Mostly want to know about how big the 80’s Fleetwood Broughams really are because they look massive in pictures and videos but I’ve never heard any experiences from people who have actually driven them on how bad they are to park, what it actually looks like in the drivers seat with 10 feet of land yacht in front, how bad the acceleration is, how comfortable they actually are, how bad is the suspension and is the body roll fun or just annoying ?
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Also probably a stupid question considering Cadillacs are known for having stupidly big v8’s but how bad is the fuel economy?
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They are floaty to drive - very comfortable on a trip. They aren’t very powerful and consumption will be around 10mpg (28l/100km) on the early 80’s stuff if my 400cu in 77 Ford is any indication. Don’t expect to travel any windy stuff very quickly and you have to plan ahead for every turn, even in town. Parking is a nightmare in any modern parking lot.
The other downside is that everyone else in the car can and will have a snooze while your working your backside off to keep in in the lane. Experience isn’t based on Cadillac but on something nearly as big
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What was your solution for parking if every park in the car park wasn’t long enough just park it across spaces like people do with trailers or find a different place to go ?
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Also when you say plan for every turn I’ve heard that the Cadillacs have really good power steering or whatever system they used to make it low resistance when turning is it just an issue with the car physically being to big to turn into certain roads or something of that nature?
It’s all down to the length of the wheelbase in regards to turning/driving.
They are easy to drive once you get accustomed to how big an arc you need to take to clear tight circles.
As far as parking is concerned… modern car parks are measured out and delineated for the space of the average midsized vehicle, not 4WD’s or big old cars.
Simply have to avoid common major shopping centre car parks and find open locations to park within walking distance of where you want to go.
Many times with many of my long classic vehicles I would pull as deep as possible into a carpark, only to look back and see 3-4 feet of bootlid intruding into the main access lane…so would have to go back and find somewhere else way out of the way to park… because someone driving around on their phone would be sure as shit to smash right into the rear end of it if I left it parked where they were 
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Just park where you can but will need vacant spot next to door so you can get out. You need to watch out when turning as your sometimes have to swing wide. They have over boosted steering so it is finger light. Can scrape on steep drives because of the length of front and rear overhang.
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OMG … Is that you Clarke Griswold!
Why isn’t Grandma strapped to the roof?
Sounds like advice from a XR7 Cougar owner
Have you guys every had to do an emergency break in the land yacht’s because looks like the bounce up and down for a solid five minutes after breaking suddenly. Any attempts a reverse parallel parking them for shits and giggles ? Also from my understanding there pretty wide cars so any issues so far with the car being to Much of a unit to fit into certain lanes or roads ?
It’s a car, you soon get used to how they perform and handle and drive accordingly.
The biggest danger is other road users drifting into your lane because they are preoccupied trying to take pics/videos of you instead of piloting their own vehicles
I thought getting your picture taken in a land yacht would be pretty rare. I’ve always thought they where under appreciated relics but that could just be from people not wanting to own them due to their garage getting filled by a single car.
The shit you see on TV/movies of these land barges wallowing around is because they use clapped out 50 year old cars to exaggerate them for entertainment.
My job as a builder/modifier was to update the springs/coils/shocks/steering/sway bars/brakes etc to transform them into very well handling and safe vehicles 
I’m guessing most of them where American imports so was it worth it turning them into RHD cars or did you prefer keeping them stock with the LHD ?
Quite the contrary, people love old classic cars and hot rods, so it’s a very common occurrence to always being the centre of attention whenever out driving anywhere.
A simple fuel stop can take a whole hour because everyone wants to come and chat or take photos of the vehicle.
Just getting from the parking lot into a shop can take the same amount of time.
My kids got worried when I used to jump in my 60 Series LandCruiser or VT Commonwhore work hack and ask me…
“Dad, why aren’t people waving at us anymore, have we done something bad”.
They were brought up being in nothing but 50’s/60’s classic cars since they were born, and got used to every other vehicle on the road flashing their lights/waving/taking pics/videos, coming up and talking to us wherever we went… but then as soon as we went anywhere in a “normal” vehicle, people would completely ignore us leading to my kids thinking we had done something wrong 
Sounds like your kids where living the dream, sitting in classic cars was always a core memory when I got to experience it as a kid been in some beauties before like Mach 1’s and VH s/le’s gave me a bit of a passion for cars. I don’t really have the same dream car as most people my age do I would really love some sort of American land yacht Cadillac, boat tail riviera or even a continental. Definitely something I’d look at saving up for over a couple years seen a couple cadi’s go for about $20,000-$30,000 so not to much of a pipe dream.
My old business, buried deep in the pics/videos will be footage of the beasts that my kids got picked up from school in and used to accompany me on many test drives or ride shotgun driving these vehicles back to their owners… so yeah, this was their normal life and didn’t know anything different because we have never had a New vehicle and never will!
Yeah mate, if you have a dream… just go for it!
My ex missus had a shitty yellow Nissan Pulsar when I first met her, but she said that she had always dreamt of owning an XY Falcon V8.
I encouraged her to sell the piece of shite Nissan and we went on the hunt for an XY Falcon.
Took about 6 months, but finally found a 302 V8 XY for a good price.
She drove it around for about 6 months and then said she had always wanted a 351 XY, so then we searched Gumtree and a few months later I had fitted a good 351 into it for her 
A few years later water started leaking into the interior because of some rust issues, so I stripped a few things apart and performed some temporary rust repairs just to keep it on the road for a few years longer.
Then she got an inheritance from her grandmother and a complete ground up rebuild with plenty of modifications and custom work was done to the tune of her $250k inheritance
I’ll try find some pics, but she’s now got it on the market for $110k as the kids have grown up and she barely ever drives it anymore
Will be sad to see it go, but some lucky buyer is going to get a tough brand new XY Falcon for less than half the price it cost us to build!
That’s the result of too many beers in the shed
Fasted Gemini in the Southern Hemisphere