Some cars suit the patina’d rat-look more than others and this sinister-looking big, black Cadillac is a classic example; however, don’t let the ‘dragged out of a barn’ look fool you. This is one cool cat, with all the latest running gear and interior comforts you could imagine…
Photography: Matt Wood Words: Keith Harman
Mark Lamude, the owner of this uber-cool ’55 Coupe de Ville, is no stranger to the pages of Classic American with a string of very desirable high performance American cars to his name, some of which he not only built but still owns. If we tell you that includes a well-known ’55 Chevy that’s been on the scene since the Seventies, a ’69 Camaro that already had a race pedigree in the USA well before it arrived on these shores, plus a GTO Judge, and a ’64 Mercury Comet, (which we featured most recently in CA back in June 2020), you’ll see what we mean.
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While all the above cars are firm favourites of muscle car fans, a slammed and patina’d ’55 Cadillac Coupe de Ville might seem a slightly odd choice for this recently retired builder of hot street and strip engines. However, it’s precisely because Marc’s stable features some quick street machines that he felt the need for something with perhaps a more relaxed driving style, and what could be better than a mid-Fifties Caddy? Not that Marc actually went shopping for one, in fact it wasn’t until he was shown a picture of this car that he knew he wanted it!
Marc explains: “I was up at the Chelsea cruise one evening with Jason, a biker mate, who showed me a picture on his phone and said: ‘Look what I’ve just bought’.” It was the ’55 sitting in a yard in Arizona having just been acquired by a friend of Jason’s, expat Brit, Simon Thaxter. Marc’s immediate reaction to his buddy was: ‘That’s mine!’, knowing that Jason would probably be up for a deal at some point. He was right, but first, let’s go back to Kingman, Arizona, and Simon’s discovery of the car, which is kind of a neat backstory.
Simon and his wife Norma settled in the USA some years ago, and ever since then he has been finding, selling, building and exporting all kinds of classic Yankery (much of it to the UK), from his dusty desert lot and workshop outside Kingman. Spotting the ’55 sat beside a house in town, Simon stopped by the property one day and approached the elderly owner, enquiring after the car. Simon was informed that many had asked before, but that it was definitely not for sale.
The old guy was only the second owner, having bought it from the original owner in 1962 when he still lived in Death Valley, California. Following a move to Kingman in ’78, the Caddy hadn’t been used and had sat on the property, up to its hubcaps in sand for the next 40 years. Although initially declaring it was not for sale, when he noticed that Simon had arrived in his own ’60 Cadillac, his attitude mellowed and the resulting conversation as fellow Caddy owners broke the ice between them, resulting in Simon eventually being offered the Coupe de Ville for sale after all.
It must have been soon afterwards that Simon offered the ‘as found’ Cadillac to Jason (he already knew him from before emigrating), with Jason enthusiastically commissioning Simon to put the Caddy back on the road, albeit with some modern upgrades in the form of an LS Chevy motor and transmission, a 9in rear axle and air-ride suspension. With this work carried out by Simon, and the car now in running and driving condition, it was shipped back to the UK in Jason’s ownership. A year passed before Marc and Jason spoke again about a deal on the Cadillac, and Jason had always fancied Marc’s Camaro, which although being built to terrorize the street and strip, had yet to be raced in anger on the quarter-mile as Marc had lost interest in racing. By now Marc was ready to let it go, so a deal was done and thus he became the new owner of the ‘Death Valley Caddy’.
a GM truck. Corvette valve covers were added.
As with every car he’s ever owned, Marc went right through the car from stem to stern, refining, improving, and restoring wherever necessary. As mentioned, Simon had already done the hard graft, easily transplanting a 6.0-litre LQ4 Vortex V8 taken from a GM truck, along with the matching 4L80E transmission to slip into the big Caddy engine bay. These LS small block V8s have quickly become the ‘go-to’ motor for many US car builders, though as of yet they are less common in the UK.
With a horsepower rating of between 300- 330bhp, even in stock form, the fuel injected motor provides more than enough power even for a big ol’ Cadillac. A 1973 Lincoln donated the stout 9in rear axle, which was mounted on four-bar links with a Panhard rod instead of the stock parallel leaves. The four-bar is the usual setup when installing an Air Ride system, the links allowing the car’s ride level to be adjusted via the electrically inflatable ‘bags’ that replace the stock springs and shocks. Pump it up for comfortable and smooth highway miles or slammed to the ground for an eye-popping stance.
At the sharp end, the Caddy retains much of its stock suspension set-up, though Air Ride ‘Shockwave’ bags also replace the front shocks and springs, with a power steering rack from a GM mid-size Cavalier bringing the steering up to date, while also being mated up to the stock column. Similarly, the stock front drum-brakes have long gone, now replaced with a set of Chevy C10 truck discs and callipers, which apparently bolt right up to the stock Cadillac spindles. Completing the running gear are a set of ’65 Cadillac 15in rims that have been banded out to 8in on the front and 9in on the rear. They remain stealthily disguised behind ’56 Caddy wheel trims, with 70 series Diamondback Radial whitewalls complete the rolling stock.
As you can see from our pictures, the Caddy still wears its original paint, complete with 40 years’ worth of patina courtesy of the wind and sun of the southwestern Mojave Desert. But don’t let appearances fool you, the car is as solid as the day it was built and it probably wouldn’t take too much work to prep and paint should that be required. But as we like to say here at CA, they’re only original once, and Marc is 100% happy with it the way it is with no plans to change the exterior look.
What he has done though is replace all the parts that don’t survive long periods of desert heat; namely all the rubber and plastic parts, window seals, door rubbers and so on, which was quite a task in itself. Fortunately, all the original stainless trim was present and intact, only needing buffing up to restore the lustre. The chrome on the bumpers is original too, and although not perfect, it’s more than good enough to suit the car. A complete new wiring loom has been made up and fitted (the engine wiring was already fitted by Simon), though when Marc got it, none of the dash electrics worked – so Marc took care of all this including substituting all the dash lighting with LEDs.
When it came to the tired interior however (it had been home to a family of cats for quite a while), Marc wanted it to be period looking in style, but also in total contrast to the aged exterior. Thus, we find acres of sumptuous red leather, courtesy of Joe Gillard at Unique Auto Trimming. To complement this, and contrast with the exterior, the dash, door shuts, and any interior paintwork was repainted by Marc in gloss black, and how good does it look? Not immediately noticeable however, is the modified steering wheel. With the new power steering set up, there really was no need for the large and unwieldy 18in stock steering wheel. As it happened, Marc still had the 15in wheel from his ’64 Mercury hanging on the garage wall. Some clever cutting and modifying later and it was fitted, painted, and looking the part.
While many readers may not quite approve of the fact that the car isn’t a concours points winning restoration, we think Marc’s car has been built with a winning combination meaning that it can be driven and enjoyed with all the comfort, performance and all-round drivability of any Cadillac, without the worries that sometimes come with a 69-year-old classic car on today’s roads. Which is exactly what Marc wanted. We’d drive the wheels off of it, wouldn’t you?!
Marc’s thanks go out to Jason for the deal, Simon for the build and Milton and Stuart at Dream Cars for help and advice.
