When Irv Rybicki was interviewed by Dave Crippen (1985) about his design career at General Motors, he told a story about how the 1971 Cadillac Eldorado supposedly got opera windows.
The Monte Carlo was initially slated for a redesign that would reach production at the beginning of the 1972 model year (which was typically in the fall of the previous year).
“That automobile was supposed to be introduced to the public in 1971,” Rybicki recalled. “Then General Motors was hit by a UAW strike, and the whole program was postponed. In the meantime, they were tooling a new Eldorado that was done a few years before in Cadillac, and it had conventional side glass. We had this little opera window in the Monte Carlo — big quarter panel with a little opera window.
See, one day Irv was just talking to Bill and Ed. . .
“We were talking in the hallway one day, and I said to Bill [Mitchell] and Ed Cole, ‘You know now that this A Car is stalled — this new Monte Carlo — I think it would be good marketing strategy to put that opera window in the Cadillac Eldorado in ’71. Get it out there, and then let it appear on this lower-priced car. It’s going to give that car a lift.’ Ed Cole said to Bill, ‘I like that. Get Fisher Body on the phone.’
“The Cadillac was already on its way, and he put a lot of pressure on a lot of people, and they got that opera window in the Cadillac. We modeled it quickly — took us about four days — had the Fisher people over and gave them rough drawings. They went back and changed tools and dies and got it into production, and it did precisely what we believed it would do.
“When those A Cars came out with the little opera windows, everybody thought, ‘My, I’ve got a little Cadillac here.’ That’s good marketing. Earl used that strategy continuously. He started with Cadillac, and then let it drift down through the ranks” (Crippen, 1985).
Let’s take a closer look at Rybicki’s timeline
Wayne Kady stated in a fairly recent interview that the 1971 Eldorado design he handed off had conventional quarter windows and that the “production studio” later added opera windows (Wade, 2022). Aaron Severson (2010) wrote that “GM president Ed Cole had to authorize the necessary last-minute tooling changes.”
How last-minute were those changes? John Gunnell’s Standard Catalog of American Cars (2002) stated that the 1971 Cadillac lineup was introduced on September 29. The strike reportedly began on September 14 and lasted through November 20 of 1970 (Albrecht, 2023).
Also see ‘1971-78 Cadillac Eldorado: Collectible Automobile tells only part of the story’
In the January 1971 issue of Popular Science, Jim Dunne wrote that tools “ordered for 1972 production were held up by the strike. The resulting delay could seriously lessen the chance that this work will be finished in time for the 1972 model run” (1971, p. 26).
The reason why: Tools and dies were made in GM’s Fisher Body plants, “which were shut down along with all other GM facilities. If these dies are not ready for 1972 production start-up in July, GM could cancel all plans for a new body on its intermediate lines next fall” (1971, p. 26).
Didn’t the Eldorado need to be completed before the strike?
If the 1971 Eldorado’s dies needed to be ready for production start-up by July of 1970, that was well before the strike began. John Z. DeLorean later stated that there was a “growing probability” of a strike as of late August but that the United Auto Workers didn’t announce until September that GM and Chrysler would be jointly targeted (Wright, 1979; pp. 171, 175).
Did GM executives above DeLorean preemptively delay the A-body redesign because they correctly assumed that there would be an unusually long strike against GM? Or is Rybicki’s interview another example of how one should be skeptical about the factual accuracy of oral histories?
NOTES:
Gunnell stated in the section devoted to 1971 Cadillacs that “new models were introduced September 29, 1982.” Of course, the year was incorrect. So was the day and month incorrect too? The introduction date listed for 1970 models was “September 18, 1969” and for 1972 models “took place in September 1971” (2002, pp.136-138). Thus, I am guessing that the stated 1971 introduction day and month were correct — or at least close to being accurate.
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RE:SOURCES
- Albrecht, Brian; 2023. “The likely effect of 1970 GM strike on 1971 GS production.” V8Buick.com. Posted July 19.
- Crippen, Dave; 1985. “The Reminiscences of Irwin W. Rybicki.” Automotive Design Oral History Project. Automobile in American Life and Society. Recorded June 27.
- Dunne, Jim; 1971. “Detroit Report. . .” Popular Science. January issue: p. 26.
- Gunnell, John; 2002. Standard Catalog of American Cars, 1946-1975. Revised Fourth Ed. Krause Publications, Iola, WI.
- Severson, Aaron; 2010. “This Time, It’s Personal: The 1967-1970 Cadillac Eldorado.” Ate Up With Motor. Posted Dec. 31.
- Wade, Adam; 2022. “The 1971 Cadillac Eldorado was ‘Longer, Lower, & Wider’ Exemplified and a Beveled Masterpiece.” Rare Classic Cars & Automotive History. Accessed July 26.
- Wright, J. Patrick; 1979. On A Clear Day You Can See General Motors. Wright Enterprises, Grosse Pointe, MI.
BROCHURES & ADVERTISING:
- oldcaradvertising.com: Cadillac Eldorado (1971); Chevrolet Monte Carlo (1973)
- oldcarbrochures.org: Cadillac Eldorado (1971)
I like the prow-like raised middle section of the bonnet that characterised the 1971 to 1978 Eldorado, it was a nice throwback to the cars that had been built by GM in the past (although the intention was probably to mimic or recall pre war cars, in the end to me it’s a more crisp reboot of GM’s cars circa 1948-1953). Flat hoods instead are boring, especially when they are huge due to the size of the cars or the packaging (proportions).
The “raised prow treatment” is something that in a more subdued way even Alfa Romeo does in order to integrate the front end’s scudetto, so I could even say it’s international:D