1970 Eldorado Is World’s Largest Car Nut Warehouse, Hasn’t Moved in 40 Years

I wonder how much overboost would be needed for the V8’s lousy 550-lb-ft rating. Despite any logic, Cadillac went to great lengths to get the Eldorado’s 2.2-ton mass moving smoothly. So much for World Standard After all, no one had ever put a big engine in a mass-produced passenger car, before or since. No, the 8.4-liter Viper doesn’t fit the bill; being a sports car, and trucks and other types of machines cannot play this game.

The 1970 Cadillac Eldorado was the perfect personal luxury car (that’s also an understatement: Cadillac only made luxury cars, and I’m pretty sure they were all intended for personal use. When was the last time you saw a Caddy bus, after of all?). But even kings die, and the big two-door sedan shared the same fate as its uncouth brethren from Detroit and elsewhere.

Here’s living proof: an Eldorado abandoned for 40 years from 1970, parked in a barn in 1982 or 1983 (the owner doesn’t remember well) and left. In fact, the car hasn’t seen the light of day or even an engine start in the last four decades. Instead, it served as a more comfortable home for squirrels. Holes in the floor clearly show the car’s former occupants who stormed it during its long retirement in a warehouse in Honor, Michigan.

Photo: YouTube/Detail Dane

Fortunately, this barn rescue has aged very well, without any damage to the body or other annoyances like rust. The thick layer of dust makes it look worse than it is, but that’s what YouTubers do for a living. Dane Shemwell from Traverse City, Michigan, is a self-proclaimed ‘Barn Find Detailer’ with a passion for salvage, and he brought his old car back to life.

Surprisingly, the car is in unusual condition, with cosmetic flaws for the most part, but everything comes out clean after a thorough wash. Unfortunately, the trunk keys are missing, and the vlogger has not started the engine yet, but he will put the car on the road. We don’t know the mechanical condition, but given how good the engine bay is (it fits the whole car), we should have high expectations from the ‘8.2-liter’ dinosaur.

I have one question for all of you regular car fanatics: apart from the necessary one-off work on key systems, what else (if anything) would you do to this Caddy? For reference, enter the budget that you would like to allocate for this project.