Since its inception in 1902, Cadillac has been the premier manufacturer of luxury passenger vehicles in America. Well friends, today we have a special treat for you: the Cadillac of Cadillacs.
Though it may not look like much, I can tell you that this 1989 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham was once somebody’s pride and joy. In fact, they were so proud of their Cadillac that they went about making a few customizations to reflect their personality. Have a look:
Here we see where the owner added several extra “wreathed crest” logos along the front fender, which appears to have been painted with roofing tar. Continue reading →
I’m sure a fellow 1st Generation Vortec engine aficionado has probably done this before, but in needing constant access to my distributor and intake manifold, I found a super cheap solution for getting rid of the big square Vortec silencer box.
If you’re tired of this bulky appliance taking up space above your intake manifold and reducing intake noise, we have a nearly free solution to get rid of it.
Aside from those BMW wheels (huh?) and the fire department wanna be pinstripes this is a pretty interesting car.
Back around the time when Oldsmobile made the ridiculous decision to make a small, front-wheel drive car and call it a Cutlass while continuing to make the same old rear-wheel drive car and also call it a Cutlass, they remembered an old gimmick they had tried before with moderate success: trying to make an automatic transmission fun to use.
Starting in 1983, you could order your Cutlass Supreme with the Hurst/Olds package, which had some pretty decent options, like a better flowing exhaust, 3.73s, and supposedly the 307 had some slight improvements.
The main feature though, were the Hurst “Lightning Rod” shifters. I’ve been watching a couple videos of them in operation and I really can’t see any benefit from using them at all, other than showing them off and pretending you’ve got a Lenco or something. They make for an interesting conversation piece though.
The Hurst/Olds was only made in this body style for two years, 83 and 84, and it’s really easy to spot the difference between the two years. 83s were black with silver rocker panels, and 84s had a reversed paint scheme. 84s also came with the 8.5″ rear end from the Grand National while the 83s got the 7.5. After 84, they started calling the car the 442 again. As far as I can tell, the Lightning Rods were only available in the 83-84 Hurst/Olds car though.
I hope that one day this car gets reunited with its stock wheels (for that matter, any old set of 15’s would be a major improvement) and cleaned up a little bit, but I’m still just happy that someone is keeping it on the road in any capacity.
Civic wagons are rare enough but the AWD version is even more of a treat. The manual cars actually came with a 6 speed transmission which had a super low gear to the left of first gear. I’m not sure why they didn’t just call the low gear “first gear” and rename the rest of the other gears to follow suit, but whatever, it’s still cool.
The reason for the low gear was because with only 100 lb-ft of torque, the D16A6 motor really didn’t have enough power to really do anything exciting at all (or get you out of a ditch, should you accidentally manage to do something exciting). I’m pretty sure the owner of this car doesn’t have much of a problem getting a little crazy though…
Yeah, someone swapped a K-series motor in there. Aside from all the obvious, well …dirt, it looks like a really clean swap too. I bet the thing is a lot of fun to drive, and it looks like the owner of the car isn’t afraid to take the car out in the desert and have some fun with it. Civic wagons in general sort of strike me as an “I really don’t give a fuck” type vehicle, and this one says it with more sincerity than any other Civic wagon you are ever likely to see, given that about 95 percent of them have been hastily converted to rusted hood, negative cambered-out dork cars.
Every picture that doesn’t deserve an article, but it is too cool to go unnoticed is going in our photo gallery section of the site. We just started adding pictures, so go check them out!
I may not agree with everything that goes on here all the time, but God dammit, I sure am thankful to live in a place where we have the freedom to do pretty much whatever the hell we want, including airbrushing ostentatiously patriotic tailgate murals onto our gigantic diesel trucks.
And you know what? I wouldn’t have it any other way. Happy 4th of July!
Though it may not look like much, I can tell you that this 1989 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham was once somebody’s pride and joy. In fact, they were so proud of their Cadillac that they went about making a few customizations to reflect their personality. Have a look:
Here we see where the owner added several extra “wreathed crest” logos along the front fender, which appears to have been painted with roofing tar. Continue reading 
