At the height of the Malaise, in the late seventies, high-end American carmakers were putting a great deal of emphasis, resources, and hope into the personal luxury segment. With performance all but gone due to fuel—and climate-saving regulations, big brands like Cadillac tried other means of impressing prospects. Putting power T-tops on an Eldorado Biarritz was one of those failed experiments, and only a handful of those were ever assembled.
When I say ‘handful,’ I mean it—the number is subject to debate since there aren’t clear records for the production, but it’s around ten units. Cadillac had experimented with oddities like light pickup truck conversions in the past (remember the Mirage), but the power T-tops were the result of an Oldsmobile Toronado prototype that was canceled before entering production.
But what exactly is a power T-top? Simply put, two electrically actuated panels slid under one another and together under the center section of the car’s roof. Oldsmobile planned the option for the 1977 Toronado XSR and even built a prototype that made the cover of the sales brochure.
The automobile was a converted Toronado XS with an automated roof. The conversion was performed by American Sunroof Corporation (ASC), a coachbuilding enterprise specializing in all sorts of transformations (Cadillac owners were regular customers, asking for various alterations of their automobiles).
Photo: YouTube/Lou Costabile
Again, there isn’t a consensus regarding the number of power T-tops Toronado XSR prototypes assembled. Some say only one was made, others point to a pair of them, and one source indicates that the final number was three. Allegedly, this last figure was suggested by the former head of the Oldsmobile Interior Design Studio at the time.
Whatever the actual number, one thing is clear: American Sunroof Corporation made mode sets of roofs for the Toronado project, and when the thing was called off, the company turned to Cadillac. Their previous collaboration made it easier for the coachbuilder to approach the General Motors division.
So, the Eldorado with Power T-Tops appeared for the 1978 model year. The cars were never meant for public sale, but since ASC had the roofs and didn’t want to waste their investment, they worked a deal with General Motors for a limited run of Caddies.
Photo: YouTube/Lou Costabile
I’ve run across sources saying that ten units were made while others go for seven – this is the more widespread version. Let’s agree on ‘extremely rare’ and move on to one of them, a survivor nonetheless currently in the Steve Plunkett collection.
If the name doesn’t ring a bell, you should know that he’s a car collector from London. London, Ontario, Canada, and not the capital city of the United Kingdom. He’s famous for his assembly of Cadillac rarities, one-offs, and other one-of-a-kind GM automobiles.
He owns a Deville from 1949, a Mirage from 1976, Bill Mitchell’s personal experimental Buick, and the Cadillac limousine custom-built for a former ruler of the British Empire. And he couldn’t pass the opportunity to add a 1978 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz to his collection – one of a pair of two-tone-liveried fitted with the elusive power T-tops.
Photo: YouTube/Lou Costabile
According to him, five other Eldorado Caddies got the rare option. Still, his example is one of just two Eldorado Custom Biarritz Classic painted in Arizona Beige/Demitasse Brown. The nice thing about this Cadillac (just like all of Steve’s classic cars) is that everything works – including the power tops.
Play the video below and watch the owner casually opening and closing them with the flick of the switch. Each panel is controlled separately via its own button on the roof, so the passenger can let the breeze in at will. In this case, the passenger was more taken aback by the cool feature of the car and also busy filming the entire sequence. That’s what he usually does to classic cars – he makes videos of them and uploads them on YouTube (check out his channel for more classic treasures).
I don’t know if the T-tops on this unicorn Cadillac must be operated in a specific sequence or if they open independently. On the Toronado XSR, the driver’s side had to be opened before the right one. Otherwise, the sliding parts would bump into each other. Whatever the case, it’s one cool feature – and I don’t mean that just literally. The car is a survivor with 33,448 miles on the clock (53,829 km), and its 425 cubic inches of V8 run like new.
Seven liters, three automatic speeds, and 195 hp / 198 PS at 3,800 RPM, with a torque rating of 320 lb-ft (434 Nm) at 2,400 revs – disco-era specs at its finest. According to the current owner, this particular example belonged to the founder of American Sunroof Corporation, Heinz Prechter – it was the man’s personal luxo-boat when new.
‘Boat’ isn’t just a figure of speech in this instance; watch the video attached to the end of this story and see the contents of the trunk. Apart from the usual brochures and literature of the day, there are a few sets of brand-new cables for the power T-tops – made for proper yachts, but they’ll work on the 1978 Eldorado Biarritz just fine.
The car was the absolute peak of the most excessive period in Cadillac history, with the Eldorado sitting at the very top of the ‘Biggest is Best’ paradigm. 1978 was one of the best years in Cadillac’s history, with nearly 350,000 automobiles produced during the model year. It ranks on the all-time best scale for the grand American marque—the late seventies were a huge success for the luxury brand.
Photo: YouTube/Lou Costabile
Cadillac sold over 300,000 cars yearly from 1976 to 1979 (309,000 in ’76, 358,000 in ’77, and 383,000 in 1979). The magical threshold was surpassed again in 1984 and 1985 – the latter year marks the all-time best of almost 385,000 Caddies assembled.
The Eldorado scored 48,816 copies, but the Custom Biarritz Classic was replicated in only 1,499 examples. Going even deeper, the T-tops were offered as promotional automobiles. There was one manufactured for each of the fifty states of the U.S. However, those were manual roofs – the electric-operated ones, as I’ve said, are in the one-digit range.
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Publish date : 2024-09-25 20:47:00
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