8-ton
10-25-03, 01:52 PM
Hello all. I joined up here at CF because I was reading over the 'History' section of the site and saw a few misstatements I felt compelled to clarify. Here they are:
>>"The new "pillar less" Coupe Deville was introduced in 1949. It was a 2 door convertible hardtop..."<<
Clarification: Although this bodystyle was called a "convertible hardtop", there was no aspect of a traditional convertible involved... in other words, the roof was permanently fixed. The term was sourced from the idea that a hardtop bore a resemblence to a convertible with the roof up (no B-pillar).
>>"The new exclusive "Sedan DeVille" joined the Coupe Deville in 1954."<<
Correction: although there was a single "Sedan deVille" built in '54, it was an 'unoffical' model (probably built for a company exec's wife or something). It also was NOT a hardtop- which is what the 'deVille' moniker signifies. There was no SdV in '55. It was '56 that the SdV appeared officially as a 4-dr hardtop (41,xxx units produced).
>>"In 1965, Cadillac for the most part dropped the "Series" designation."<<
Clarification: In '64 the only models that used their Series designations in their 'public ID' (that is; as either/or actual nameplates on the body or identified in sales publications or advertising) were the Series 62 & the Series 60 Special Fleetwood. deVilles (Series 63), Eldorados (also Series 63) and Fleetwood 75s (Series 75) did not use 'Series' designations.
In '65 the Series 62 became the Calais and the S60S Fleetwood became the Fleetwood Sixty Special.
I guess my objection is that IMO "for the most part" implies that the majority of models used 'Series' nameplates prior to '65 and some continued to after '64.
>>"...this was the last year {1965} the term 'Fleetwood' was associated with 'Eldorado.'"<<
Correction: the Eldorado was always promoted as the 'Fleetwood Eldorado' with the '67 rebody, and continued to be billed so in advertisments in '68, & '69. In '70 it was dropped from advertising IDs, but in the '70 sales brochure it's still billed as the 'Fleetwood Eldorado'. Without further research, I believe 'Fleetwood Eldorado' continued to circa '75 'officially'.
>>"1940 - Cadillac introduces the first fully automatic transmission: The Hydra-Matic transmission."<<
Correction: While Cadillac indeed did all the developmental & engineering work on the HydraMatic (beginning in 1932), they handed over running prototypes to Olds for field testing. It was Olds the introduced the HM in 1940, Cadillac followed in 1941.
>>"1957 - The Eldorado Brougham introduced... forged aluminum wheels..."<<
Correction: The wheel in question is the Sabre Spoke, produced for Cadillac by Kelsey-Hayes and was the industry's first styled wheel. But it first appeared as an option on the '55 Eldorado. Indeed, many factory pics of '55 Cadillacs show the Sabre Spoke on non-Eldorados (not sure if it was actually available on non-Eldos).
That's it for now. Interesting site- I'll be sticking around, as long as there's a decent quantity of vintage info. Later!
>>"The new "pillar less" Coupe Deville was introduced in 1949. It was a 2 door convertible hardtop..."<<
Clarification: Although this bodystyle was called a "convertible hardtop", there was no aspect of a traditional convertible involved... in other words, the roof was permanently fixed. The term was sourced from the idea that a hardtop bore a resemblence to a convertible with the roof up (no B-pillar).
>>"The new exclusive "Sedan DeVille" joined the Coupe Deville in 1954."<<
Correction: although there was a single "Sedan deVille" built in '54, it was an 'unoffical' model (probably built for a company exec's wife or something). It also was NOT a hardtop- which is what the 'deVille' moniker signifies. There was no SdV in '55. It was '56 that the SdV appeared officially as a 4-dr hardtop (41,xxx units produced).
>>"In 1965, Cadillac for the most part dropped the "Series" designation."<<
Clarification: In '64 the only models that used their Series designations in their 'public ID' (that is; as either/or actual nameplates on the body or identified in sales publications or advertising) were the Series 62 & the Series 60 Special Fleetwood. deVilles (Series 63), Eldorados (also Series 63) and Fleetwood 75s (Series 75) did not use 'Series' designations.
In '65 the Series 62 became the Calais and the S60S Fleetwood became the Fleetwood Sixty Special.
I guess my objection is that IMO "for the most part" implies that the majority of models used 'Series' nameplates prior to '65 and some continued to after '64.
>>"...this was the last year {1965} the term 'Fleetwood' was associated with 'Eldorado.'"<<
Correction: the Eldorado was always promoted as the 'Fleetwood Eldorado' with the '67 rebody, and continued to be billed so in advertisments in '68, & '69. In '70 it was dropped from advertising IDs, but in the '70 sales brochure it's still billed as the 'Fleetwood Eldorado'. Without further research, I believe 'Fleetwood Eldorado' continued to circa '75 'officially'.
>>"1940 - Cadillac introduces the first fully automatic transmission: The Hydra-Matic transmission."<<
Correction: While Cadillac indeed did all the developmental & engineering work on the HydraMatic (beginning in 1932), they handed over running prototypes to Olds for field testing. It was Olds the introduced the HM in 1940, Cadillac followed in 1941.
>>"1957 - The Eldorado Brougham introduced... forged aluminum wheels..."<<
Correction: The wheel in question is the Sabre Spoke, produced for Cadillac by Kelsey-Hayes and was the industry's first styled wheel. But it first appeared as an option on the '55 Eldorado. Indeed, many factory pics of '55 Cadillacs show the Sabre Spoke on non-Eldorados (not sure if it was actually available on non-Eldos).
That's it for now. Interesting site- I'll be sticking around, as long as there's a decent quantity of vintage info. Later!