It is amazing to think that in the 1970s, having a two-door coupe as long as a Chevrolet Suburban was not only a good idea, but a great way to tell everybody who saw you driving down the road one simple sentence: “eff you, I’m rich.” You were either a Cadillac or Lincoln man…I wasn’t there but there isn’t much mention of being an Imperial man anywhere. The goals in life seemed to be simple: make a buttload of cash, retire by 50, dress like J.R. from “Dallas”, and wheel around in either a Lincoln Continental or a Cadillac Eldorado. You proved to the world that you had won the game…by buying a monster engine in a car large enough to be registered by gross tonnage and thirsty enough to earn you “favored customer” status with OPEC nations. Looking at it now, you can understand why Boss Hogg’s car on “The Dukes of Hazzard” was an Eldorado…it was over-the-top, radical overkill, and more than a bit obnoxious.
But was that exactly the right formula for Cadillac? The company has had a strange last thirty-odd years. Front-drive sleds with reliability issues, The Caddy That Zigs, a Corvette semi-twin, hot-rod sports sedans and now, the only one that sells worth a damn is the biggest, most obnoxious one made (the Escalade SUV, which in it’s ESV long wheelbase form, is about as long as the car in the video.) This is Tyler Hoover’s latest acquisition, a 500ci front-driver that drinks more than a private in the barracks on a Friday night and offers the best the 1970s had to offer: a V8 with enormous size and disappointing power numbers, a sumptuous interior that rivals any bordello anywhere in the world in plushness, comfort and shock red color, and enough “I’m better than you” attitude that it’s a miracle that some social justice warrior wanna-be hasn’t tried to tag some kind of moronic slogan across the hood in green spray-paint. Hoover has an interesting view now that he’s driven the biggest and brashest, and honestly, he might be on to something. Check out the video and see if this one guy could possibly save Cadillac.
He’s not wrong !!