The Cadillac DeVille was born over in GM’s stables in 1958 as a luxury car. It officially died out in 2005, and in the years it has been on the market it seems to have convinced people that some of its incarnations, especially the early ones, are the perfect basis for some very wicked custom vehicles.
I kind of lost track of how many times I’ve come across simply vicious DeVilles, transformed from luxury vehicles into rides bad boys and girls are meant to drive at night. Yet few of the rides I’ve seen before match the one we have here in terms of spookiness.
The car is based on a first-generation DeVille, and it is the result of a rather recent frame-off restoration performed by an undisclosed American garage. We found it on the lot of cars that the auction house Mecum is sending under the hammer later in May at the Indiana State Fairgrounds in Indianapolis.
The first thing that strikes you about this thing is the blackness of it all. A deep shade of partially reflective black envelops the entire build, making it look like a black hole ready to swallow every bit of light around it.
The coupe still boasts the original lines of its former self, somewhat exaggerated by the custom work performed on it. Not that it matters much, as darkness blends every line, bulge, and décor into one nasty (in the impressive sense) package.
The only things not black on the DeVille are its wheels, sourced from Colorado Custom. They are 20 inches in size on all four corners, wrapped in Vogue tires, and hiding at the front Hydroboost disc brakes.
The meanness of the ride is enhanced by the fact it sits very close to the ground. That’s owed to the dual-pump air ride suspension system the car was fitted with underneath the body. That’s also where a new fuel tank was installed to feed the precious substance to a supercharged 6.0-liter engine.
We are not told the power output of the unit, but given how the thing runs a Brian Tooley Racing Stage 1 camshaft and an automatic transmission, expect the level of horsepower screaming through the ceramic-coated exhaust system to be quite high.
The interior of the custom Caddy is equally black, with the hue spread pretty much all over, except on the tilt steering column (chrome) and the steering wheel (white). A custom Autosound stereo system can be seen in there, and a set of Holley digital gauges adorns the dashboard.
Mecum is sending the nasty 1958 Cadillac DeVille under the hammer on May 17. The car’s seller is hoping to fetch at least $245,000 for it, but a sale price of $265,000 is not out of the question.