Cool Car Chronicles: ’67 Cadillac Eldorado, a “Personal Favorite” of Bill Mitchell
Whenever I looked out over the massive hood of my 1967 Eldorado, it seemed big enough to double as a helicopter landing pad. At 221 inches long, six and a half feet wide, and nearly 4700 pounds, that car was somewhat smaller and lighter than its “full-size” Cadillac stablemates, but for a sports car guy raised on MGs, Corvettes, and Camaros, the Eldo seemed a bit of a soft-riding, lazy-handling tank. On the other hand, its beautifully trimmed, cavernous cabin could comfortably accommodate the starting five of a college basketball team (guards in back) and its top sixth-man sub.
Still, given my life-long love for light, agile, fun-driving cars, what in the world was I doing with such a huge, heavy one?
I owed the decision to General Motors’ Styling Vice President William L. “Bill” Mitchell, who at the time was paying me to write his speeches, along with nasty letters to magazines that dared to criticize his work. He wanted someone “with gasoline in his veins” to be writing his stuff, and I was very fortunate to have been recommended for that role by friend and ace author Karl Ludvigsen.
Karl had been Mitchell’s writer while working for GM years before but couldn’t do it again, when Mitchell reached out, so Karl recommended me. I interviewed, Mitchell agreed, and I started working with him on a semi-regular basis. It provided a great opportunity and good pay for a fledgling freelance auto writer, and I got to know that tough but legendary design leader fairly well. But because he told GM PR he was writing his own stuff, I was bound to secrecy.
The ’67 Eldorado came up during one meeting in Mitchell’s office, when we were discussing his career and the designs of which he was especially proud. He called that Eldorado one of his “personal favorites” and said he liked it better than the Olds Toronado and (Gen 2) Buick Riviera with which it shared its E-body platform and the Toro’s front-wheel-drive architecture. I did some research and fell in love with its movie-star looks. If I could find a nice enough one, I decided, it might be a good car to own. It might even appreciate in value as a future collectible.
I found this like-new, low-miles example in Florida when I was there covering the 1976 Daytona 24-Hour sports car enduro, bought it, and drove it home to Michigan. As expected, the Cadillac was no sports car but it was quiet, comfortable, and surprisingly pleasing on the road despite its hefty size and weight. It also seemed solid and reliable for a car then approaching 10 years of age.
Radical Redesign
That eighth-generation Fleetwood Eldorado was a radical departure from the big, rear-drive Eldorados that preceded it. And while the Toronado, introduced for 1966, was GM’s first-ever front-drive car, the Eldorado that followed a year later was not only Cadillac’s first front-driver but also its first “personal luxury” coupe. The ’67 Eldorado was also the first Cadillac to be built on its own separate assembly line, at the marque’s assembly plant on Clark St. in Detroit.
It was late 1959 when a select group of GM engineers started development of what would become GM’s first front-wheel-drive system, then called the “Unit Power Package.” Harold G. Warner, then general manager of Cadillac, greenlighted preliminary work on a very special Cadillac and acknowledged that the proposed front-drive package was an interesting possibility for such a car.
Mitchell oversaw and guided this Cadillac’s crisp, angular styling, which sets the ’67 Eldorado so far apart from the Riviera and Toronado that one has a hard time believing they share the same architecture. Mitchell’s Cadillac stylists began with concepts that could accomodate either front- or rear-wheel drive, and the first full-size clay model, XP-727, was completed early in 1960. Two more versions followed before the front-drive system was approved in 1963 and a fourth model (XP-784) built to incorporate it. GM’s first personal luxury coupe, the ‘63 Buick Riviera, was enjoying good acceptance in the marketplace, and the ‘66 Toronado was taking shape in the Oldsmobile studio. But Cadillac wanted something distinctly different from both of those corporate rivals as well as from Ford’s Thunderbird, which had created the personal-luxury genre by growing rear seats in 1958.
According to German Cadillac collector and historian Gerald Loidl (The History of the 1967 Cadillac Eldorado), “Management then settled on front-wheel drive for a new “personal” Cadillac, and further prototypes evolved with that in mind. For a while, Cadillac considered calling the car LaSalle but ultimately chose Eldorado as a name with higher recognition.”
A clay model designated XP-825, with razor-edge lines and formal roof treatment, was essentially the final production design.
“Ed Taylor and Don Ropper were the principal designers of the ‘67 Eldorado in Stan Parker’s Cadillac studio,” designer David North related to Loidl. “The XP-825 V-16 Cadillac was a personal project of Bill Mitchell. It was done in Ned Nickels’ advanced studio by Ned and [myself]. Both Ed Taylor and [I] were the assistant chief designers in both the Oldsmobile and the Cadillac studios at different times during the 1960s. Ed and I worked on two outstanding GM cars … the ‘66 Toronado for Olds and the ‘67 Eldorado for Cadillac. The Toro was a fast program in the studios, but the Eldorado had many starts between 1960 and the finished car.”
By September 1964, Cadillac designers were on the right track. Their model’s most striking features were the sharply creased rear fenders, whose trailing edges protruded above the deck and beyond the bumper, and whose profiles extended forward into a downward swoop just aft of the quarter windows. A convertible version was fashioned from the same design, but it and other ideas were ultimately discarded. By December, the studio had settled on the XP-825 design, and a highly detailed fiberglass model was shown to corporate and Cadillac executives in May 1964. It was approved almost intact.
In the speech we were crafting back in 1976, Mitchell called the ’67 Eldo a “classic” car. “The only disagreement I have with the Eldorado, or Tornado or Riviera,” he said, “is the size. Personally, I think this type of car should have stayed the size of the original Riviera, which by the way, is almost identical to the present Monte Carlo and Grand Prix. In future body designs, I know we are going to return to this size.”
Unconventional Luxury
Cadillac positioned this new front-wheel-drive “personal luxury” coupe as a replacement for the previous-generation Eldorado convertible that perpetuated the prestigious model name. “The new Eldorado is distinguished as the only car in the world offering the mutually complementary features of front-wheel drive, variable-ratio steering, and automatic level control as standard equipment,” said an introductory press release on September 30, 1966. This was the first Cadillac with its headlamps that were concealed behind movable covers, and its rear passenger windows slid rearward into the wide rear roof (C) pillar instead of downward into the body. One good reason why the engine compartment and that hood above it were so large was that the car was considered early in its development as a candidate for an overhead-cam V-12 (or even V-16) engine.
When those proposals were dropped, and because any Eldorado required Cadillac power, the brand’s 340-hp 429-cubic-inch V-8—upgraded for ’67 and modified for front-wheel drive—was mated to the Toronado’s innovative front-wheel-drive system. As in the Toro, output from the engine flowed through a torque converter, then—via a Morse inverted-tooth “Hy-Vo” silent chain—to a three-speed Turbo Hydra-Matic transmission mounted next to the engine that drove the differential just ahead of it, which distributed torque to both front axles.
“Cadillac’s high-performance 340 horsepower V-8 engine is improved with a completely new valvetrain and Quadrajet carburetor,” the release continued. “Exterior changes [for FWD] include new oil pan, exhaust manifolds, accessory mounting arrangement, accessory belt drive and all-new engine mounting system… The suspension design incorporates a torsion bar system in front, while single leaf springs, a drop-center axle and four shock absorbers are used for the rear. The exhaust system uses dual pipes from engine to rear axle and a single outlet pipe to resonator and tailpipe. Front disc brakes are offered … as an extra charge option.”
Like other ‘67 models, this new Eldorado received the first several items from Washington’s lengthy list of mandatory safety equipment: energy-absorbing steering wheel and column, dual-circuit brake system, locking front seatbacks, redesigned and well-padded interior features and controls, safety door locks, and four-way hazard warning flashers. Inside, the wide, flat floor provided uncommon roominess front and rear, the instrument panel and controls were “sensibly and tastefully” arranged, and the huge glove box could store a fair-sized picnic lunch.
Choosing its name was simple, said then-Cadillac general manager Calvin J Werner: “Eldorado is a distinctive nameplate historically given only to the division’s specially luxurious cars. The word itself refers to an imaginary South American Kingdom of fabulous wealth. Translated from Spanish, Eldorado means gold—and the golden cars of the Eldorado era rightly deserved the name. From the first Eldorado sports convertible in 1953 to the 1967 Fleetwood Eldorado, they have been a breed apart from the regular Cadillac line.”
Carl Rasmussen, then Cadillac chief engineer, added: “Throughout the development of the Eldorado, Cadillac engineers had in mind that this car had to be exceptional or there was no use in producing it… it was not to be just another car.” It was well received in the market despite its high starting price (including delivery) of $6277. First-year sales of 17,930 units, nearly three times the total of the previous (’66) Eldorado, helped give Cadillac its best year ever.
Media Star
My ‘67 Eldorado became a media star when I wrote about it for the June 1981 Car Exchange magazine, then it was photographed by talented photographer Roy Query for a February 1982 Special Interest Autos feature by Cadillac historian Maurice Hendry. “Buick was originally to share the fwd design, and all three makes were to announce it simultaneously in 1966,” Hendry wrote. “But Buick decided to retain orthodox rear drive for the Riviera, and Cadillac felt the package needed more development, so delayed it a year. Thus Olds was first on the market.”
Hendry offered the following driving impressions: “At moderate speeds, the car handles like its rear-drive brothers. But it doesn’t ride like they do. It’s firm, solid, sometimes even jiggly—more like a Mercedes. It has automatic self-leveling at the rear. And despite its beam rear axle, un-sprung weight is actually lower than independent-rear-suspension rear drives. It corners flatter and more surely than any other Cadillac you’ve driven, and at higher speeds. Roll resistance is very good. Steering is precise, with excellent response and road feel. Generally, the handling is excellent, although the car is not at its best in a ‘slalom’ maneuver, probably because of the forward mass distribution. On the other hand, directional stability and resistance to crosswinds is excellent.”
Other enthusiast magazines weighed in: “Most luxurious personal car on the road,” Motor Trend gushed, “instantly recognizable as a Cadillac, and a real attention getter, the Eldorado’s crisp, tailored, almost razor-sharp lines aroused admiration everywhere.” Car and Driver accurately dissed the car’s poor-performing four-wheel drum brakes but “found our test car to be impeccably assembled with the kind of panel fit and paint work that stands up against the best that Stuttgart … can produce.” A second C/D test car with the optional front discs stopped much better “with vastly improved directional stability.”
Automobile Quarterly chose the ‘67 Eldorado for special recognition, granting the car its prestigious Design and Engineering Excellence Award, only the third time the magazine had given such an award and the first time staff had bestowed it upon a production car. “All of the traditional characteristics of front-wheel-drive cars, most of which are unpleasant, have been totally eliminated in the Eldorado,” the magazine observed. “Cadillac’s variable-ratio steering imparts a nimbleness and agility that makes their cars feel much smaller than they are, and the excellent automatic leveling system completely eliminates the pitching and heaving that most cars display when heavily laden…. We think it is the most outstanding automobile in both design and engineering introduced for 1967.”
For my June 1981 Car Exchange story, I interviewed then-Cadillac assistant chief engineer Loren R. Papenguth. “The program started at Engineering Staff,” he said. “Ed Cole had just become group vice president, and he was very instrumental in getting it going. At the outset, they were building transverse-engine installations … a packaging nightmare. To take a large V-8 engine and mount it transversely, you could barely get it into a car that was 80 inches wide and had to have extremely wide treads. Then it worked around to the transmission … with the driveshaft under it and the silent chain, and the concept was able to be developed.
“Cadillac, Oldsmobile, and Buick were very much interested in the program and pushing it right along,” he related, “and finally Oldsmobile took the lead. It was planned to be a joint introduction date—Riviera, Toronado, and Eldorado. But then Buick elected to go rear-wheel drive. We said, ‘Let’s go ahead and let Olds introduce it, then we will come out a year later.’ It was a tough job to get the road isolation and the ride smoothness that we thought was necessary for Cadillac. The fun part of it was the tremendous driving capabilities the car had in snow and wet weather. It was a fun car to drive.”.
As for mine, it eventually had to go. I still had my beloved ’70 1/2 Camaro, was test-driving press vehicles most of the time, and preparing to get married. I could no longer afford to keep, insure, and store that beautiful big Caddy, and I rarely had time to drive it, so I advertised it in Hemmings in May 1982: “Beautiful aqua, white leather interior, loaded, excellent condition, Florida car, stored winters since brought to Michigan, priced to sell at $3,850 (this is test and photo car for February 1982 Special Interest Autos).” Some other low-mileage, excellent condition ’67 Eldos were going for $5000 or more, and I don’t recall what I finally got for mine. But I did find it another good home with a Cadillac-loving friend of my future wife’s brother.
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