Sometimes 472 cubic inches isn’t enough, so you source a Texas-sized Cadillac 500… build it to a dyno-tested 604 HP, and drop it in your… 19-foot-long convertible? This 1969 Cadillac DeVille convertible in Frisco, Texas constitutes a rolling slice of Lone Star Spirit, and needs a $5000 opening bid here on eBay to get the auction rolling.
A properly rebuilt transmission handles the built 500’s prodigious horsepower, and the seller reports spending over $20,000 having this power train built and installed. The rest of a planned custom build never happened, and the new owner can finish the job or perhaps transplant the running gear into something even more bizarre. Sure you could build a radical Chevette or Vega, but I might suggest a 1974 Oldsmobile Omega; when was the last time you saw one of those packing 600 HP? Submit your ideas in the comments below!
The seller reports that the electric seats and windows work, and the car drives, albeit with a leaky power steering hose and questionable brake booster. Personally I’d have to sort out the safety items, add minimal cosmetic upgrades, then drive it like you see it for a while… simply for shock value.
Zero mention of the power top suggests it’s non-operational, but the hastily-shot pictures suggest a relatively solid body. The Cadillac 500 is no joke, and even a budget build can yield potent power for the car of your choice. I love the “Everything’s bigger in Texas” vibe of this DeVille. In my opinion it requires no steer horns, super-loud exhaust, fat slicks, or even a wax job, though I’d definitely make it water-tight and treat the seats to new hides in resplendent white. What direction would you take with this high-powered drop-top?
Ba-Da-Bing!!!
If it was in the NY area instead of TX I’d say check the trunk for a body. “What, you think I’m funny? I make you laugh? No, come on, how am I funny?” ( Paraphrased, of course)
Looking for Jimmy Hoffa?
It maybe a ton of fun to drive down the interstate or lay a nice long patch of rubber in but all that fun comes with a hefty price tag at the pump. Might as well tow a gasoline filled tanker trailer behind it with a hose running between the car’s filler neck and an outlet on the tanker if one wants to the fun to continue.
Normally I don’t like other people’s unfinished projects, but if I had the time and money I would restore the interior and exterior as it was when it was new. Then wait for a hopped up Civic to pull up next to me at a light and blow their doors off. Love the idea of this car.
Like they say, it’ll pass anything on the road except a gas station.
I think he forgot he was building a luxury car. The A/C was removed in a very stupid move.
@Miguel – Right on point as usual.
It’s a drop top! AC not required
It is a Cadillac. The top would be up most of the time.
A/C always required.
Why settle for 10 mpg when you can get 5?
Nowadays a Freightliner tractor gets 10mpg bobtailing……..lol
I’ve never seen a 1969 Cadillac DeVille convertible. This looks like a good candidate for restoration, or possibly restomod.
There may not be anything wrong with brake booster, just low vacuum, 600 plus H..P. would require a big cam. This would be a fun car,surprise a lot of cars. I know someone who put a stock 473 or 500 in an 80’s Monte Carlo, never got it running right, didn’t know what they were doing.
I’d restore to look bone stock. It would make a real sleeper the size of a battleship that could leave a lot of “race cars” in it’s dust. I like.
$5000 Engine in a $500 Cadillac!
Public service announcement: if you’re looking at this car and you’re worried about the freaking gas mileage, you’ve clicked on the wrong feature.
Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.
And gas at $3 a gallon means it is still very inexpensive relative to almost anything else.
Yeah. Checked the price on a gallon of liquor, lately?
Not to mention that your Cadillac will run like crap on the liquor.
Cyclemikey, I run like a top on liquor, lets not waste it on the car!
Preach ! Patrick m ! It is culturally biased taxation !
I would probably scoop this up for the engine. There are kits available with headers and engine mounts to drop into a Camaro. Pick up a cheap Camaro like the one listed yesterday and you are laughing big time.
Back in the mid eighties a street racing oriented magazine called Cars, or was it Cars Illustrated, ran a few articles on guys building up these boats, four exhaust pipes to make them dead quiet and adding a healthy dose of nitrous. Absolutely money making street sleepers as they smoked all the typical heavy street machinery, the real q-ship if ever there was one. Buick Electra 225’s, Caddy’s, whatever. That was a great magazine by the way.
Buy it for the engine, then transplant it into an Eighties Caddy that’s a thousand pounds lighter and far more aerodynamic. Then you have a REAL sleeper.
Who cares about fuel economy of this one? Nobody would use it as a commuter car. Even the A/C isn’t that important when the top goes down.
Re-pad the driver’s seat to handle the extra torque.
A friend had a 69 Coupe Deville with the stock 472, it was fast as hell. Why did anyone need anything more? I’d get the AC working, fix what’s needed and enjoy it. No one looking at a sherman tank like this is concerned about gas mileage.
Would like to see what this beast tops out
at. Since we’ve alredy determinrd she’ll pass anything but a gas station, let’s not
forget the trailer load of pre-mounted tires you’ll need after shredding the rears
just pulling away from s traffic light! Very
bizarre and wickedly cool. Would love to
own this ballistic barge, but I’d probably
break my fool neck–and other body parts
if something went horribly wrong. Wow!
my SIL and I could run our 35-mile paper
route in less than 30 minutes! Look out
ricers, here I come!
sell body for scrap or what ya got trade, PLUNK into 5o-6= caddy.
Yes I like 59 Caddy, and caddy motors into rods of any years, by rest before Ford and Chev put big blocks in PU’s.
Mileage?
!power and uniqueness.
In days when we knew type of auto by its starter and exhaust, my 62 caddy built to max had a sound all its own.
If you want a sleeper just pad the seat, throw a poncho over it and leave the rest alone. Make sure your mark gets a look at it in the parking lot first, look at him and touch your cowboy hat rim at the light, then let him make all the tire noise & keep rolling into the throttle…
Troy s, I remember that magazine too. There were a lot of heavy hitters based out of Chicago running the flying mile in their luxury cars for big bucks.
Looks familiar.
One of those car shows on cable had something like this.
Seems to me it was like a five/six car wide drag race.
Old timers setting in.
I remember my mother’s boyfriend bought a new caddy every year. This was in the 60’s in New Jersey. He was not a “made guy” in the mob, more of a fringe guy. His moniker, I swear this is true, was “Jimmy the Jew”. I remember him many times saying “Hey Eddie, come down to the car with me”. He would open the trunk, which was always full of stuff like cartons of cigarettes, booze, Levi’s, etc. “What size pants you wear Eddie?”. Of course, all the stuff in the trunk “fell off a truck” Ah, the good old days.
My dad had a 70 Coupe deville and my stepdad had a 72 sedan deville. Both had the 472 motors as the 500 was only offered in the Eldorado. But what a difference the years make. The 70 would smoke the tires if you nudged the go pedal whereas the 72 had so much detuning for smog that in comparison it was a slug.
I just remembered back in the 80’s for a short while I had a 1973 Cadillac Sedan DeVille 473, in the winter when first started it put it in drive wait 3 minutes before it would move, half of exhaust system fell off put straight thru muffler on heads pipe, later I guess picked up dirt in gas tank, it backfired and blew muffler off, never did find it, what a racket going home would only run on 4 barrel, then just barely, I had completely forgotten about that piece of junk
My ’73 Sedan D’Ville got 8 city 11 highway with the 472.
Email me a price
@Dan10
Dan, have you ever been to Texas? Just like Vegas, during the day, top up, a/c on. During the night, top down, a/c on.
I’m with Miguel on this one.