While Cadillac had already sent a smaller car to market in the form of the 1975 Seville, the 1977 model year saw the first downsizing of full-size Caddies in response to the seismic shock of the 1973 fuel crisis.
Of course, "downsized" is a relative term. The wheelbase was shortened by eight and a half inches, to 121.5", while the overall length dropped from 230.7" to 221.2". Cadillac engineers whittled off nearly a half ton of curb weight from the Coupe deVille, bringing it down to 4,360 pounds and making the big two-door the second lightest car on the Cadillac dealer's lot, only about sixty pounds heavier than the small Seville.
A chunk of that weight savings happened under the hood. Cadillac took the previous year's 500 cubic inch 472-series V-8 and redesigned the block. The new 425-series V-8 used the same bore centers and had the same stroke, but a smaller 4.082" bore and displaced, as the name might suggest, 425 cubic inches (or "7.0 Litres" in the Cadillac advertising of the time.) The motor was a hundred pounds lighter than its predecessor and available in 4-barrel carbureted L33 or the electronic multi-port fuel injected L35, with the former making 180 SAE net horsepower and the latter, 195 ponies.
Car and Driver tested a '78 Coupe deVille with the L33 motor, essentially the same car as the '77 but with a different grille, and recorded a 10.6 second zero-to-sixty time and an 18.2 second quarter mile run at 79mph. Top speed was a mere 108, but it did get around a skidpad at 0.79g, which was not bad for a car big enough that the hood ornament and spare tire are frequently in different ZIP codes. Full-size Caddies, other than the Fleetwood Brougham, still had not been bestowed with the blessings of four-wheel discs, so the stop from seventy took 208 feet.
The well optioned test car cost $13,375 in 1978 dollars, which is the next thing to $66k in current money.
The one in the photo was photographed in May of 2025 using a Canon EOS-1D Mark IV and an EF 24-105mm f/4L IS zoom lens.
I had known for years by 1977 that GM shared basic bodies across the line. But it wasn't until this generation that I thought the Cadillac was not distinguished enough from the rest of the B/C body clan.
ReplyDeleteI think this was about the time they started sharing anything more significant than the frame. Even then, actual sheet metal interchangeability was minimal for another generation, afaik.
DeleteThe visual similarities caused by the spread of “formal” styling through Detroit in the latter half of the Seventies were unfortunate.