Located in Sidney, Montana, this fine display makes for a great advertisement for the body shop behind it and made us stop to take a look last week while heading home.
Neither car looked in bad condition but both were lacking drivetrains, no doubt to remove a lot of weight for the display. In their day, these must both have been fantastic roadtrip vehicles, aside from their prodigious thirst, of course.
Resembles head-on collision of 2 locomotives?, e.g.:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ioyl85MgFEA (@ 5:18)
Better fate than Donk at least!
I disagree so very much. At least donk owners are enjoying their cars! This is just a static installation, left out in the elements.
+1. The donk/hi-riser/whathaveyou trend has been responsible for a remarkable number of 70’s and 80’s full-size cruisers staying on the road that would have likely ended up long since scrapped by now. Even if that’s not what I’d do, they’re still fun to see. Besides, candy paint and big rims are reversible…
This, in a nutshell. +1
+1 Thank you (both) for saying it so I didn’t have three-peat myself. (Whoops, just did 😉 )
Another +1. You can always de-donk a car if you’re not a fan; getting these back on the road is going to be a lot harder.
If these were Montana cars, I’m guessing that the bodies were in a far better condition than most of us would have here in the rust belt. I wish that they could have found a caring home before this happened.
De-donking a car is like restoring one that has been burned. These idiots hack fenders & quarters with tin snips to fit their rented Clown Rimz. I’d rather see these cars as advertised than molested Donk style.
I like seeing clever signs like this and I think you would call this art. Looks like they are cabled and bolted to the metal pole.
Gas was still cheap at the time the Coupe de Ville was new (1970 if I’m remembering the tail light configuration correctly – 1969 if I’m not).
I can attest to the virtues of their road trip capabilities. My dad had a 1967 Cadillac and cruising on the Interstate was its true raison d’être. ‘de Ville’ was a misnomer. The car was truly meant for the ouvrir la route (open road).
Touché! Thinking about it, the idea of town cars today means compacts like the xB, 500, & Mini; making a Grand Arrival at the Music Center, wearing tux & furs (as depicted in old ads) is passé.
Gasoline prices now are about where they were around 1970 if you take inflation into account. These Cadillacs probably did not burn much more fuel than a v8 powered full size Chevrolet.
That’s awesome. Better to have these beauts preserved as the ultimate 3-D sign than derbied. You could always put them back together one day, so long as they don’t get too weathered. The one on the left looks like a ’76 Ninety Eight LS that I drove for a while- it was butterscotch tan with a black top. It has seen two owners since- one has become a good friend over the years. Last I checked, the car was shipped over to Germany, a long way from where I found it lounging on a used car lot in south Tacoma.
Chicago’s Car Spindle – prior to 2008 dismantling.
Nice Legend!
Thanks! It’s mine. 1988 Acura Legend Sedan, been in the family since new.
Nice! (I want that Capri!)
Cool art installation, but I cringe a little at the loss of that Capri- at least it died for a good cause!
Orrin may have a different take, but I am just happy to say that no Mopars were harmed in the making of this sign. 🙂
Hopefully the drive trains were put to good use in others!
Cool post! Even though the baby-blue DeVille is a Cadillac, I am feeling that yellow Ninety-Eight just a but more…why is that?? I’m thinking maybe because it’s just that much more uncommon. I always thought these Ninety-Eights (especially the coupes) had such graceful lines despite their mammoth proportions.
Ooohh… I’ll take that Ninety-Eight. I wonder if they have one that’s not shop-soiled.
Talk about the strangest example of the preCC effect I saw this story earlier today. http://www.wptz.com/news/driver-following-gps-drives-car-up-utility-pole-guide-wire/40932970 which reminded me of finding a car sitting like that near my elementary school when I was a little kid.
In Jacksonville Il. the Ford dealer has a row of pickups vertically buried (nose up) in the ground at progressive heights next to his lot. (I don’t know why) As far as the price of gas I just used the inflation calculator to compare todays $2.25 a gallon to the $ .30 it was in 66 when I worked at a gas station. Equivalent price. The $1.35 minimum wage I made is a different story.
Make the right side car Avocado green and a four door, and it would be a pretty good recreation of when my dad ran his ’69 Caddy into a telephone pole, knocking out the power to a pretty large section of town, and tossing the rods out of the engine when the stuck throttle killed the engine. He came out of it, even with no seatbelt, with a few loose teeth and a broken nose.