Built by specialist company S&S (Hess and Eisenhardt), this 1974 Cadillac Victoria has become a desirable classic to some. Sure, it’s a vehicle primarily used to transport the bodies of the deceased, but Top Gear points out that there’s more to this classic Cadillac than that.
You could argue that this is a collection-worthy Cadillac. On the one hand, this metallic brown Victoria appears to be in impeccable condition, thus portraying the fine craftsmanship of the vehicle. And we’ll give it that, it’s got a vintage antiquity to it that is easy to appreciate.
And on the other hand, theres that beefy 7.3-liter V8 under the hood. It packs plenty of torque, allowing you to make use of all that cargo room for… stuff… Loading it up is made easier thanks to crafty suicide doors and a sliding table arrangement.
There are endless possibilities as to what uses such a vehicle may satisfy, so we’ll open the discussion up to you. What would you do with a Cadillac limo? Use it as a soccer-fan, a work vehicle to transport equipment, something you park in-front of the house to mess with the neighbors? Let us know by commenting below.
Comments
I recall reading serval years ago about a Cadillac dealer that ran an ad with the picture of a Cadillac hearse; the caption was: “Don’t let your first ride in a Cadillac be your last”. Needless to say, Cadillac was not amused….
I currently own a 1987 Cadillac Armbruster-Stageway Formal Limousine, & I must say, These are really nice cars ! The process is slow restoring it, However, Well Worth the wait !
The side loader body style is interesting, the doors open suicide style with no center pillar, lots of engineering required to do that, especially when you consider the size of the vehicle and the size of the openings. The side loader made it possible to load a casket from the curbside instead of the rear, you usually saw them in big city funeral homes where the hearse was more likely to be parked on the curb.
The side loader style survived in the downsized 1977 and up Cadillac Commercial Chassis, it was still available in the early 80’s, but gone after that.
Also, to be a stickler, the 472 in these is a 7.7 not a 7.3.
These cars are very interesting from historical and collectors’ perspective, but, with all respect, I don’t think it makes sense to use this kind of vintage vehicle as an everyday driver now, in 2016.
Let me perform the role of mighty Captain Obvious:
Two key points:
First, they lack any kind of modern safety equipment, such as airbags, body designed with potential crash in mind with crumple zones etc.
Second, these full size vintage cars are real gas guzzlers – their mpg is abysmal by modern standards – with, e.g, 7.3 L V8 with carburetor(s) and 3 speed (or 4 speed, at best) automatic, this should come as no surprise. It’s around 10-11 mpg city and 13-14 mpg highway, people say:
http://forums.cadillaclasalleclub.org/index.php?topic=116424.0
In contrast, modern full size sedans with direct injected V6s are all around 20 mpg city and around 30 mpg highway – around 2 times improvement over these classic units, and modern full size cars are usually faster at the same time.
A lot of progress in 40 years. Good for us.