Hi All. I hope you enjoy this latest video on the 1974 Cadillac Eldorado. Please give it a 👍 Like and be sure to comment and subscribe. Is 8.2 litres too much? I don’t think so.

Wakey wakey!! this is the 1974 model we drove in 1992 from that dealer Peter in Brighton, this is the very car Mark. I'll never forget when he saw us looking really early in the morning, as he lived in the side street directly on other side of side street to his dealership & in his dressing gown & slippers unlocked the office, grabbed the keys, got the car out, locked up the dealership with you & I sitting in the car whilst it idled on hard choke warming up . Then he climbed back in , put the roof down to show that it worked properly, rolled slowly along the service road on the northern side of Nepean Hwy, Brighton, then seeing a break in the traffic, MASHED the accelerator pedal doing a dual front wheel burnout across 4 lanes of traffic to get to the right turn bay so we could take it for a leisurely drive along the Port Phillip bay waterfront on bay road. What's more, he did it with casual aplomb as if he were taking a sip from a cup of coffee, not hustling a 2 ton 19foot car at speed across main road busy peak hour traffic whilst still dressed in his pyjamas, dressing gown & slippers. This is that very car Mark, Arnold Glass's next car after his 1971 Cambridge red Fleetwood Brougham.

@markbehr88

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Hi Greg. I am awake thanks! I thought this may indeed be that car but I don’t recall those modified front indicators and I thought that interior was red leather? I have a photo somewhere and remember that day. The car was $39,990 and for the same price he had a 1963 Corvette split window - red with red interior. At the time I would have loved both. Imagine what the Corvette is worth now? At least three times as much. The Cadillac is probably worth the same $39,990.

@gregharvie3896

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@@markbehr88 the blinkers are the giveaway, as they had made/cast a replacement for the clear factory ones. As the converter has fitted halogen headlights with little parking lights in the outer headlights, same as with my blackone , until I re-fitted sealed beams & plugged the connectors back into the inline factory caballing sockets, even all the correct sealed beam plugs were still in mine. Amazing that they were not just cut off when someone swapped it to pesky halogens as they were poorly earthed & gave issues of not wanting to illuminate, having to get out, open the bonnet & poke at the connector & then they would come on .

They are magnificent machines and irreplaceable automotive time-capsules of American excess in the 1970s. I mean, really, how many acres of sheetmetal do you need to qualify as opulent? I think GM’s ability to design a transmission that could transfer 8.2 litres of V8 to the front tyres with such effortless and silent smoothness showed remarkable engineering talent!

@markbehr88

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Couldn’t agree more Mark. What a cool device!

Oh wow! And front wheel drive too!! If someone else out there told me it was front wheel drive I would have laughed at them! wow!

@markbehr88

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Thanks Ivano. The basic design was debuted on the 1966 Oldsmobile Toronado. They don’t have torque steer either and I love the flat floor. No transmission hump.

@icascone

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@@markbehr88 Yes the flat floor would be weird in any car almost lol

@markbehr88

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@@icascone pretty cool though room wise or if you want to slide across the bench seat or have to sit in the middle.

Great video. Love the American's attempt of a front wheel drive vehicle - BIG AND A V8 !! This is what I adore about American automobile technology and mentality back in the day - NO other country did this lol. Never mind the puny little grocery-getter, economy achieving front wheel drive car, no, we will take this initiative and use it on our full size cars. Love it. As for the 8.2 liter capacity? They were Cadillac - The Flagship of America...even for advertising copy and nothing else, they HAD to have the largest cubes lol... Also, I like how the U.S chose NOT to take the East West approach with how the V8 sat between its rails. Nice that the turbo 400 was retained and the 90 degree offset-bellhousing was used for the front axle take offs. At least this design had the V8 still "looking traditionally normal" inside the engine bay, reflecting no bolt-on accessory side effects...(ie: bad example, but a distributor directly behind a radiator, and all hoses re-plumbed etc). Again, great review Mark & finding this car. Regards Fletch 👍

@markbehr88

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Thanks Fletch. Spot on. When Oldsmobile released the Toronado in 1966 (I have one of these and will put on the channel one day) the French (who were very familiar with front wheel drive since the 1930’s) said - the car is too big and too powerful (385 HP) to work - Wrong! Oldsmobile did a fine job and I can say, first hand, it is great to drive. A cross between traditional American luxury and a Corvette.

FWD wow with an 8.2 litre I bet it had some torque!

@markbehr88

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They can smoke the front tyres but it is not recommended for the CV joints. 😀