1974 Cadillac Eldorado Coupe: Nimitz-Class Luxury

I have my friend Mike Risatti to thank for the fantastic pictures of this beautiful Eldorado. Labor Day weekend always means a lot of car shows, and sometimes you can’t get to all of them. Previously, the Cadillac & LaSalle Club show at Ettleson Cadillac in Hodgkins, Illinois, was held in mid-June, but this year it was moved to the holiday weekend.

I wanted to go, and initially planned to, but the excellent Grape Festival show in Nauvoo, Illinois—just a short hop across the Mississippi River from Fort Madison, Iowa—is held the same weekend, and I have been attending it since 2006. My aunt and uncle, Lori and Dave Klockau, are always there (they have a house there as kind of a weekend getaway) and it’s always fun to drive up, visit, have a most excellent picnic lunch outside, attend the Labor Day Parade, then go to the show and gawk at the cars.

The problem was, Ettleson was Saturday and Nauvoo was Sunday, and attending both would have meant six hours of driving Saturday and four more on Sunday, which was a tad too much, even for a rabid car show attendee like me.

Fortunately, many of my Chicago-area Cadillac friends were at Ettleson. Mike owns a fantastic 1960 Cadillac Sedan de Ville, and he brought it to the show.

And luckily for me, he also posted many pictures online. At that time, I was on the couch at home, drinking coffee. There were so many nice Cadillacs, including a Mandarin Orange 1975 Eldorado convertible—with a matching orange top! But the one I really zeroed in on was this simply fantastic Cranberry Firemist 1974 Eldorado coupe.

This color and Persian Lime Firemist are my favorite 1974 Cadillac colors. There were so many great ones back then! None of this black, silver, and gray nonsense. I will posit that a ’70s Cadillac color chart was more extensive and impressive than any specialty, uber-expensive luxury car of 2023. Things weren’t perfect in 1974, but car-wise things were pretty impressive on the color and option scale.

I now know many folks of a certain age are just going mad, ready to say 1974 … really?! Seatbelt interlocks! Gas crisis! Etcetera! But I’ll always love the year for the sheer variety of cars. Luxury gunboats like this, Saab 99s, Fiats, Alfa coupes, Pinto woody wagons, Citroëns! It was a vast smorgasbord for those who were new-car shopping. And it was the year my parents were married. So there!

Cadillac was doing just fine, thank you, in 1974, despite gas prices and other things. Still all-car, no SUVs yet—thank heaven! The lineup began with the Calais coupe and four-door hardtop, moving up to the Sedan de Ville and Coupe de Ville, the personal-lux Eldorado like our featured vehicle, the incomparable Eldo convertible, top-of-the-line “owner driven” Fleetwood Brougham (with even more sumptuous Brougham d’Elegance and Fleetwood Talisman versions), and the top of the heap: the Fleetwood Series 75 limousine and nine-passenger Sedan.

And the colors! Did I mention the colors? Well, I’m going to do it again! So many fabrics, leathers, top colors, and paint choices! It was wonderful. And the names themselves just made you want to run into a Cadillac dealership and hand them a blank check: Victorian Amber Firemist, Terra Cotta Firemist, Regal Blue Firemist, Pharaoh Gold, and on and on!

And did I neglect to mention all the comfort, convenience, and appearance options available on 1974 Cadillacs? Well, buckle up! Available niceties included a power sunroof, Stereo with tape deck (no subscription claptrap then, no sir! You bought your 8-track tapes and that was that!), tilt/telescope steering column, Track Master (an early form of anti-skid braking), outside thermometer (mounted on the driver’s side mirror), extra brilliant Firemist paints, and more.

Our featured car also has the Custom Cabriolet top option, which retailed for $385 ($2409 today) as seen on this Eldorado, but was $1005 ($6287) with the power sunroof. The Custom Cabriolet roof “features a padded elk grain roof haloed by a sheer chrome molding,” per my 1974 brochure. The ’74 Eldorado started at $9110 ($56,991) for the coupe and $9437 ($59,037) for the convertible. A total of 32,812 coupes were built.

Interiors were suitably sumptuous. Remember when luxury cars had rich fabrics and velours, and everything wasn’t just black or tan leather like now. In 1974 alone Eldorados came with a three-tone Mohawk fabric with Meridian fabric bolsters. Leather of course was an option, as well as Medici crushed velour, available in Dark Blue, Amber, or Terra Cotta.

I was just smitten with this car, with its Cranberry paint, white Custom Cabriolet top, and white leather with Cranberry dash, carpet, and seat belts. What a magnificent ride! Cadillac, bring back the Eldorado already! Please.

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