When Jon Sandahl called me up and said, “Hey, you should probably come over here and take a look at this thing,” in reference to a 1949 Cadillac coupe, I was a little confused but hey, going to look at cool stuff sure beats staring at the walls, so I bee-bopped over to his shop and was met by the stately Cadillac. At first, second, and even third glance, the car appears to be a very nicely restored and completely stock piece. The interior is stock with an AM radio converted to FM that you’d never know by looking at it, a bench seat that is upholstered in the same style of fabric used back then, and steel doors that close like they’re sealing up an old refrigerator. Things only get mildly more interesting when the key is rolled over and even then it isn’t anything that would arouse suspicion from anyone. Yeah, the car has a little rumble but it doesn’t sound like much more than maybe a set of mufflers. Hell, even the most cogent gearhead would probably just take a guess and think that the car had a small block Chevy with a little camshaft in it swapped under the hood. Boy, would that guy be wrong and humiliated on the street!
This 1949 Cadillac, absolutely defines the term “Q-Ship”. Powered by a Vortech blown, 500ci Cadillac engine and backed by a 700R4 transmission, it is capable of roiling those wide whitewalls from a roll and running with some really hardcore stuff. I took a very quick trip in the car riding as passenger after Jon and John at Tube Chassis Designz installed the new Vortech blower (they replaced another one, which we’ll talk about later) and it was one of the most hilarious things I have ever done. At one moment you are floating down the road like people wanted to do in 1949. The car is like a Sherman tank inside. Despite weighing 3,700lbs or so, it looks and feels way heavier. When you are on the road, there is lots of steel on all sides of you and the car just has this nice street roddy burble to it. The second the pedal goes down though? Sweet mother of mercy! The massive low end power of the Cadillac engine, augmented by the supercharger makes for a BRUTALLY fast car. Jon and I both guess the thing would run 11s on the drag strip, given some traction. I could not stop laughing for the few miles we cruised the car to check out the blower because the whole thing is so awesomely ridiculous. It is honestly one of the coolest cars I have ever been in.
The owner is a private guy and we agreed to keep his name out of it. If you are serious about wanting to make an offer on this car, shoot me an email and I will pass it ahead. [email protected]
Now that you have a little of the background, I’m going to tell you the rest of the story through photos and captions!
Of all the messages that this car sends, “Bad ass fast” is not one of them. One of the most completely perfect sleepers we have ever seen.
The shape and size of this car made me believe it was very, very heavy but according to Jon and John, it only tips the scales at about 3,700lbs. If Detroit built something similar today it would be about a 5,500lb behemoth.
One of the most appealing things about the car is the “fastback” style roof that falls gracefully away. The “fins” were largely vestigial here in 1949, but over the next 19 years they would grow to epic proportions.
When you think of a 1959 Cadillac you think of fins. This? Barely a bump in the road as compared to those ones!
The thing we love most about the car is the fact that it is still 100% a Cadillac. The luxury, the floaty suspension, the chrome, and the stainless, are all still here.
What the…WHAT?! Yes, that is an aluminum headed, Vortec blown, 500+ ci Cadillac engine making who knows how much horsepower. We don’t have a number but we will tell you that it is plenty for having fun with!
We love how the guys plumbed the factory air cleaner into the system. We’ll show you how they did that down the page.
Of course there is AC…this is a flipping Cadillac!
Like I said about the interior, all factory fresh. Yes, there’s a little tach on the steering column but other than that there is nothing else happening. No digital gauges, no switches or buttons, nothing.
The steering wheel and the dash are really beautiful. Today dashes are just gauge pods but back in the late 1940s, this was a styling exercise.
Both the perfect tires and hubcaps for the car and the perfect tires and hubcaps to lure in unsuspecting victims. The first time a guy in a new Camaro gets spanked by something with this rubber on it, he’ll cry himself to sleep for a month.
The big nose on this car is fantastic. From the chrome V on the hood to the bottom of the bumper, it is all class.
Proportionally, the car is beautiful and the rake the stylists gave the windshield looks fantastic and flows right back into the fastback roof. Changing any element of this car would not be for the better on the styling side.
The black paint is pretty much flawless as well.
Here’s another look at the interior and how it is laid out. Factory fresh, minus the tach. Eagle eyes readers may also call out the steering column.
Back in the day you needed this wheel to muscle the car around, now it just looks really nice and really expensive. HA!
This radio is the factory AM unit converted to FM. You’d never know.
That’s the mark of luxury right there. The AC setup looks awesome. Jon had to relocate it to make some more room in the pedal operation area to make driving the car more comfortable.
With the hood down there’s no way of knowing anything of this thing’s deep and dark horsepower laden secret.
From an era when styling trumped everything. Over aero, over fuel mileage, and over the concerns of a practical person. If it looked good, they could sell it.
Laying out the blower and plumbing it, Jon got the idea of adding the feed tube to the back of the air cleaner.
Here’s the boost maker itself, the Vortech V-2 Ti blower.
Plenty of packaging issues but height isn’t one of them.
So if you are wondering how this works, the blower feeds the boost into the back of the old air cleaner housing.
Here’s a more complete look at the setup. Sandahl welded plates over where the factory inlets would normally be funneling air to seal the container and then added “elbow” to the housing so it would meet up with the rest of the charge pipe.
Here you can barely see one of the openings weelded shut.
You have to admit, this whole thing looks pretty boss, right?
They are going to do some work on the blowoff valve as they continue to finish off the car with respect to its location and plumbing.
So there you have it, a Cadillac with the heart of a drag car and the looks of a museum restored American classic. What’s freaking cooler than that?!
We wish the owner would sneak it onto the track at least once to bear out some performance data. The car is lightning fast with an over drive transmission, mildly geared Ford 9″ rear end and all the comforts of home inside!
Talk about a study in contrast, the 1949 with its blown Cadillac engine and a 2014 Cadillac ELR which is the $80,000 electric hybrid car that Cadillac is now selling as a gussied up version of the Chevy Volt. Two ends of the same spectrum though, right?
This thing would vapourise the guy in the Camaro and his shitty car!
The only thing missing from the pictures is the mobile oil field that the owner would need to keep it running – but what a heart breakingly trouser-twitching beauty!
Bentley stole the design of this to produce the Continental – I’d love to see a similar treatment but with TurboR running gear!
That is one sweet Cadillac.
I think that it’s called a Sedanette –
That car defines “Slick Black Cadillac” to a T.
Perfect in every way . This car is one that transcends brand loyalty , and no LS motor !!!!!!
Beauty of a car; not too nice for a cruise to the show, but I wouldn’t make a pass in it. Does it even have seat belts?
Besides the safety issues, it would be tragic to crumple this thing.
I’d love to see this beast blow by one of Cattlecrap’s new EuroSnob wanna be V’s like the pos was standing still !
Now THAT .. would be YouTube worthy ! As well as a bit of poetic justice to boot
Cadillac . Once back in the day THE gold standard for all luxury cars … now having morphed into over priced re-badged Chevy’s OPEL’s and Holden’s with the pretense of being a Cadillac
Thank goodness for madness such as this to remind us all of what Cadillac once was … and could still be [ America’s Hot Rod Luxury Car ] but for the idiots running the show at GM ever since the 70’s
As for the abject and pathetic joke known as the Cattlecrap ELR ? Now why did you have to go ruining a perfectly good article/photo shoot by including that worthless pile of crap in the frame ?
Eeesh 😉
700R4 should get reasonable gas mileage on highway