In the early 1960s, Cadillac brought some short deck variants to market – known as the Park Avenue. Pictured here is the aftershock – the extended deck Cadillac Sedan DeVille Long Island Edition.
With optional pagoda hardtop.
Yep, a trick of the camera. Same thing makes this Eldo look particularly short-decked.
The roof comes courtesy of Bela Barenyi’s K-55. It was the inspiration for the pagoda roof treatment on Mercedes-Benz coupes. In its original form, you could pitch a tent and sleep on top.
On the SDV Long Island, the optional pagoda hardtop was used as a structural member for a surface built to accommodate a Bell Jet Ranger.
These 1974 Cadillacs fit nicely into their generation.
The 1971/72 have more sculptural front ends, but this year succeeds where the similarly squared-off 1973 doesn’t in having the turning lights outboard. Even the 1975/76 with their rectangular headlights don’t really let this overall shape down. Cadillac styling definitely sustained during this period where its lesser siblings were getting increasingly overwrought and clunky barrierfied.
In the hardtop body, the SDV outsold the Calais 60,419 to 2,324; but to be honest any of these sedans would suit.
Special mention must go to the Fleetwood 75. These years produced a fender/c-pillar treatment that put all other limousines to shame.
The rear end of these 71-76 sedans is a genuine aesthetic success. That razor-sharp trailing edge undiminished since the 64 crisped up the 63. I love them.
Further Reading
1963 Park Avenue by Dave Skinner
1973 Fleetwood 75 by Paul Niedermeyer
1974 Fleetwood Talisman by Gerardo Solis
1976 Fleetwood Castillian Estate by Jim Grey
Mercedes-Benz K-55 by Don Andreina
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Actually this was the extremely short-lived Pergola Roof option. It was believed in the wake of the energy crisis that a pergola-type roof would cut down on interior temperatures due to the shielding effect from the harsh rays of the sun. Unfortunately nobody tested one in a standard automatic carwash. The result was as bad as you might imagine. This particular car has probably survived in its original form by being hand washed by the first two owners and then never washed again.
My bad. We had that option here as the Veranda, but ours came with corrugated iron topping.
I was 14 when this car came out………………i use to go to the dealers and collect the brochures and sit in the car and dream!!! these cadys are partially responsible for the financial heights i’ve reached today(meant in aspirational values as GOD is responsible for all in my life) Thanks for the memories!!!
I know I shouldn’t ,and it wouldn’t fit life or village, but I quietly hanker for one of these, perhaps that gold hardtop. Though only in private…..
That ’73 Eldo is the twin to mine (except for the steering wheel on the wrong side!) Resale red must have been popular in 1973.
Nice. Here’s another angle of this one, seen in the Melbourne suburb of Hawthorn.
Neat. Looks like they got carried away in pumping up the rear air shocks, and the rear bumper impact strip is buggered like most of them seem to be. I would have thought that most of these would have been US imports, and not converted to right hand drive (presumably) when new? The cost of conversion for such a limited amount of imports must have been complicated and expensive.
General rule with US metal here in oz – if it’s right hand drive it was either CKD or imported and converted at the time. These days you don’t need to swap over for rego so more recent imports have stayed LHD.
Great finds, Don. I’m still trying to figure out what trick of the camera (was there really one? you don’t have to give it away! LOL) you used to make the trunk-end of that Eldorado look so short. Maybe my eyes are just playing tricks on me.
From doing a GIS of the ’73 Eldo, it seems like its’ rear overhang is relatively short for what it is to begin with, “relatively” being the operative word – it looks stubby in Don’s pic while the Subaru Crosstrek next to it’s much shorter rear overhang just doesn’t. The difference is one of *intentionality*.
It also seems like a camera angle that looks slightly down on the car to include part of the horizontal surface of the trunk lid accentuates this, something they were careful not to do in official Cadillac brochure shots.
Happens to the edge of frame.
I’m using a previous gen Sony Xperia phone, which has its limitations. If you divide the lens field into nine equal sections, only the middle sector of the frame stays true and all the others have distortion towards the edges. Explains why the grill shot is so soft at the rear too.
I really like that Eldorado 323ti Sport!
Or, regarding the DeVille…
Does this pic make my butt look big?
Yes.
Yes it does.
I don’t have a JetRanger, only a smaller Hughes that I won in a poker game with the producers of the original Magnum P.I. (Has lots of bullet holes in it)
So, the large pallet on the roof of my Fiat 1500 will suffice. And lots of orange duct tape (that I removed from a Galant recently) holds it in place.
Eldo ti… hehehe. Fiat 1500/1800 holds a place in my heart. My uncle had one in Rome, that was unfortunately stolen. My favourite Galant…
Fun article Don, thank you! Seeing images of early 70s Sedan de Villes bring back memories of a interesting experience as a little kid. My parents had recently retired and moved to a home not far from several lakes that featured various cottages where upper middle income city dwellers (and their kids) would often spend summer weekends or vacations. Very late one hot, humid summer evening I was downstairs talking with my brother on the porch enjoying the cooling night air and dead silence of the night, except for the crickets. When we heard what sounded like a freight train approaching from the blackness on a nearby gravel road.
There was a streetlight on the corner near our home, and it was the only streetlight in the area for miles around. So, as this large car/truck approached, I’d get a good view of what it was as it passed under the glow of the light. The vehicle slowed as it came under the brightness. It then proceeded to do a number of donuts in the middle of the road! Surprisingly, it wasn’t a Mustang or Camaro doing the donuts, but a several year old early 70s Sedan de Ville! And it fishtailed the entire time. lol I was pretty stunned, while also laughing out loud at this bizarre scene. It happened again about two weeks later that summer, and I never saw that Cadillac again. It must have been quite a handful for the party animal behind the wheel.
hehehehehehe nice moment