Click Here for photos
Beautiful Victorian Plum Firemist Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz Survivor, 981 will probably be the most collectable year because of some uniquefeatures only found that year, ncluding the last time a reliable Cadillac Big Blockmotor was offered. Cadillacs still had the largest engine of any regular passenger car in 1981, ven bigger than the Corvette's 350 V8. In 1982 and all years after for this model, he only gas option was the HT4100, he worst engine in Cadillac History.
This is a true survivor car, nlike some of the so called "survivor" cars being flipped by dealers out there. While they are marketed as low mileage survivors, ust about every one I've seen appears to have been restored, ainted or fixed up to look like new, hat's not the definition of a survivor. My favorite trick is when they obviously just spray painted or under coated the entire underside of the car black and try to pass that off as original. Even when it was new, t never looked like that. Pay attention to orange peel in the paint or trimpieces that are notfactory. It amazes me that a "well maintained" vehicle with mileage in the 30k range should need any work whatsoever, f it does, hen either the mileage or the "well maintained" is not accurate.
We bought thisbeauty in 2005 with about 40,000 miles on it from the original owner that was the proverbial "little old lady." She meticulously maintained the car and stored it in a heated garage in her downtownMinneapolis high rise; we've always stored it in our climate controlled garage as well. We were told by her accountant that sold the car for her that she had the Cadillac dealer do all the maintenance on it, udging by the genuine GM exhaust resonator that is dated 1994, don't doubt it. It's rare to have an original GM exhaust resonator, s nomuffler shop would bother to replace that part.
Interior is like new, he seats are in excellent condition,super soft and comfortable. The ash trays and lighters (all 3 of them) appear to have never been used. There are no cracks in the door skins or dash; the original floor mats are included, here is some wear on the driver's side floor mat.
Since we've owned it, e've installed new tires (original style wide whitewall Broadway Classics), new headliner (although we tried with limitedsuccess to glue the vinyl edging onto the visors, ince we were not able to stitch it back onto the visors), new alternator, ll new bumper fillers, nd the three rubber grommets in the shift linkage for "like new" smooth and precise shift selecting (these dry up and break apart, ausing a loose andsloppy gear selector, o bad youcan't tell what gear you are in). Some of these partshave been discontinued and are difficult to track down, should know, had to go to two dealers and order the third one out of state. I have spares that I will list separately on eBay if you need them.
The Biarritz had just about everyoption standard: exclusive seats and carpet that wereplusherthan the standard Eldorado, xclusive stainless steel top and chrome accent, utside thermometer in the driver's side mirror,digital dash, ower trunk pull down (works fine), ower windows, ower seat, ower door locks, emote trunkrelease,digital climate control.
It has the rare 6-8-4 engine that works perfectly and is kind of fun feature to have, ut can be disconnected with a simple unplugging of the connector to the transmission, aking it just like any other engine.A lot of misinformation is out there about the 6-8-4, ost of it from people that have never driven one. There'snothing mechanically wrong withthe engine design, t's still the same big block engine that was used in the 500 CID 8.2 liter engines that is very reliable. The real issue with the 6-8-4 was the computer technology was notadequate tohandle the job under all driving conditions, o it's more of an annoyance when it switches from 4 to 6 to 8 cylinders at highway speeds, uch as when you go up a slight incline; you get a rush of power and have to back off the accelerator. Fortunately, s Isaid earlier, he Cadillac Engineers must haveforeseen the issues and all you need to do is pull the plug on the transmission that tells the computer the transmission is in 3rd gear. This disables the cylinder deactivation with no other effects at all, t's then a regular V8 engine with a few extra parts. You could wire in a switch so you cancontrol it from inside the car, s the system works well for city driving, nd probably worked with the 55 MPH speed limits at the time, ut more power is needed at 70 MPH, ausing it to activate too often.
Click Here for more interesting information about the 6-8-4 and the HT4100
This the only year the 6-8-4 was offered, nd the last year you could get a reliable, 68 CID - 6.0 liter big block engine in a Cadillac (except they still used it in the commercial limo chassis for a couple more years). From 1982 on, adillac used a horrible, nderpowered 4.1liter aluminum block with cast iron heads, hat had all kinds of issues. See the listing for the '85 Eldorado with 31,000 miles that just had over $4,100 worth ofmechanical work, akes you wonderwhy a car with so few miles needs that much work?