1983 Cadillac Eldorado on 2040-cars

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Liberace's gilded Cadillac could be yours

With their chrome grilles and oversized wheels, it's hard not to notice a Cadillac these days. But this one is even more blingtastic on account of the 23.75-karat gold-leaf bodywork.
The 1931 Cadillac Golfer's Drop Head Coupé is said to have belonged to the inimitable performer Liberace, who didn't just have it covered in gold - he also had the exterior door handles plated in silver and the inside handles in 24-karat gold as well. It's also got a white leather interior and headlights that - well ahead of their time (if you'll pardon us, Mr. Tucker) - pivot with the steering wheel. All that bling is powered by a 5.7-liter V8 mated to a three-speed automatic transmission that pales in comparison to the seven, eight and even nine-speed gearboxes appearing on luxury sedans today.
The project was undertaken over the course of three years in the 1970s by one Jack Smith from Kansas. Smith (if that was his real name) sold it at auction in 1975, and it was most recently displayed for 12 years at a museum in Germany which claimed it was Liberace's own. The car is now going up for sale by Barons' at the Sandown Park horse racing track in Surrey, England, on September 17, when bidding starts at 85,000 pounds - equivalent to over $130,000 at today's rates.

Junkyard Gem: 1979 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz

The Cadillac Eldorado lost a foot of wheelbase and 1,200 pounds when GM's luxury front-drive platform got downsized for 1979, which turned out to be prescient timing considering the massive spike in oil prices in the wake of the 1979 Iranian Revolution. The General kept the pricey Biarritz option package from the previous generation, adding a stainless-steel roof in the process. Here's one of those cars, found in a chilly Denver boneyard last month. The stainless-steel roof panel, inspired by the one used on the 1957 Eldorado Brougham, identifies a 1979-1985 Eldorado as a genuine Biarritz. This generation of Eldorado Biarritz achieved its greatest renown as the car bomb that detonates when pink-suited Ace Rothstein (Robert De Niro) cranks the starter in the 1995 film Casino. Naturally, a 24 Hours of Lemons team obtained one of these cars and raced it while the pit crew wore pastel suits and sipped from Tangiers Casino highball glasses. The MSRP on the base '79 Eldorado was $14,240 and the Biarritz package with leather seats tacked on an additional $2,600. That's $64,495 in 2021 dollars, at a time when plenty of car loans had interest rates approaching 20%. The '79 Seville's base price was higher ($15,646), despite being based on the lowly Chevy Nova, but that difference was erased by the cost of the Biarritz package. The Fleetwood limos were the only pricier Cadillacs that year. Yes, you had to be a true high-roller to purchase a '79 Biarritz. Of course, a new Mercedes-Benz 450SLC cost a terrifying $32,858 (about $125,850 today) that year, but the $13,067 Lincoln Mark V (the price went up substantially if you got one of the editions designed by Bill Blass, Givenchy, or Emilio Pucci) was close competition for the Biarritz. The 1979 Eldorado had something the Lincoln didn't, however: electronic fuel injection. Yes, a 350-cubic-inch (5.7-liter) Oldsmobile V8 engine with a pretty-modern-for-1979 throttle-body fuel-injection system sent 170 horses to the front wheels via GM's impressive Unitized Power Package longitudinal-engine front-wheel-drive system. Look at all those futuristic devices in that faux-wood dash! That stereo cassette deck added $225 ($860 today) to the price. Cruise control cost $137, the rear defogger added $101, and… well, you get the idea. This Cad is a bit tattered and has some rust spots here and there, but wouldn't have been an overwhelmingly difficult restoration.

2022 Cadillac CT4-V Blackwing First Drive Review | A magnificent sunset

Rising from the ashes of the ATS-V, the 2022 Cadillac CT4-V Blackwing represents the ultimate (in the purest sense of the word) in compact performance from GM’s luxury brand. The name Blackwing was originally applied to a stillborn, twin-turbocharged V8 destined for a new generation of luxury sedans, but has been repurposed as a symbol for CadillacÂ’s stubborn insistence on doing right by its performance heritage, right up to the end. Yes, the end. The last gasp. The grand finale. Swan song. Farewell tour. Whatever version of finality works best for you, apply it here, because Blackwing represents the gasoline-powered CadillacÂ’s final form. There are two key components to a sport sedan: a kick-ass powertrain and a chassis than can wrangle it. Check and check. A modern and powerful twin-turbo V6 resides under the CT4-V Blackwing's hood, and it rides on the latest and greatest revision of GMÂ’s global Alpha platform, which evolved from the same basic underpinnings of the ATS, CTS and Chevy Camaro. A stretched and widened version is the foundation for the CT5 (look for our review of that car's Blackwing next week). In transitioning from ATS to CT4, Cadillac decided to reposition and price its smallest sedan against EuropeÂ’s subcompacts. In the grand tradition of CadillacÂ’s sporty four-doors, this makes it a size mismatch. ItÂ’s almost as large on the outside as a BMW 3 Series or Mercedes C-Class, rather than the front-wheel-drive based 2 Series Gran Coupe and CLA-Class with which the CT4 nominally competes on price. This generational re-branding also resulted in a new, very different approach to high-performance models wearing the letter V. Before, they represented the pinnacle of their respective nameplates, but now, a -V represents the mid-grade offering. Upgraded certainly (limited-slip rear differential, more power, adaptive suspension) but positioned against AudiÂ’s S and BMWÂ’s M-Sport models. Cadillac even calls it "CT4 V Series" in certain places because the situation wasn't confusing enough. And although there's nothing ambiguous about the Blackwing's position atop the CT4 hierarchy, Cadillac's have-their-cake-and-eat-it-too approach to the CT4Â’s positioning still makes things a little hinky.