What If? 1970 Cadillac Roadster de Ville | Hagerty Media

[Hagerty]

Welcome to What If, a new feature from imaginative illustrator Abimelec Arellano and Hagerty. We'll be taking you back in time-and possibly forward into the future-to meet alternative-universe automobiles. Even better, our time machine is working well enough to bring "short take" reviews along with the photographs and advertisements.
https://www.hagerty.com/media/what-if/what-if-1970-cadillac-roadster-de-ville/

[ShortestCircuit]

So if Les Dunham would've cut another 4-5" out of the Corvorado, it would've looked like this?

[spoom]

The worst of two worlds?

[F360Spider]

The Cadillac XLR is the closest thing to a Corvette they've produced. Many folks think the car is a winner.

[wilcom]

I think the XLR is one of the most beautiful cars ever built/

[dreamingeagle]

i shall be glad to recommend you my occulist, you blind m...

[Iso_Grifo]

Fun! But didn't they pretty much do that recently with the Cadillac XLR?

[compcar98]

Sooner or later, you’re gonna ride in a Cadillac. Either sitting up, or lying down. Might as well enjoy the ride while you still can..

[dreamingeagle]

NEVER...
they’ll burn me first;

[spoom]

Already did my time as an owner, when dead, I'm gonna ride the wind 😉

[JAG]

It's not April 1st is it? From some angle it looks good but, WOW if this is what Cadillac was thinking in 1970 really glad they didn't get responsibility for the car. People forget how bad the BB's were on fuel. I have a 69 L78 4 spd Camaro with a 3:73 and 9 mpg is about right. I get 13 mpg in my Avalanche pulling it on a trailer!

[1966SS]

What an ugly beast .... And those god awful wheel covers ....

[TrustyRusty]

Ugly hubcaps, funky grill, stupid headlights and stuck-on tail lights, altogether, do not make a Cadillac Corvette, just an East LA Custom...

[tadg47]

Thank god this was never produced. It is an ugly Cad and an even uglier Corvette!

[CP66]

Thank (insert deity of your choice here) that this seriously fugly stepsister never saw the light of day. This had to have been a spoof article where the last part was deleted. You know, the part that said "April Fools". Right? Right?

[bblhed]

Did we totally forget the Cadillac XLR, are going to ignore the fact that this actually happened and was sold to the road going public?

[JagManBill]

Looks more Buick Riviera than a Caddy. So as opposed to a "match made in heaven", would this be the match made in ... somewhere else? Ugly doesn't even begin to describe it. Seats and steering wheel plucked from the Eldorado, Hubcaps and wide whites has a mid-70's Seville inspired look goin on. That front is definitely Riviera. The rear a mix of Eldo and Riv.
Just no...please...no. Unfortunately, some things you just can't un-see...

[DLForever99999]

The lead in my email was "What if Cadillac made a Corvette. Ummm, they did. It was the Cadillac XLR which featured a Corvette chassis. They were built in Bowling Green along side the Corvette from 2003 to 2009. One of my neighbors a few years ago decided to corner the market on the XLR and bought up everyone he could find. He had 6 or 7..basically every color.

[46HudsonPU]

Collecting Cadillac XLRs!?! I've got to wonder how that's working out for them - maybe trying to 'corner the market' in used spare parts? From what I hear, there are a lot of shortages & non-availability of certain 'model specific' parts for them, and they are 'money pits' as far as upkeep, etc.. (However, any more so than other discontinued vehicles (?))...

[audiobycarmine]

The "article" was from 1969, not 1970...
The tail end isn't so bad — kind of like the '67 Eldorado. The front? Just another Corvette.
I had a 1970 Coupe de Ville, a gorgeous and understated car. Black, with a white vinyl roof and a white leather interior.

[Jack_Hagerty]

In the Sixties, most new cars hit the ground by August of the previous year.

[avideo]

Guess you people forgot about the Cadillac XLR convertible already haven't you? A much newer car with a retractable hardtop and a Corvette engine. In fact, saw a couple at a Christmas time car show here in Arizona.

[ChopperDave]

C6 chassis with a Cadillac Northstar engine and body panels. People still quite often think my 2004 is a new model.

[Jack_Hagerty]

Maybe read the whole article and see if we forgot? 😉

[5869Corvette]

What a complete waste of time. I’m good with speculating about the future but this kind of historical what if is just plain silly. This does not make Hagerty any more relevant!

[Jack_Hagerty]

Sorry to have wasted your time!

[50s60s70s]

Un-no, fugly ....glad that never graced the pavement. What was the design team thinking 🤔. Just imagine if ford made a 4 door mustang SUV 😳 oh......wait!!!!

[TonyT]

Great read! Interesting to see that those Delco Moraine disc brakes are still a worry. My 1969 TurboVair (the turbine-powered Corvair that Chevrolet built to combat the Chrysler Turbine) won't stop reliably even going uphill!. And you should be glad to get 8 mpg. I live with 6, but I can put good old kerosene in it, and it's only 12 cents a gallon. I buy it in 55 gallon drums from the local oil company, and that drops it to 9 cents. The front end of the Caddy kind of reminds me of the upcoming Buick Riviera-based personal luxo barge, the Electric 220V. And I understand that Olds is bringing a hybrid Toronadohm to the party, powered by a Detroit 6V15 which is going to spin a shrunken EMD locomotive alternator that powers the wheel motors. Fun days ahead!

[46HudsonPU]

Memories are so, so short & selective, especially when it doesn't 'fit' with the article and author is attempting to write an article, without fully researching the material (and look knowledgeable in doing so - a miserable failure, in this case)..  It's already been done - anyone remember the 'Cadillac XLR'?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadillac_XLR

Personally, I like the XLR - wouldn't mind owning one, if I could get parts, and be able to afford the upkeep...

[ChopperDave]

What if land... alive and well.
Glad it didn’t manifest in my reality until 2004 when the General introduced the XLR.
While I love my Cadivette I agree with the Bowling Green engineer that said if they chose the LS engine rather than the Northstar, the XLR would be the perfect corvette-in-a-tuxedo. 

[hoser48]

hideous

[BillE]

Is it April 1st today.
In all my years I never heard about this GM idea. I've be a Corvette fan since I first set eyes on one. In fact I own several of them. This story took me by surprise. I kept reading through the article to find the sentence that said it was a JOKE.

[Jack_Hagerty]

Check out the rest of the What If? series and it might be clearer!

[964c4]

Factory built pimp car. Cadillac was most certainly ahead of it's time.

[Piper]

What about the CTS-V with the supercharged Chevy LS motor.

[dreamingeagle]

Sgt. Preston liked it;

[OkJustOneMore]

Had a STS with northstar in it. Found out how good cadillac engineering is. ☹

[tahend]

Let me guess, Chip Foose reimagined a 70 corvette?????

[RobertLLR]

Tahend, you nailed it! That guy had the unmitigated gall to "improve" the XKE--a car generally taken to be pinnacle of automotive design. (Even Enzo Ferrari said so.) The hutzpah of such an no-talent designer is unmatched. I wish Hagerty would give him the boot he so richly deserves.

[dreamingeagle]

you don’t improve on an XKE.. you only improvise;

[Truax]

XLR

[Cromebumper]

I have had several C3's (69-73 small & big block) & I cant imagine keeping 500 cubes with A/C cool with that meager grill opening. Interesting read.

[JimH]

I owned and autocrossed a CTS-V. Much fun and it always was appreciated by the crowd. Any Caddy better?....How about the obscure XLR-V? Corvette with a Northstar V8.

[dreamingeagle]

we’re stuck irretrievably in a snow back and couldn’t reach Sgt. Preston to bring his dogsled team, a CTS would be my first choice...

[MadMac]

A two-seater with Cadillac luxury and style. They did that. You youngsters may not recall the Cadillac Allante, 1987 to 1993. https://www.hagerty.com/media/car-profiles/dont-expect-your-cadillac-allante-to-get-top-dollar-any-t...

[noah300g]

They already did. It's called XLR

[carguy69]

What a way to ruin a perfectly good Corvette... sure glad it didn't happen!

[67CougGuy]

Cadillac has actually built-and-sold a "Cadillac Roadster de Ville".... They called it the "XLR" Roadster (2004-2009).

I've owned an example of Cadillac's heavily-flawed attempt at 'building a quasi-Corvette'....

I had swooned over Cadillac's XLR following my first viewing in late '04. Because of my strong interest in XLR ownership following its introduction, a dealership had granted me a half-day 'test drive'. At the outset, I viewed the XLR as a must-buy, but decided I'd wait to pick-up a low-mile used-copy, to allow Heavy Cadillac Depreciation to take effect.

In the summer of 2015, I purchased a vastly-depreciated Base '05 XLR, festooned in Zenon Blue, showing less than 9K miles. After only 8-weeks I terminated my XLR ownership.

In my experience, my XLR served as a perfect reason to **Be Careful What You Wish For**.

[Mr_Whatsittoya]

"Be careful what you wish for" is similar to "You never want to meet your heros".

I still love the Lamborghini Countach about as much as I did in my youth but I know that I never want to spoil those feelings by driving one today.

[67CougGuy]

I believe your expression is a perfect twist on that which I referenced above, offering an identical sentiment.
My personal experience with the Cadillac Division's XLR, was entirely painful enough that I'm confident in my statement that: "I'll never own another Cadillac model of any description, at a-n-y time, EVER !"
Full Stop.