Cadillac Stories

A few weeks ago I got a email from Ludo who is Belgium. He has a few Cadillacs including this beautiful 2001 Cadillac Eldorado ESC. You will also see his 1992 Cadillac in the next newsletter. In the pictures you will see he has traveled all over the USA in his Cadillac. I love it. Here is his email. Welcome to the club Lugo!

Hi Vinny,

I live in Antwerp, Belgium and am a fervent US car enthusiast since more than 35 years. Over the years I have owned Chevy’s (Camaro’s, and Corvette), Pontiacs (Firebirds and Trans-Am), Buick GS, Mustang, and 3 Lincoln’s. I still have my ’78 Corvette Silver Anniversary, and one of the Lincolns, a ’79 Mark V in mint condition. I have traveled in your country for more than 35 years and bought all my cars in Western US, drove them to Florida or Georgia and shipped them from there to Belgium.

Getting older, I felt it was time to move on to Cadillac and bought a ’92 Eldorado ETC in 1994. I have loved this car from the day I bought it from a GM executive, who was active in the GM plant in Antwerp, and moved back to the US. Car had only 16000 miles and is a Diamond white exterior with saddle interior.

I have always owned a company car, so the Caddy came out of the garage only on Weekends, weather permitting. It is still in perfect condition and I hope to keep it so for many years to come. When a few years ago, I was visiting Las Vegas, I noticed an exceptional clean 2001 Eldorado ESC for sale, and couldn’t resist…. I had to take it with me. So since then I own 2 Eldorado’s, with no problems whatsoever, and I adore both of them.

Thanks Lugo for both joining the club and sending in your pictures of your beautiful Cadillac. You can see more about the 2001 Cadillacs here. To see more pictures from Lugo visit his 1992 Cadillac Eldorado ETC page.

While I am still out in Arizona for the next few weeks I have been looking for places nearby that I have always heard of but never get a chance to visit. Two weeks ago we took a trip up to Fort Collins Colorado, I didn’t realize it at the time but a good part of our trip was across the small towns that serviced Route 66. We left Phoenix and traveled east into New Mexico and then north into Colorado. While a lot of the trip is highway the couple of towns we stopped at along the way to get gas where right out of 1950’s.

We took US 40 to Albuquerque where we picked up US 25 and headed north. We stayed in Fort Collins for a few days and then headed west into Utah. While it is beautiful country up there the trip got more exciting when we headed south back into Arizona. We took US 70 to 191 to 163. I have to tell you this was some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen. The roads were filled with people that rented small rv’s. I had a lovely conversation with a couple from Germany that planned their trip a year in advance. We also met some bikers that rode their bikes from Illinois. If you ever saw the movie “Forrest Gump” the scene where he stops running and goes home was filmed out here. I took some pictures and said to myself this looks familiar. We also stopped in a small village to get gas and once again we were on Route 66. I bought a t-shirt and a key chain. While our trip wasn’t planned this way it was kind of cool. I will put up a link to some pictures soon.

Auto Show Pictures

Speaking of pictures! I just put a bunch up from the New York auto show. You can see them on our Cadillac club Facebook page. While you are there feel free to like the page. If you are not a member of Facebook you can see them on the Flickr page. I will be adding more to both pages so you may want to “Like” the Facebook page and/or add the Flickr gallery to your favorites.

For Sale On Hemmings

I just stumbled across Hemming’s blog and they have a beautiful 1934 Cadillac V-12 up for sale. I love the color of this Cadillac. If you know what the name of the color leave it in the comments.  Click the picture to see more pictures and details.

I think this is the first time in a long time that our newsletter covered so many different years of Cadillacs. If you notice the newsletter is broken up into three sections which will probably become the normal way I do it from now on. I hope you like it!

I wanted to share with you a few new members to the club and some pictures of their Cadillacs. Some people didn’t send me in a picture but maybe they will in the future.

Andreas Talianos  in Cyprus – I just bought from the US my dream car since I was a teenager in 1983. The Seville 1983. I just received it after 35 days (very long 35 days) in Cyprus .

Bud Picou – New Orleans

Bud owns A 2006 CTS, A 2013 XTS, and a Classic 1976 Fleetwood Eldorado Convertible! I was Always a fan of the CADILLAC. When I was 15 in 1979 and got my drivers license, I wanted to buy a ‘”76 Eldorado a neighbor had for sale. My Father told me that it was a little too obnoxious of an automobile for a kid my age. Last year, I came across a “76 Model Fleetwood Eldorado convertible in perfect condition. I saw it at a CLASSIC dealer who had gotten it from the original owner.

It had been Garage kept for the last 37 years and in pristine condition. Needless to say I bought it, and now I have the car I had always wanted. Some 34 years later lol. I love my Classic caddy and shes a BEAUTY! I have had it about 8 months now and get offers to buy it every time I take it out for a spin!

Norman Kraglund – Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada

Norman owns a 1951 Series 62 2Dr Hard Top Coupe – We had started to restore this Caddy approximately 2 years ago. This Caddy is an off body restoration. We are having it professionally done locally by VC Customs. So far we have been very satisfied with their work. There was very little body work to be done compared to many I’ve seen. We lucked out. The frame is now powdered coated, motor rebuilt, transmission rebuilt, upgraded front suspension, upgraded front brakes to disc, power steering, plus it will have other upgrades to follow (6v to 12v). When this Caddy will be finished it will have the outward appearance as being original. It is scheduled to be painted inside and out in two weeks. I look forward to seeing it come to this stage. Soon I hope will be interior upholstery plus chrome refinishing, some is stainless steel. In the past I have also obtained the original sales brochure, 2 glove box manuals, workshop manual, original paint charts and chip samples as well as the wiring schematic for this “51”. When I learn how to send pictures, I will be doing so.

Joe Fortuna, from Sonora Region Cadillac Club.

I met Joe out at Barrett-Jackson and we had a great conversation about Cadillacs when I stopped by his booth. Joe has a few Cadillacs to say the least. A 83 Fleetwood De Elegance and 84 Eldo Biarritz.  He also sent in some pictures from his club cruise day to Wickenburg Arizona. I am sure I will have to make a second post with all the pictures Joe has sent us. The first picture is Joe’s Cadillacs.

Thanks Joe for sending them in. It took me a while to get them up on the site for others to enjoy. Your region of the Cadillac LaSalle club looks like it is a lot of fun. I just noticed that the 3rd car from the right in the bottom picture looks very much like Bud’s car up above. What are the odds that 2 1976 Cadillac convertibles would be in our newsletter?

Cadillac Forum Update:

I am always surprised our forum doesn’t get used as much as it should. We got some spammy signups and I cut out all the sign ups that haven’t posted in a year. I figure we tighten up the ship over there. I am guessing that a lot of members don’t know we have the Cadillac forum? We have a section for Cadillac parts and we have a section for Cadillacs for sale. I suggest you sign up for it and come join the fun. Is there a reason why you are not participating there I would love to know.