| rlbell |
02-12-2005 12:49 AM |
The link at the start of the thread did not load for me, but if came from the comic strip "Shoe", as the URL suggests, it is not a cadillac, but a DeSoto. Cadillac styling included the most outrageous fins, but fins adorned any vehicle from that time frame with any pretentions of style or luxury. DeSoto was a subdivision of the Chrysler Corporation (now Daimler Chrysler). I am told that fins were a peculiarily american thing, possibly just as well. The 1959 Cadillac is the prime example of fins and american automotive excess. The four door sedan weighed nearly three thousand kilograms, was powered by a V8 engine displacing 8.1 litres (500 cubic inches), and the fins were thirty-nine inches high.
For three years, I had the dubious pleasure of driving a 1976 Ford Thunderbird (a bit of a clapped out beater when I got it, but not completely done in). The foreign students from Europe suffered from cognitive dissonance upon being confronted by it, as that sort of vehicle was never sold in europe. The german summed it up best-- "You sit behind the steering wheel and two metres in front of you there is still more car!".
American landyachts can best be described as all the mass of the new Maybach, without the luxury, handling, or power (not that they were gutless, just tuned for bottom end torque). Another description is a tackily upholstered living room set wrapped in sheet metal.
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