Rounding out a couple of days looking at Cadillac Coupe de Villes is this 1978 model which appears with number plates suggesting that it was registered before August 1976. Cadillac was born out of the Henry Ford Company on August 22nd, 1902, when mechanic & entrepreneur Henry M. Leland put forward to the investors in the company that continued manufacture was a more profitable than factory liquidation.
In 1977 the Coupe de Ville was downsized 9.8 inches saving 750 lbs in weight over its immediate ancestor, the new package was powered by a 7 litre 425 cui V8.
Leland named the new company Cadillac after his ancestor Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac the founder of Detroit. General Motors acquired Cadillac in 1909. Cadillac appears to have been responsible for setting the V8 as the standard configuration in the US Motor Industry.
This particular model can be identified as a 1978 version by the small vertical tail light insets a feature that would remain with the de Ville until 1999.
Cadillac was twice awarded the Dewar Trophy by the Royal Automobile Club (RAC) in England for advancement of the automobile industry first in 1909 for developing models with full parts interchangeability in 1908, and again in 1913 for developing the electric starter (thank heavens, that saved an a lot of sweat and probably a few broken arms) and electric lights (hallelujhah, imagine if we were all still driving around by naked flame candle light or propane powered lights ?). These successes led to Cadillac adopting the strap line "Standard of the World".
Slightly off topic, after an amazing Cup race in Texas, kudos to Dangerous Denny Hamlin, there are still three guys in with a chance to win it all, I am glad Happy Harvick managed to pull a 6th place out of the bag, before the last pit stops it looked like he would be lucky to finish in the top 20. It's looking like the only way to keep his championship hopes alive will be two straight win's. I hope Happy over turns the record books and pulls them off, should be a little easier after the #48 pit crew was benched mid race by the Evil Genius Knaus in favour of the #24 crew when they became available.
Hope you enjoyed your visit, thanks for dropping by, wishing every one a mellow Monday, don't forget to come back now !
