(Submitted by Peter Jenkins) I am a new contributor, from Auckland, New Zealand. This is my 1981 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham D’Elegance, which is much like other Cadillacs of this era on here, except for one aspect which you will soon notice in the pics – it is right hand drive! And one more difference: it just happens to have a blueprinted, ported and polished 500 cubic inch V8 under its hood. It’s quite not your typical ’81 Cadillac.
At the time I bought this car, in 1995, RHD was a major consideration, as it was going to be my daily driver/ only car. Being right hand drive meant that insuring it cost $600 per year instead of many thousands had it been LHD. This cost difference has largely disappeared over the years, especially for classics, but it is still nice to have the steering on the “right” side.
The Cadillac has quite an interesting history – it comes from Hong Kong originally, and was assembled there apparently from a CKD kit, the right hand drive conversion being done during assembly. The dealer I bought it from here in Christchurch told me GM had a small plant there doing assembly and conversion for the Asian RHD markets up until the mid 80’s. I would imagine that this was probably little more than just a warehouse / shed behind a local dealer.
The conversion has been done quite well, using aviation derived components apparently and the steering etc is still precise after all these years. The only flaw is that the idiot lights along the strip on top of the dash were never moved over, not a major problem for me as I opted to have gauges installed anyway.
When I got the Caddy it had about 28K miles on it, but the motor in it was the L62 V8-6-4 variable displacement 368 introduced in 1981 as something of an experimental motor. .. and unfortunately it was not a good motor. The variable displacement system had already been disconnected, so I never got to experience all the issues with that. However it was using a lot of oil, and then stripped the timing gear within a couple of years of me buying it, and it wasn’t going to be worth fixing so I told the mechanic to see what else would fit.
He had two engines, both which would need a rebuild, a 425, and a 500 cubic inch from an early 70’s Coupe De Ville. I told him if the 500 fit, put it in. It did fit, and he rebuilt it. During the rebuild, he called me asking if I wanted it bored out, blueprinted, ports polished etc.. I figured that while it was apart, might as well, so I said yes each time.
As a result of that, and having no smog gear, it really gets up and goes! I have never had it up on a dyno, but suspect its good for at least a couple of hundred hp. It’s given a few local “rice rockets” an unexpected surprise at the lights….
Handling was much better than I had been led to expect – on my first long trip back to Auckland, I found myself able to keep up with a VW Golf GTI, to my surprise; mind you I expect they were not pushing it to its limits as I was!
Mine seems to have had most of the options specified by the original Hong Kong owner (a barrister according to the dealer that sold me the car). Being the d’Elegance it probably had them as part of the package. Apparently there was a choice of leather or velour cloth. Mine has the leather, although I would have preferred cloth – beggars cant be choosers, and out here in NZ when it comes to US cars we are beggars!
It only really ceased to be my daily driver in about 2003 or so when I bought a small Japanese wagon. That said, I had always cycled to work anyway, so the gas mileage was never a great concern. I have had it garaged or at least under cover pretty much consistently since around 1996, so the paint is still original, bar a minor accident repair in 2000 or so.
I love it! Have driven some very similar caddies, but never one in “good” condition like that one.
Wow, A 500, I’d have been thrilled with an ’80-’89 with the 425! The dash of the ’77-’92 Full sizers does allow a “natural” enough looking RHD conversion, while I too would rather have cloth, the leather works for me on these! Nice Car indeed!
Very nice looking car. Did the performance work on the 500 V8 effect the sound levels inside the car? I would have worried about that. Cadillac bent over backwards to make these quiet, an engine in a mild state of tune was a part of that.
It is great that a few of these get out in the world as they get older. I believe most people should buy domestic when buying new, for national wealth preservation, but on older cars, everything should go everywhere.
The performance work had no impact on interior noise levels from memory. I wouldnt have minded a little more rumble actually
Fantastic ride Peter.
Cool car, one of the mechanics where my brother worked had a 472 Coupe deville a 74 that had been breathed on quite fast in a straight line but very wallowy trying to turn it was quiet to ride in but needed suspension work.
Excellent article! I recalled seeing those right-hooker Cadillacs when I visited Australia in 1987 for the first time. I was like: I gotta have one of those cool RHD Cadillacs!
I am surprised to see the parking brake pedal next to throttle pedal. Lot of conversion work I have seen used the T-handle sourced from Japanese pick-up trucks. The taillamps are sourced from export version of Cadillac rather than making a mould of lense and cutting the red out to be filled in with amber plastic as many local conversion companies in Australia often did in the 1980s.
The quality of conversion work is excellent. I saw some dashboards that looked shoddy and didn’t seem to line up right. The technique before 3D scanning and printing with CAD was to make moulds of different components then cut the dashboard to be swapped around and used the moulds to fill in the gaps. Sometimes the colour didn’t match right. Symmetrical dashboard is obviously preferable to asymmetrical ones.
Anyway, I am curious about Hong Kong…
Did General Motors use the similar process in Hong Kong that Ford Australia and Tickford did with SN95 Mustang? Shipping the US version to be stripped apart and converted to right-hand-drive as well as modified to meet the local regulations? Who built the RHD dashboard and ancillary parts?
A case in point: during the late 1970s and entire 1980s, General Motors contracted a small company in Ohio to carry out the modification work on vehicles destined for European market. It was ‘cheaper’ and more ‘effective’ this way.
I would suspect that CKD kits were supplied with export lighting by default.
Earlier on when GM was building factory B- and C-bodies the RHD dashboard was based on the Chevy dash from the first year of a new body so that, for example, a ’64 Buick would have a ’61 Chevy dash.
CKD stands for “completely knocked down”, and usually means that the chassis, all panels and parts are shipped in crates for local assembly, although I think that for smaller operations that did not have body assembly facilities the complete bare body may be shipped. Again depending on the local supplier infrastructure some parts may be sourced locally, from trim to suspension or electrical components and more.
I love a car like this, a car that’s been modded/upgraded by using “factory” parts. Here in the ‘states many folks would have pulled that tired V8-6-4 and replaced it with a Chevy V8….for no other reason than it’s cheap power.
Beautiful, stately Cadillac, Peter. My favorite elements are the subtle changes from the US model – front turn signals and amber rear turn signals. Very cool. I remember watching ’86 G-body Buick Regals and Olds Cutlasses being built during a factory tour, and the ones headed for Europe (which by itself was fascinating to me) also had slight differences from the cars I was used to seeing. The RHD just solidifies the cool factor.
That’s a sweet looking car ! .
Nicely done RHD conversion too ~ as mentioned some were just awful .
FWIW , the original owner obviously never took any sort of care of it as my 1980 Fleetwood Hearse with the same 368 V-8 engine and *much* more weight , still gets up and goes very well indeed and it has 130,000 miles on it .
The stupid 4/6/8 fuel management system was the bugger in those cars , mine luckily missed having it by one model year .
All that being said , the cleaning up of the cylinder heads was smart , that’s always going to give you your best bang for the buck .
500 C.I. helps a lot too ! .
-Nate
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73xMOzVYU9o
425 or 500?
Couldn’t tell ya.
500, that’s the one you want.
Even the pre-strangled 472 had plenty of poke, so that 500 is icing on the cake. It was also used in Reagan’s armored Prez. limo of the same vintage.
What a handsome car! This is what a Caddy should be. Bravo!
What a cool ride! This is what I think of when someone mentions “Cadillac”, not a BMW-competitor, but times have changed.
Good job on keeping this car and upgrading the engine. Please keep the chrome well-polished!
Cool sleeper, as we call them over here. I admit no knowledge at all about RHD conversions–how did they deal with the steering linkage? Did they relocate the steering box to the right side?
Jakengle,
Under the comment section in other Curbside Classic article, I described briefly how right-hand-drive conversion is done. Some additional information was also contributed by others as well.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/curbside-classic-1977-79-lincoln-continental-mark-v-a-formative-influence/
Please scroll down to OliverTwist’s comment for the answer to your question.
Really nice car. Having lived in Hong Kong, I can say that Caddys were and are extremely rare there. They would certainly stand out among the Mercs and BMWs there. The most notable person who rode in one (didn’t drive it herself) was Lydia Dunn, an Anglophile local Chinese who was appointed to several government posts in the colonial era. She had a white Brougham of that vintage.
Awesome article! I’ve never seen a Right-Hand Drive Cadillac before. Different. 🙂
Oh yes this must be the only one in the Western world. You could only get RHD 97-01 Seville’s in the UK. LHD is legal over here with a little insurance loading for daily driving.Some East European countries have made RHD ilegal.
Mark,
Nope, many Cadillac have been brought to Australia and New Zealand with most already converted to right-hand-drive by local cottage industry.
See the classified ads:
http://www.autotrader.com.au/search?&search_vehicle_type=CAR&search_type_make=CADILLAC&search_details_earliest_year=1970&search_details_latest_year=1990&keywords=What+are+you+looking+for%3F&sort=Latest%20year¤t_page=2
There’s a Cadillac Deville flower car!
http://www.autotrader.com.au/cars-for-sale/1974-CADILLAC-FLEETWOOD-BROUGHAM-SEDAN-JCW3596321?backurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.autotrader.com.au%2Fsearch%3F%26search_vehicle_type%3DCAR%26search_type_make%3DCADILLAC%26search_details_earliest_year%3D1970%26search_details_latest_year%3D1990%26keywords%3DWhat%2Bare%2Byou%2Blooking%2Bfor%253F%26sort%3DLatest%2520year%26current_page%3D2&backtext=Results
Even the crapomobile front-wheel-drive Deville…
http://www.carpoint.com.au/CarStockGallery.aspx?R=SSE-AD-155485&TabID=3012993&enq=6087179&ad=6094557&gal=6084695&wt=0&ladt=6088703&adpvEnq=6094557&cw=555&ch=370&index=4&show=photos&mode=popup
I better stop here before I get carried away!
Done right, this car is an excellent ambassador for Cadillac. The international pedigree makes this a very interesting example.
Thank you for sharing your fine car with us.
I agree. The only major flaw in my book is where the gear shift is. It’s on the right side of the steering column. If the steering wheel was on the left side of the car, that’d be fine. But on a right-hand drive car, the gear shift should be on the left side of the steering column. The only other thing I’d change is the V-8-6-4 engine. I mean what the hell was Cadillac thinking when they did that engine? I’d also change the gauges. I’ve always hated idiot lights. Who in their right mind would switch from proper gauges to warning lights? That’s wrong!
And you needed those gauges with a half-baked idea like that! Cadillac was probably thinking “CAFE compliance.” Problem is, in typical American fashion, they were apparently obsessed with getting it out the door, instead of getting it right first, thinking they could fix it later.
“I want it now!” ought to be our National Motto.
I noticed the same when driving in Australia.
When I drive the lefr-hooker car, I have my keys in my right hand to unlock (that was before the remote control became common) and my left hand to pull the door open. As I seated myself, I can insert the key in the ignition with my right hand while I close the door with my left hand.
With right-hand-drive car and ignition switch on right side of steering column, it’s more awkward and aggravating. I use the right hand to unlock the door then pull it open. Then I either pull the door shut or insert the key in the ignition switch first. I noticed lot of scratching from keys clattering against the paintwork and door panel.
When there’s RHD with ignition switch on the left side (mirror image), the process is same as in LHD but with hands switched.
Actually I cant say I have ever found the position of the gearshift to be an issue in daily use. Would probably be more of an issue for someone coming from a “normal” LHD Cadillac to this one. I already changed the V-8-6-4 engine – and added the gauges, I’ll put a pic up when I get home
Peter,
That would be great! I noticed the conversion work in Fleetwood Brougham left some aesthetic issues from cutting up the dashboard and swapping the components around, especially the speedometer housing. If you look through the photos in Australian classified ads (see the links in my other comment), you can see the housing didn’t line up right.
If the conversion work was done by the manufacturer or with modern CAD technology, everything would look proper.
Pic as promised – the two gauges are on what was the ashtray. Thats still there, I just dont use it
Going slightly off topic, the comment by Car Nut Seattle got me thinking about the older Japanese taxis and commercial trucks with a column mounted manual transmission lever on the left side of the steering wheel. As an automatic driver in a left hand drive country, this would be so incongruous for me to operate and I would immediately stall the car!
Very nice car! I love the color combo, too – the light blue pinstripping over midnight blue is striking. Don’t think I’ve ever seen a 500 without the huge A/C compressor sitting TDC over the intake manifold. It de-clutters the engine bay nicely without it.
This engine was specifically designed to have the A/C compressor – it was a first for GM since all Cadillacs had A/C standard.
It appears that there is no functioning air conditioning on this conversion?
Very nice, Peter! Drive it in excellent health!
It makes me think of an early 90s Town Car that someone had dropped a 460 V8 into. Total overkill but totally cool.
Between the color, condition and year it must be like photographing a super model, every shot is a magazine cover. The profile in particular is stunning.
I love how the stainless rocker trim makes the dark painted midsection look so lean and narrow. The blunt front end and long hood, tall and airy greenhouse and tapering tail remind me of luxury cars from the 1930s. The designers knew how to get the most out of that long wheelbase. The V864 and D’Elegance emblems add just the right amount of sparkle. Your car makes my yellow ’86 look like a taxi.
Great car and great story. Thanks for sharing.
Dont knock your car – thats actually a very nice colour on yours, and you have obviously looked after it too. Be proud of it, that is a beautiful car you have there
I love the yellow caddy’s from the 70’s and 80’s. I’d take that over the dark blue (but it looks good too).
Beautiful car in a fantastic color, and with a Real (Good) Cadillac Engine. Plus the RHD rarity factor–that car must attract a lot of attention! Very nice indeed.
How was the original 368 tired with such low mileage? Must never have had any service at all as the vast majority of those are still plugging along with 100-200K miles with the cylinder de-activation disabled. It is still a traditional Cadillac motor with the electronics added on after and should gives many miles of good service. Love the color of that car but would hate the fuel mileage with such a huge engine. I always wondered what a FI 368 would be like with a 200R-4 overdrive transmission sitting behind it. Beefed up of course with at least 3.23 or even 3.42 gears out back.
Quite possibly because it did a LOT of sitting idling in Hong Kong traffic, so the engine hours were much higher than the mileage would indicate. It may also have overheated in that tropical climate a few times. I ended up also having to rebuild the TH400 transmission about a year after the motor was done, which would be consistent with that.
Wow – I’ve never seen a RHD Cadillac before – that is so cool! Love the color combination and the rarity of it. Beautiful car- enjoy for many years to come!
The windshield wiper blades are still pointed to the right side of the car from the original left hand drive setup…I would imagine that less area on the right side of the windshield is wiped. I wonder if it affects the RHD driver’s straightaway view of the road during a rain.
There was a guy who owned a second generation Pontiac Trans Am in South Australia some years ago. He wrote about his experience of converting his American car to right-hand-drive and the process of getting a compliance plate.
One of conditions was to add a longer wiper on the passenger side (in left-hand-drive vehicle) as to clear up more windscreen area. It didn’t seem to have any benefit so he reverted to regular length.
It does a bit, wiper coverage is less than optimal, but I rarely drive it in the rain anyway
Gotta love car enthusiasts. We are always surprising one another with our rides. Nice for the passenger when you start the car and they get a brief, unexpected light show from the idiot lights!
Beautiful car! As a general rule, I don’t care for big cars, but I’ll make an exception for this blue Caddy of yours. It reminds me of a Brougham D’Elegance Caddy that I took a few photos of a couple of years ago. This car was Maple Red. I think I like your car even better. (Photos are on the Cohort, and I think Tom Klockau used them for a brief Outtake.)
Welcome to CC Peter! What a nice car, but it is somewhat strange to see it as RHD, seems backwards to me here in Canada (we drive on the right side of the road with the driver’s seat on the left, same as in the U.S.).
However, I am really lusting after the gorgeous red wagon (estate?) in the background of the first pic. What is that?
Holden Commodore. An antipodean will be along shortly to tell you if it’s VY or VZ or got VD or whatever.
Thats a 2001 VX Holden Commodore – thats my other car. Has the 5.7 litre (350ci) LS1 V8 in it, same as the Camaro (and maybe Corvette) of that era. Its more like an orangey maroon metallic close up, and yes it is a nice wagon. The silver thing in the background of the other pic is my boyfriends Vitz (Echo in US markets?), it is not interesting 🙂
I love the Cadillac. A real one.
The wagon’s “Shanghai Mica”, I believe.
Indeed, the Vitz is not interesting. Hah!
Beautiful, classic-style wagon, looking very similar to the Opel Omega B, which unfortunately wasn’t available with a V8 here on the European market (the prototype was as good as ready and even shown in Geneva in 2000 but Opel gave up their production plans).
Oh, and they never made a VD – just in case you were wondering.
Now here is a mod I can approve. This thing must go like snot and yet also be smooth. As much as I like all of the Cadillacs with this body style…which I regard as timeless as the ’68-’09 XJ6/8, they lost something when they stopped being motivated by a cast iron, Cadillac V8
Wow – I learned two new things, that the 500 fits in the downsized Caddy, and that these were converted to RHD in Hong Kong, of all places. Enjoy it!
Very nice….I bet that desmogged, rebuilt 500 cu. in. has more like 350-400 hp than a couple hundred!
I love the compliance mods on this car. It gives it such a dignified air, like a proper diplomat (I guess like a white guy born in Hong Kong). The choice of 500 cu. in. for the necessity mods is really doing this car up right. Keep that boat a-rollin’.
Great car! Nice that the 500 fit.
Wow, the Cad 500 and the THM400. You have solved every real problem with the 1980-92 big Cadillac. Those of us who have lived with the 307-powered versions are very jealous right now. Beautiful car!
jpcavanaugh, you are very correct, Sir. My 307 powered 87 Brougham is very sedate at most times, downright frightening merging onto the highway at other times. Though, it just feels proper for it to be driven gently.
I owned a 1980 Coupe de Ville with the de Elegance package. It had the 368 V8 sans displacement on demand. It was a gorgeous car, and presented well, but the engine was severely underpowered.
I dig the light blue stripes.
Hey Peter, I’m late here, but great to see your car, it looks fantastic! Great colour and as Hlavco says, the light blue stripes are great – they really pop. Thanks for telling us the Caddie’s story.
These “Hong Kong Cadillacs” were in fact converted in batches by an American company in Florida from 1977 – 1992 – name began with “R” – Ridgeton Corporation or a similar name. They did various RHD conversions for diplomatic service abroad, as convention mandates the steering of diplomatic vehicles must correspond to the country of service. They were almost all Fleetwood Broughams (d’Elegance), Fleetwood limousines and 1980 – 85 Seviles, but no Eldorados – there was a brochure in Cantonese showing these RHD cars). Rather than the conventional (in Australia) RHD conversion of moving the steering box to the right side, these H.K. cars use two bevel-drive gearboxes made by Plessey Corporation, (actually aileron drive gears from aircraft!) connected with a cross-shaft & 2 universal joints, with the steering column cut in half and adapted to the respective gearboxes on each side, up under the dash. The warning light strip remained on the left – i.e. not converted. The brake is done in similar fashion, with a cross-shaft operating the linkage on the left, behind the booster. The dashboard “woodgrain” inserts are moulded fibreglass and quite heavy, with a hand-painted “woodgrain” effect applied to them – and very well done. The original Cadillac was built – with export tail lights, export front parking/turn lamps as on this car (which are “E” marked also for Europe) for the Japanese market, including left rule-of-road headlights; the Hong Kong cars were also export-spec – i.e. could run on leaded fuel. (no filler restrictor, no catalytic convertor and the panel beside the fuel gauge does not read “Unleaded Fuel Only” as on U.S. cars) The emissions sticker also notes this. The V-8-6-4 computers had different “export chips” which, with leaded fuel gave some 15hp more than the US versions; with unleaded not being available in Commonwealth countries until 1986, this was also necessary for H.K. cars. Many (probably 25 – 30 including several limousines) of these “Hong Kong Cadillacs” made their way to Australia – especially in the mid 1990s – ahead of H.K. being handed back to China. These were all 1980 – 1992 models, as the 1993-96 “big body” cars were not done in RHD for Hong Kong. (several also made their way to South Africa, N.Z., Singapore & the U.K.).
So you have a rather rare survivor – from a window in time of British Commonwealth rule of Hong Kong (which required RHD), when unleaded petrol was still unavailable, starting from an also-rare export-spec Cadillac specially made for a tiny foreign market in Asia.
They also did Oldsmobile too, back when I was a kid in Hong Kong at the 80s, my family had an Oldsmobile 88 Regal RHD, from the same distributor as the Cadillac, DCH Motor. My dad traded in an early 80s Holden Caprice for that, and in the early 90s replaced it with a Opel Omega.
Could you post up a few pics of the body ID tag on the fire wall and the GM tags on the door on the left door too? I think I have one too and I am having a issue proving it didnt come into nz as a rite hand drive even though its never had any issues with road worthy for 26 years.