Quick Look: Once, Twice, Three Times a Landau…

You may remember Jason Bagge, he of the Brougham Whispering. The 1974-76 “Glass House” Caprice coupe, so named due to its huge, fixed quarter windows, is probably his favorite old car. Many of his cars have been written up here on RG, including a ’76 Bonneville, ’76 Ninety-Eight and 1978 Marquis. You may also recall he’s had two different 1976 Caprice Classic Landau coupes.

One triple black…

And one triple burgundy.

Both were sold for “the next one”, as so frequently happens in Jason’s world. There is always that next old car. Or two. Or three.

But now another one has been located. As of this writing there is approximately a 99.8% chance he’s getting it. As he told me today,

You have no idea-well maybe you do!-about how pumped I am to get that rare color combo 76 Landau. The car is loaded to the gills with options too. Full power, litter container, map container, original spare, power trunk, cruise, tilt, AC-the works.”

Expect a full report at some later date. The days of these Nimitz-class Caprices being $500 beaters is long gone, and thanks to the custom crowd and the demolition derby crowd, these are getting hard to find in decent original shape! Jason will have this one in near-showroom condition in no time.

8 Replies to “Quick Look: Once, Twice, Three Times a Landau…”

  1. Gregory

    Consider me a heretic but I always found these cars to be too large. I grew up in New York city where parking spaces were always at a premium and it would be extremely difficult to find a space for this size car. The largest car that I thought was practical to have in New York (yes I know that might be an oxymoron) would be a Dodge Dart. The Dart could seat six, had plenty of power with a 318 and if you jacked up the back with air shocks your rear bumper height would line up above any offending tail gaiters front bumper so you would be left alone. Also it was a classic sleeper and nobody wanted to steal it. But I found I may be alone on these pages of singing the virtues of a Dodge Dart especially the two door hardtop with the Elwood Engel re-style.
    I do however find Tom Klockau’s pieces interesting and always learn a thing or two from him about cars or for that matter Wisconsin. So keep up the good work Tom.

    Reply
    • Carmine

      There was a Dart SE article posted by Tom a little while back, so you aren’t the only one. you weren’t the only one that thought these were too big, the designers had the same thoughts around 1972 and started thinking about the scaling down the “big” cars for their next go around.

      Reply
    • CJinSD

      I remember family trips to Staten Island in the late ’70s. The only cars parked on Clifton Avenue other than my parents’ car would be the newly downsized Coupe De Villes and various Monte Carlo clones. Eldorado Biarritzes were in car ports. Manhattan was chock full of full-sized Detroit iron for as long as it was available, although many big cars were driven by professionals. I spent my last year at Morgan Stanley taking Crown Vics to work and Town Cars home, around 2000. It used to be sort of a joke that the rest of the world’s cities used tiny cars while New Yorkers were all about survival.

      Reply
  2. John C.

    Most of us have been trained to prefer the 77 with their trimmer more efficient style, and I know I have had my head turned by the bent glass rear window style to shake up the boxy appearance. Leave it to the Brougham Whisperer to gently remind us of what the 76s offered. The THM 350 were so far superior to the earlier Powerglide and torque was still quite strong. This and the ever rising equipment levels made for an effortless driving experience with long term durability that was better than what came before or afterword. A 77 with the new standard 4.1 must have felt pretty Nova like in comparison. The end of the hardtop and the stronger frame starting in 74 would have also payed dividends in solidity compared to the willowy past and the plastics and thinner metal of a weight conscious future. This designed for an austere future that permeated the 77s is completely missing from the designed for a great new day that would have been the mindset in 68-89 when this was put together. When hippies were still dropping out to turn on and weren’t dragging everyone else with them. GM was not yet skimping on frequent restyles so the 76 looks far different from the 71 in a way that we haven’t seen since. The 77 went what 14 years with only a few styling changes. That’s the way the Germans do things but it doesn’t mean we had to. Thanks Tom and Jason.

    Reply
  3. George Denzinger

    Normally, I dislike cars painted white. People bitch about cars painted black or dark blue (I might be one of them), but I reaaaallly dislike cars that are painted white. Except this one. I can’t wait to see it when he’s finished with it…

    Reply
  4. sgeffe

    That rust spot at the base of the right-rear window would give me pause! What is lurking under the landau top? (Don’t these have rust issues immediately behind the rear window where the decklid rests?

    Reply
  5. WildcatMatt

    My Uncle Joe had a ’76 Caprice when I was a kid. On a drive from Iowa to Illinois to visit us, they were on I-80 and had a semi going the other direction lose a tire which crossed the median and impacted his driver side passenger door, leaving a fairly deep dent.

    I was always amazed that there was so much empty space between the sheet metal and the interior panel that the door could be so mashed in and yet from the interior you couldn’t tell anything had happened.

    Reply
  6. John Bryan

    Ah, my first new to me car as an adult! $600 bought me a very used green on green two door coupe, overheat-a-matic 400SBC, completely worn out front suspension gave it a nice death wobble around 45 (I just went faster/slower as needed), got, maybe, with a tailwind, 12mpg. Sold it basically for what I paid for it and bought…6cyl, 3 speed stripper Maverick. In brown.

    Reply

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