1965 Cadillac Deville Convertible (LHD)

Description

For more than a century, Cadillac has represented the pinnacle of American luxury motoring, its products reflecting the mood of the nation - witness, for example, the rise of fins and other styling excesses in the booming 1950s and the more sober, subdued lines of the early 1960s as the Cold War began to really kick in. Responding to the success of Lincoln's ground-breaking Continental, Cadillac's 1965 model range saw a further shift away from superfluous ornamentation and the demise of the fin altogether. Instead, a clean, horizontal stying theme was employed, with vertically stacked headlamps and a wider grille, creating a lower, longer and wider appearance. The colour palette was very much in keeping with this cool new image, with the flashy pastels of the 1950s replaced by darker greys, browns and blues. The 1965 Cadillac was built around a new perimeter-type frame that allowed the engine to be located further forward, thus creating more passenger room. Under that vast bonnet was Cadillac's most powerful 429-ci V8 yet, rated at 340 horsepower at 4600 rpm - enough to propel this monster along at an indecent pace. For 1965 the model line-up was overhauled, with the Series 62 replaced by a new entry level model badged the Calais, but for those seeking a little more exclusivity, the DeVille offered an even longer list of standard equipment. This included Cadillac's class-leading Turbo-Hydramatic automatic transmission, power windows, power steering and power brakes, plus remote external mirrors and a combined heater/defroster unit (with option of the innovative Comfort Control combined heating and air conditioning system, operated via a thermostat dial on the dashboard). Seatbelts were also standard, along with vanity lights and distinctive DeVille badging. Cadillac catalogued a range of body styles, including the Sedan DeVille (also available as a hardtop), the Coupe DeVille and Convertible DeVille, as offered here, of which 19,200 were manufactured in 1965. Very much a product of the Mad Men era, one can just imagine Donald Draper slipping behind the wheel of the '65 Cadillac DeVille, ready to make the commute from Manhattan to the suburbs after a long day at the office…