(submitted by CC reader Osella) A lot happened in 1979. Michael Jackson released Off The Wall. Margaret Thatcher & the unions laid the groundwork for a very confrontational approach to tackling the UK’s reliance on fossil fuels for electricity generation. It was Soviet Russia’s turn to stabilise Afghanistan.
And Steely Dan hadn’t yet finished ‘Gaucho’.
I’m unqualified to comment upon the vicissitudinous demands of governments’ desires to spend their citizens’ money, imposing better living standards upon them – in the UK Blair imagined that this may be facilitated by unmitigated casino-building and the establishment of a ‘European-style cafe culture’. Maybe he had Biarritz in mind. The US had enforced CAFE regulations long before this.
Imagine my surprise at finding a Diesel Biarritz on a tow truck a mile or two from my part of North London – the perfect combination of luxury, and dependability (in the form of the host Ford Transit)…perhaps you too are also reminded of 1979’s Boeing 747 with a Space Shuttle on its back?
Given their undisputed status as a GM Deadly Sin – I know nothing of this first-hand and am entirely indebted to the University of Curbside for the lectures I’ve attended – what on earth is this doing here? It’s been in the UK since 1992 and has (by my estimation) racked up an average of 1.2 miles per day. In its 15557-odd days on planet earth, this yacht has sailed 19,044 miles.
The UK part of its life is detailed here – mileage over time- and your eyes don’t deceive you – 3028 miles between April 2012 and May 2013. Even if you chose Land’s End and John O’Groats as your termini, that’s enough to drive to the coast, and drive right back again.
Suffix-T-registration in the UK denotes the year from 1st August 1978 – and wikipedia, and oldcarbrochures.com tell me this a series 10 Eldo from its launch year. I think the styling is pretty sharp for the time – and has aged remarkably well. The Volvo 760 presumably had things like this in mind when it too settled on a hewn appearance. Yes we have the vinyl fauxbriolet-demi-roofette, with contrasting stainless steel band, opera lights (whatever those are) – but the single most indefensible feature is the fixed rear side glasses (assuming I have that right). What a waste of frameless doors. Has anyone else ever done that?
Some argue that the Eldorado digger wouldn’t know which end of the car was driven – but by this, the tenth generation, it is being touted as contributing to space efficiency. I’m slightly confused by the 50/45 seat – what happened to the other 5? And I’m willing to speculate further that this (and its Riviera and Toronado siblings) is unique for its time in being a diesel engined coupe too.
And then last Monday – the Transit has somehow crawled out from underneath leaving this little yacht tied up at the quayside alone.
And as a footnote: ‘Off The Wall’ and ‘Gaucho’ have some personnel in common: Patti ‘Austin Marina’ and Larry ‘Vauxhall’ Carlton and on an even more serious note, for fans of unintended consequences, I’d recommend ‘Faster, Higher, Farther’ by Jack Ewing (on the VW emissions scandal and as an interesting primer on the interplay between the regulators and regulated) and ‘Afgantsy – The Russians in Afghanistan 1979-89’ by Sir Rodric Braithwaite
In 1978, in the US, you could purchase the Mercedes-Benz 300CD I am pretty sure; you certainly could for 1979- a C123 coupe with the 3.0 I-5 OM617 without a turbo. It would have been considerably more expensive than this.
You also could buy A-special coupes (Oldsmobile Cutlas Supreme, for example) and B-body coupes from GM at the very least. Ford offered the Mark VII Continental with a BMW turbo diesel six, although that was a bit later. There were various other GM two doors with diesels but those would have inarguably been two door sedans.
First Biarritz I’ve seen without fake wire wheels or white walls–or washing.
The badge is no proof through the day that our diesel is still there.
Probably too late to fix the model year in the post title, but no one’s disappointed not seeing a bloatmobile.
yes, this is a 1979 (or later), first year of this body style. Has amber rear turn indicators not found on U.S. models so an export market car or modified since it was built.
Gack! “Modified” is being far more diplomatic and polite than the situation warrants; this crapmess doesn’t even rise to the level of “hacked”. That’s a Hella side marker light № 2PS 008 138-801, which is nowhere near bright enough to meet even the much-too-dim European minimum intensity for rear turn signals (allowable intensity for an SM2 side marker like this is 0.6 to 25 candela—this item is in the lower half of that range—while minimum intensity for a rear turn signal is 50). Also, it’s rotated 90° from its design position, making its light distribution even more grossly inadequate as a rear turn signal. It’s been crudely slapped over the upper portion of the tail lens, so covering the built-in retroreflector. A generic reflector has been crudely pasted onto the middle of the lens. Yuuuck!
The legitimate export tails look like this; note retroreflectors in bumper bar:
If I had *insert nominal amount of pocket change here* for every time I’ve seen clearance/marker lights standing in for real turn signals, I’d be jet setting by now. I’m presuming this passed MOT at some point? How could someone look at this little winking firefly and say “Looks swell to me!”?
If it’s amber and flashes it will pass an MOT.
You, Sir, are a Doctor of Automotive Incandescence
The paint on that rig doesn’t look like a factory color to me. They are elegant, so much so that their buyers didn’t care about its 1/4 mile run being measured in minutes with that diesel
Maybe not an RPO shade, but I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that the color had still been applied at the factory. I would guess that, if your pockets were deep enough, you could get any non-standard color you wanted (especially on a Cadillac).
I believe it’s Crater Lake Blue. There were 14 standard colors and 7 optional Firemist ones. Three free blues and 2 extra cost! You’re lucky if there’s more than one blue available now. I blame the robots.
Not a very good photo of the paint chart:
http://automotivemileposts.com/cadillac/seville/images/1979/seville1979paintchart.jpg
I can imagine buyers in Europe or the UK imagining what a great idea a vintage US car with a diesel would be for their local conditions and heavy diesel infrastructure. Those who fail to do their homework (or their maintenance) will suffer, however.
So many offered diesels in the US, but only VW and Mercedes had any lasting success with them. Some efforts (like GMs) were homegrown and under-engineered, and others were the products of arranged marriages (Lincoln’s BMW unit or the rare diesels in the late 70s Dodge truck (Nissan?) or the International Scout.
It was only in pickup trucks where the Dodge/Cummins and the Ford/Navistar tie-ups got significant market penetration for an American brand.
“I can imagine buyers in Europe or the UK imagining what a great idea a vintage US car with a diesel would be for their local conditions and heavy diesel infrastructure. Those who fail to do their homework (or their maintenance) will suffer, however.
This is my thought exactly, and to be fair, there was no internet in 1992 to spread the -details- of the reason for problems with the GM diesel far, wide, and quickly.
Having said that I must also suspect that some hubris was involved. No matter what the Cassandras were saying about the engines, “Everyone knows” that Americans:
A. Don’t maintain their vehicles properly.
B. Don’t know nuthin’ about no furrien stye diesel enjines.
It would be reasonable for even a well educated and informed Briton to assume, that the reports of problems which he was hearing could most likely actually be traced to American operator indifference and unfamiliarity. Then too, it’s common wisdom to believe that American mechanics are mere parts changers compared to the Spanner-Boffins who could keep a Triumph Stag running.
Famous last pre-purchase words:
“If I should have a problem, I’ll just toddle down to Roddy’s shop by the pub and have him put it right before I can finish my pint…”
There was no real World Wide Web in 1992, but the Internet was booming with lots of automotive (and motorcycle and music) resources online.
Since the factory diesel in a Caddy was pretty wimpy I suspect one could get a slightly faster and noisier Eldorado by swapping in a Perkins Prima from a rusted out Montego. I know the Prima was a popular modification for Series III Landrovers before MOT failure Discoveries provided a rich source of TDI diesels.
Ugh, the hideous and ghastly modifications to the taillamps! General Motors had the export taillamps for Cadillac Eldorado and Seville only if one can afford them or manage to locate them.
Anyway, the metallic blue paint is so gorgeous!
As an aside, I was -at first- a little disappointed to find out that the car and its carrier are in England and not the U.S.
I was working up the the lyrics to:
“She’ll be cummins-engined flatbed-mounted when she comes”
I got as far as “she’ll be runnin’ on six cylinders when she comes….”
But sadly, just forget the whole thing.
It’ll be a Duratorq. What does that rhyme with? You’re a stork?
I’m sorry – I’d forgotten just how provincial my Southern Hick background is –
The ‘joke’* is supposed to be a parody on an old Hillbilly song called,
“She’ll be coming around the mountain when she comes”
Coming =cummins (who make American diesel trucks but never for GM)
And Mountain = flat-bed mounted for the wrecker truck
“She’ll be running on Six Cylinders” comes from another line in the song which originally reads, “She’ll be riding six white horses when she comes.”
Oh, and oddly enough I don’t think there ARE any rhymes in the lyrics -rather rare now that I think about it…
Below is a performance of the song.
*There is an old rule that if you have to explain a joke, it wasn’t funny to begin with, so my apologies to all.
I think most English speakers are very familiar with that song – the tune is often used with changed lyrics by football fans, for example 1980s teams playing Celtic (some of whose fans sang or chanted in support of the IRA) singing “Could you go a chicken supper Bobby Sands?” in reference to a hunger striker. (Chicken supper means chicken and chips from the chip shop)
I just wasn’t aware that you were dead set on that song as the basis for your oil burner ballad.
PS. Southern Hick Culture can trace a direct line to Northern Ireland, and thence to Scotland, so it isn’t as strictly provincial as all that.
I remember learning that song in primary school, in 1960s Australia!
Mind you, we also learnt “Hava Nagila” in Hebrew, and “The Carnival Is Over” in Russian, so I think there was an ethnic/folk song thing going on in the curriculum.
Funny, and I got the references.
I get a weekly email from Hemmings with their new Eldorado ads. Seems like 75% of this vintage are Biarritz trim (SS/pimp-pad roof and thick spear moldings, tufted seats), which I think was about $2k, quite a bit at the time. Very few bare metal tops and zero full vinyl (not counting real or fake convertible ones). Apparently, the extra expense meant they were more likely to be pampered.
What, no comment about the lights from Daniel yet? 🙂
Looks like large reflectors superglued over the standard lights, and side indicator repeaters from some European (or Japanese car) repurposed as indicators, mounted over a hole in the original lens (slightly crooked though)? Not exactly the most elegant of solutions, and I’d be surprised if it was legal – tiny area of indicator, weatherproofing of holes, etc. Score points for imaginative use of junkyard parts though.
See above. 🤓
The ‘E’ body 1979-85 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz is an outstanding simply classic design that can be traced to GM designer Bill Mitchell,
I would take one in black with a red interior. This example, however has seen better days.
They are nevertheless, simply stunningly lovely cars.