the same as the Caddy. No one seems to attack modern cars over their grotesquely adipose truths. Why is that?
The car is very comfortable for cruising or driving in typical urban traffic. I could not care less about how much fuel it uses and it occurs to me that it’s unlikely anyone else driving one does, either. If you ask these cars to do what they were designed to do and reacquaint yourself with every antediluvian handling trait you can think of, you’ll find that driving these is just fine and a source of enjoyment – most of the time. Isn’t this why some of us by and drive the old stuff?
I loved reading this, and I agree with your take on the time perspective from between when these cars were new(er), as compared with modern cars.
One of the few American cars I have actually owned. it was like this one , in White with red interior
It has presence, but ultimately I was disappointed with the build quality, especially the interior, I also felt it was unnecessarily heavy and strangled
I replaced the catalytic converter (not a requirement in the UK at that time) with a straight pipe, started it up and it was revving so high you would not dare engage drive for fear of damaging the gearbox, just how much did those cats strangle the engine ?
It rode well as you would expect but felt loose over the small bumps, if you jacked it up by the bumper, the car would flex enough to jam the doors
It felt like it had a steam engine rather than petrol , no real impression of revs it just thrummed away in the distance like the engine room of a liner.
The nautical comparison is very apt when it came to its handling. I had a 69 Jaguar 420G as well at the time, itself considered elephantine but the difference in handling was huge, which was important on the roads I drove on.
It was my first restoration of such a large car and it turned out well, but it was simply much too big for our roads and hampered by left hand drive to enjoy driving it
I am left with mixed impressions of it, if I lived in the land of cheap fuel and big roads its not the Cadillac I would chose, I would definitely go back to a 42, 49, 53, 54 or 57, that’s if I could not find a 62 Lincoln
You bring up a good point, Lee – it’s important to view these cars in the social context and the environment they were designed for. Those of us outside the US and Canada just find these cars uncomfortably huge to manage on our road systems, so we criticize their road manners (not what we are accustomed to) and their size (difficult to manage). And so we can tend to look down on them. Sneer at them.
But given the pre-fuel-crisis American mindset of “bigger is better”, and the then-common American psyche of “If you’ve got it, flaunt it”, and these beasts can be understood. Still, Aussies, Brits and Europeans don’t tend to slow down as much for corners, so we criticize their handling. In our environment, it seems inept and clumsy. Our fuel prices have always been higher, so we criticize their fuel consumption. We don’t have such large parking spaces, so we criticize their size. But our environment is not, and never has been, the one they were designed for.
Still, Torque is always welcome.
It’s interesting to read about the build quality of Cadillacs of this era from those who experienced them when new. It’s one reason why it’s so fascinating to me to read about the super-high-quality Cadillacs that there the norm through the mid/late 1960s. Thanks, Lee, for your perspective.
I greatly disliked this generation Eldorado when it came out in 1971, and I remain “steadfast” in that regard. The ragtop does look better than the coupe, but that’s just damning with faint praise.
This looks like a movie set, with the streets closed off. To find a whole empty block with this Eldo rag top in front of that great building is truly amazing. But then you never cease to amaze me with your finds and photography.
Paul, thank you so much. To your point, what really made this car stand out is that there were no other ones either parked near it or in traffic. (In the last shot, westward on W. Jackson Blvd., you can see a Ford Escape taxi making a right turn toward this scene.) It was serendipity.
I love these caddy’s big , bold and beautiful!! thats why the Escalade sells……it harkens back to beauties like this!!!
I saw an Eldorado being driven in Amsterdam about 13 years ago. It was unreal seeing something of that size in the narrow streets by a canal. To top it off the driver was wearing a cowboy hat.
This is one thing that fascinates me about the trend for older, bigger cars from the U.S. being exported / imported to Europe. When I was in Rome last fall, I was struck by how narrow (and beautiful) many of the main thoroughfares were compared to some (not all) of what I’m used to seeing.
These shots are fantastic. This Eldo just “fits” on the streets of Chicago–the grand lines of the neoclassical buildings provide a fitting backdrop for the baroque Cadillac.
I also love your description of the thrill of spring in Chicago, and the rush you get when you start seeing convertibles out and about. Given our usually chilly April, I am especially enjoying the convertible spotting now that we are having a temperature appropriate May.
Thanks, GN! I realize that I have written a similar “springtime” post every year since 2015, but I have no intention to stop. :). I hope the optimism is contagious.
Great photos of the car AND Chicago, as Mr. Dennis always does! It seems that all the planets were in proper alignment to get these terrific shots.
Joseph
The old girl seems to be riding a bit high in the water by Eldorado standards. Did you happen to see if they took any bodies out of the trunk before your fine pictures?
Thanks, everyone, regarding the photos. This is why I keep my camera with me pretty much all the time. 🙂
Joseph, I am amazed at what you find. Could a full-time car photographer roaming your streets find more? It hardly seems so!
Thanks, Pete! I enjoy sharing my finds right here at CC.
Thanks for this sympathetic view of the car in it’s natural habitat. I cannot say I’ve ever warmed to this generation of the Eldorado, but a gold star to the custodian for the fine job they’re doing.
Your photos, together with the remarks about the possibilities of summer, make those of us around 37 deg S very envious. Could never do your winter though – just no way to that ordeal.
May summer bring you many CC sightings.
In the late 70s an immaculately dressed and extremely beautiful lady would speed through the narrow boulevards of Norfolk VA in such a car. I found her fascinating and “starlet-like” from afar. I spied her occasionally through the years, but like a unicorn, disappearing seconds later. About a decade after her visions, I bought a dilapidated older home in a nice waterfront neighborhood and settled in. Never a tradesman, I learned how to fix things and neighbors would call for assistance and I happily obliged when I could. One day this still attractive older woman knocked at my door and asked for help turning off her water as there was a leak in her home. I followed her a short distance to a magnificent mansion hidden by gates and landscaping I had partially seen from the sidewalk, but never entered. I addressed the water issue and turned to leave the property. She was quite kind and thankful. As I left I noticed a garage with an open door. There sat the Eldorado convertible… in deplorable shape. The roof had deteriorated, the interior was shot, but the ghost of beauty past remained. As I realized my earlier attraction and interest in the car and the lady, I also realized that time rearranges everything and nothing is eternal. I felt sad for a moment… two icons had tumbled… but I discovered the beauty of ruins, an observation I treasure today.
William, I loved reading this – thank you. I am also drawn to the saudade / “beautiful sadness”.
I almost feel like your real-life experience could be turned into a narrative accompanying a set of modern photographs.
but I discovered the beauty of ruins, an observation I treasure today.
That sums up the essence of CC. I started shooting tired old cars still on the street that showed their wear honestly. And that’s still what interests me the most.
Everything is in perpetual decay. we can try to arrest that to some degree or another, but it’s a losing battle. It’s the main reason I’m generally not too wild about restored cars; they will only be original once, and the minute the restoration is done, they start to decay. And many restorations damage aspects of the original car/thing.
It’s not to say I’m against restoration; it certainly has its place. But if a car doesn’t absolutely need it, I prefer to see it in its natural state. Fortunately, the car world has increasingly come around to that way of thinking, and nowadays original classic often/typically command more than restorations, especially if they’re not done extremely well. There’s a lot of older restorations out there that were botched, to one degree or another.
Needless to say, I practice what I preach with my old truck. 🙂
I’ve owned two Eldos, a 75 and a 78, both hardtop. One, white, red interior, and the 78,triple silver. Both in pristine condition, the 78 sold to buy my new ATS. The 75 was hit in 1993.
Quite different cars than an ATS.
Sold the 78 because I wanted a new Cadillac, only have a single garage.