Even when stock, the 1959-1960 Cadillac Coupe De Ville looks like a custom car. They went really wild with the paint in those days, and the "bullet taillights" are also something else. But this custom build takes things to the next level.
It's the infamous "Copper Caddy" by Dave Kindig and his crew at Kindig Designs in Salt Lake City. We've already featured a number of their builds, but this one is so famous it couldn't be ignored.
As some of you custom car fanatics may already know, the Copper Caddy was featured on Bitchin' Rides Season 2. It's what you'd call a TV star, and Dave was famously opposed to the copper accents the customer, Jerry Logan, wanted. Why did he change his mind? Well, a Kindig build starts from about $250,000, but we hear the De Ville is worth close to a million.
We find that the bullet accents are a little too much. However, the idea is based on a fundamental part of Cadillac's design language in that era, the bullet shell grille. And the fact that it's won numerous awards since being completed in 2015 suggests it's done in good taste.
As you'd expect from a project that took a major shop 24 months to complete, it's fully customized. Copper Caddy rides on an Art Morrison frame and features a custom independent front suspension and a 4-link rear with a chunky 9-inch rear end. The 20-inch wheels are one-offs with copper accents and are wrapped in Michelin Pilot Sports. Behind those, we see a set of 14.25-inch 6-piston brakes from Wilwood.
The engine is simply amazing, an all-aluminum 454ci ZL1 Ram Jet V8. The top of it looks like an anchor and the custom Flowmaster exhaust has a slight copper accent too. Kindig's website claims it's making 550 rear wheel horsepower.
Save for maybe the copper accents in the wheel wells, the most amazing part about this bodywork is a substantial 4-inch chop for the roof. As for the interior, it's covered in orange leather and borrows some of those copper bullets for its console.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?
log('ytfix trying '+thumbnail[i+1]+' ['+url+']'); e.attr('src', url); break; }}}" alt="Video thumbnail" data-gidx="-1" width="480" height="360" loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://img.youtube.com/vi/AdmRg6m__8Q/maxresdefault.jpg">
Google News