What is a "land yacht"?

Land yachts are the biggest of the big cars. But how long are they? How much do they weigh? What about those massive trunks, cavernous interior spaces and those huge (but low-power) V-8 engines?

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Go behind the wheel, under the hood and beyond with
car Stuff from how Stuff Works dot com. I had
Welcome to car Stuff. I'm Scott and I'm Ben. You
are you as always, we are joined by our superproducer
Dylan nicknamed to be assigned facan uh and of course

(00:24):
no Mattman Brown Scott. Today we're talking about one of
I don't know how you feel about this, but we're
talking about one of my favorite things. What is it
land yachts. Oh yeah, the giant vehicles, right, huge vehicles,
and it encompasses a larger portion of the twentieth century
than I thought I did initially. I don't know why

(00:45):
I hadn't cast my mind back far enough in this one,
But we're talking about a group of vehicles that can
be lumped into this that started about the nineteen twenties,
you know, all the way through the nineteen seventies. For
some reason, I just have it stuck in my head
that the true lands come from the nineteen fifties, sixties,
and seventies. But I just completely forgotten how large some

(01:06):
of those older cars could be, Like the old Dusenbergs.
I knew you were going to see Dusenbergs Yeah, they're
they're massive and monstrous. Uh. And part of that, you know,
of course, is miniaturization, uh techniques that that evolved over
the decades. You know, just back in the twenties, if
you wanted a certain amount of power, the engine was
just going to have to be that large and that long. Yeah, exactly.

(01:29):
And we'll get the power, by the way, because that's
an interesting part of this whole tale. And we should
get this out of the way right up front here.
It's this comes from a listener suggestion. Yes, yes, yes,
our good friend Rudy Smith wrote in and uh and
said that he would. He writes them with so many
topics that that we have a hard time covering everything
that he he he writes in for and sometimes I

(01:49):
I included in a Facebook post or something. These are
fantastic ideas. Um, these are correspondent he is. You know,
there's a few people that write in that we take
a lot of their idea, like a high percentage of
their ideas as a few of those listeners that are
like that. But but Rudy is definitely one. He's got
some good ones. And uh, here's the note. It says
Scott and Ben after seeing a mammoth Lincoln premiere at
Old Car City, which by the way, is about an

(02:10):
hour from here. We should totally go. He really should.
He's been there and we haven't been there. What does
that say. It's I mean, he's our correspondent dedicated to
the cause. Uh So, after seeing a mammoth Lincoln premiere
at Old Car City, I was inspired to think of
land yachts. I might think, I think it might make
a good show topic. How long were they, how much

(02:30):
did they weigh? How are they different from cars in
the area that we're not considered land yachts? Um how
do they compare in size with today's cars? He said,
to see some of them, it looks like they were
there's like an arms race to see you could make
the most gigantic luxury car in the term conspicuous consumption
comes to mind. And then he lists of a huge
He's got a huge list of of links. And this
helped us in choosing this topic. I'll tell you that

(02:52):
because a lot of the research was already done. It's
already that out there, so spoilers. If you provide a link,
that helps a lot, because and then we know where
to begin, right, And this is a good beginning. There
must be twenty links here, but uh, it's talking about
hoods and fins and ridiculous luxury features and of course
big V eight engines. Um you know, miles per gallon

(03:13):
if that's a thing. Really we're like gallons per mile
um and some examples. And then of course you know
that the question over the longest ever US production vehicle made,
and we'll have an answer for that at the very
end we do. Okay, we'll save it for the very end,
well somewhere near the end maybe, But but maybe what
we should do is describe kind of what a land

(03:34):
yacht might be so that people understand, because there's a
couple of things that have that similar moniker. Yes, okay,
that's perfect, because some people will tell you that a
land yacht is an umbrella term for r vs recreational vehicles.
Kind of makes sense, that makes sense, but that's not
what we're talking about today. One of the for some people,

(03:57):
a land yacht or a lead sled or a yank
tank for our Australian friends out there, and watch me
pronounce it correctly. Melbourne and Brisbane work. Did I do that?
I think I messed up the other one, but I
think you got it right. But that's a new term
for me, by the way, Melbourne, I got I mean,
I don't mean those, I mean the the Yank tank.
It makes sense when you think about it. Yeah, that's

(04:18):
a that's apparently Australian slang for what we would consider
land yachts, but also for SUVs and sometimes, like growing up,
I would think a land yacht, I know it when
I see it, you know, I would feel like I
would be able to, if not articulate a solid definition,

(04:40):
you know, like based on time periods that I could
definitely see something and go give it a hard yes
or no. I think our audiences that way. And I
think it's kind of like you know, the definition of
of other things where you say I don't I can't
describe it, but I know it when I see it
right right or if someone's and you know, there will
be other people with a more narrow row or a

(05:00):
strict definition, like a focus direction, like it has to
be this, this length, the wheelbase has to be this,
it has to be created within this time. For muscle
cars and pony cars, Yeah, exactly. And you know there's
there's a again, a long history of of land yards,
and we've got this list of about fifty modern vehicles.
Will not go through the whole list, but there are
some surprises on the list that I thought we should
bring up in this podcast. So we'll get to that

(05:21):
at some point, and I promise yes, and as we proceed,
will say that one of the I guess one of
the most common definitions that I keep finding that pops
up is the idea. This comes also from a Jelopnic
article that land yachts described the largest full sized cars

(05:43):
made by US and German automakers from the fifties to
the nineties. I don't agree with that definition because I think,
you know, I think it does go back further. I
think the twenties. Uh we see, like you read my
mind about the Dusenberg stuff, but up to the nineties.

(06:03):
I mean, I'll be honest with you, man, I was
driving some cars when I was a kid that I thought, well, sure, yeah,
you're talking about the big Bonneville. Yeah yeah, well those
were those Even to me, those are big land yards
as well, because they were they were making other cars
at the time that were a lot smaller. So this
was the top end vehicles for the manufacturer. You know,
they had the most luxury features, they were the softest ride,
they were the most comfortable. They were the most expensive

(06:26):
also in a lot of cases because um, they could
cram everything they wanted on there, and size wasn't consideration.
Cost wasn't a consideration in a lot of cases. So um,
you know they have the biggest engines. Um they had
the characteristics I guess of of you know, trying to
motor through a um a docking area. You know, trying
to trying to park in a parking lot. It's the
same way and the big long slow turns that you

(06:48):
had to make. No, not in not in any way.
And you know, I mean I think most people probably
have some kind of experience, whether it's you know with grandparents,
you know, driving the Cadillac or the Bottleville like you
had it, or um, you know friends in high school
that had some giant old vehicle and like a big
Delta eight e eight or something that say it's like
a couple of couches inside. You know, a moving vehicle

(07:09):
you can drive around and you can bring as many
friends as you want. You know, a lot of people
have some really good experiences in these land yards from
from the past, you know, like nostalgia is brought up.
I guess every time that you you see or or
think of one of these, Um man, where do we
go with this, because it is these are full size cars.
The the again, the the the focus I guess was
on uh, soft ride and comfort and luxury. So so

(07:33):
handling is not really anything to consider here. You would
think they would have like the most powerful giant VT
engines that they could possibly cram in there. But the
case was they put maybe the biggest feed engines they
could in there. Um, not necessarily the most powerful that
they had, as we'll find out. Um. And then also
when we talk about power, you know, weight becomes a
factor because we are heavier. Yeah, weight was a huge

(07:55):
factor in these vehicles. So so they had to have
these big vight engines. But you know, you think, well,
this is really again as really said, conspicuous consumption. But um,
you know at the time, fuel economy wasn't a concern.
It's all pre oil crisis, yeah exactly, so you know
the low gas prices, Um, there's really no environmental concerns
at that time. Uh, there there probably were, but no
one is really focused on it. It It wasn't a regulation

(08:17):
at the time that they had to meet. Um, you know,
there's just so much to this there. Of course, there's
the uh, you know, the population itself that you know,
this was this is meant for let's say, the middle class,
upper middle class. You know, they're these big, full size
luxury vehicles. Um. There the prosperity, I guess is increasing.
You know, they're they're they're uh, they're gainfully employed, they're

(08:39):
making what they considered to be a lot of money
at the time. They might as well use it to
show off a little bit. And and it was Yeah,
because if we're talking about what people would popularly describe
as the heyday of these vehicles, then we're talking about
post World War two economic boom. So this goes into
another important difference. Because we talked we met mentioned that

(09:01):
some German manufacturers are considered to have made land yachts.
It's true that other countries, other continents, other parts of
the world with big manufacturing bases like Japan or European
countries eventually made cars that would be larger or that size.
But there's a design part of this, an aesthetic that

(09:22):
ties into distinguishing American land yachts. So for instance, they
would have you know, the white wall tires, body on
frame construction. Uh, very like you said, very heavily cushioned,
roomy interior. What I loved about the Bondoville is it's
like I was inviting, you know, I'd be going on

(09:42):
date and I would say, hey, come with me to
my rolling studio apartment. That what it was. Yeah, really
it was. I mean they're long, low and wide right, Yeah, yeah,
that was the idea as what back from Harley Earl's
you know, thought process back at GM in in the day.
And seriously, they're they're they're just you can spot them
on the road. When you see them. It's one of
those things that you just have to see it, and

(10:03):
you once you do, you understand exactly what it is.
You don't. You don't think like, well that's a that
could be that could be just a compact sedan. It's not.
It's definitely not a landsco. You know, I'm probably over
thinking this whole thing. I mean, people understand exactly what
a land yard it is. We think about like big
caddies and vehicles that were maybe even a little taller,

(10:23):
a little little bigger than they are today because you
know that the thought processes now to get them kind
of low into the lower of the ground a little
more aerodynamic, and fuel efficiency is more of a concern
now than it was. So. Um there there are examples
of of lanyards today that we'll get to that again,
there's some shockers on that list. I there's something that
you know about And one thing that we should say
is that we realize that they're pickup trucks that and

(10:45):
SUVs that are longer than the sedans of today and
and of and of you know yesteryear. I guess you
know they're they're longer than the old Cadillacs were in
some cases especially they got the extended cab. You know what,
Oh yeah, they got the crew cab and then the
eight footbed. You know at the bumpers that stick out
like swim platforms on the back end. And you know
that they're enormous trucks. But we're not counting trucks right now.

(11:06):
We're talking about production sedans in the United States. And
so one other quick thing, and this is the and
I'll let you finally talk Ben. One last thing is that,
um you can remember that this is cars that are
in the pre stretch limo phase. So when you take it,
take a production vehicle, send it to an aftermarket coach

(11:27):
builder and have them stretch the frame and body, and
you can make a car that's you know, two long,
just like a hearse or something. Well, yeah, yeah, exactly,
But we're talking about these were built by the manufacturers
at this length. This is you know, the wheel basis
is the length. Um. Some of them are pretty impressive. Now,
you know, I'm gonna give it away if I say
it too early, but we've got a way for that second.

(11:50):
But I have a question for you, and before you
answer it, we'll we'll go to a word from our sponsor.
But here's the question, and this is for you, Scott,
This for you, Rudy, this is for everybody listening in
the audience. Should a station wagon be considered a land yacht.

(12:10):
We'll be right back with Scott's answer, and we're back,
all right, Scott. We we took some time, uh during
during the ad break here, so uh, I hope that
you feel like, even though I did a little bit

(12:31):
of gotcha journalism, I hope I hope you feel like
you've had time to ponder this I'm comfortable with this,
all right, The answer is yes, yes, you think so. Absolutely, Yeah,
there's I mean, they're enormous vehicles and their factory built
at that length, at that size, they're just they're huge,
huge vehicles. We're talking about the ones that have you know,
nine passenger carrying capabilities, you know, the rebord facing Yeah,

(12:54):
I know that. I mean the really some of those
are some of the greatest, longest vis that you'll see
on the road these days. I mean, they're really really cool.
And in fact, there's a couple of articles that I
read that have um kind of elevated these two what
they call beautiful works of art really and and they're
they're right, they're absolutely right when they say that, you know,
some of these older station wagons are among some of

(13:16):
the best design classic cars that are out there there.
Really are cool. And I know there's a there's a
faction of people that say that, you know, I just
don't like even look at the body design of a
wagon versus like a two door coup or something that's
that's way cooler to have a two door coup than
a four door station wagon. They can see nine people,
I see that, I can see that idea for sure,

(13:38):
and that's a you know, an aesthetic thing. It all
goes back to what you want from a particular vehicle. However,
I noticed that I'm finally getting old enough, ma'am where
I can see the way things cycle through popular culture
and in more than autos. It applies to autos just
as well. And I gotta tell you it's kind of creepy.

(13:59):
I finally get what my parents were talking about. But
I think that the old school station wagons are due
for a a pretty big spiker resurgence because a lot
of people who would have bought a station wagon, you know,
in the past few years, are buying like crossovers, you
know what I mean. They're getting like pacific as and stuff.

(14:20):
So it's coming back down to smaller again. Yeah, and
so I think people will um eventually, if for nothing
more than nostalgia, start really liking station wagons. Well, okay,
so this may be a stretch, but think about like
the Porsche of pan America, alright, stretching out a Porsche design,
you know, a coupe design into a sedan and then

(14:41):
where it's just kind of a short step from there
to wagon body, right, And they also make SUVs. I understand,
they make you know, the sporty SUVs. There's other manufacturers
that have been doing this all along. Cadillac still makes
still makes station wagons. Volvo of course still makes station wagons. Um.
You know, Chrysler for a while had a Magnum that
was really cool. That was a like a throwback, I guess,

(15:02):
really interesting design. I like that a lot. It's gone
now they don't make it anymore. Um, But yeah, I
think you're right. I think that people are gonna move
back to station wagons at some point. I think it's
gonna come back with full force. Really because, um, what
you can do with that much real estate. I mean,
for the designers. Must you know what I'm gonna say,
I would guess that designers would really like to design

(15:25):
wagons again. Oh yeah, I would think I would think so.
And then additionally, you know, just from a customization standpoint,
there's a lot of stuff that you could do as
a car owner in the interior. I don't want to
get into accidentally derail us into a station wagon podcast,
but I'm I'm glad that you have that answer. Some

(15:47):
people would say that it only applies to um that
a station wagon is too different to a sedan for
to apply. But four doors four doors still has four wheels,
so it's will built, built from the manufacturer, right off
the SSEMBI line, just like that. It's not a custom
coach built vehicle. You know, you don't send it out somewhere.

(16:07):
It has made it the wagon. It's a sedan with
a bigger But I guess you're right. And a lot
of kids, you know, a lot of times you'll notice
that some of these older vehicles they look they look
just like the you know, the sedan or the coop
version of the car, which is that that station wagon
back end over you know, the open back end instead
of the trunk. And uh and that was the case
with almost all of those, is that, you know, they
matched the same wheelbase. They just had a longer overhang

(16:30):
at the back end, or they had you know, a
dramatically different roofline. But um, it was basically the same
car for the front three quarters and then the back
quarter was what's you know, what's new? I guess. So
this author, uh Louis Kintaro's from Gelotnick agrees with you
because one of the first things on his list of
the ten Great Land Yachts is the Chevrolet Capri Wagon yeah, es, yeah, yeah,

(17:00):
oh yeah, it was a huge custom cruising Yeah. So yeah,
it's the Buick Roadmaster's return, right, But then, of course
that's not in production, and the author says that's largely
due to SUVs. But I'm glad that definition checks out
with you, so I don't have to write them a

(17:21):
strongly worded letter, a very terse note back to that
very terison, to whom it may concern. Uh. The other
one that I wanted to that I wanted to ask
you about, and if you're cool with it, do you
want to trade back and forth some examples? Yeah, sure, okay.
The other one that I wanted to ask you about
is Mercedes Been six hundred nine. So this is this

(17:46):
is German, of course, eighteen feet long, five thousand, seven
hundred pounds and so uh wait wait, wait, what's the
name of the vehicle again, it's a the Mercedes Been
six s Okay, oh, I know what you talking about?
The Dictator's car. Yeah, the Dictator. Yeah, it seems like
everybody that it doesn't seem that way, Yes, yeah, this

(18:10):
is you know Jeremy Clarkson dufd around with one of
these on top Gear. Um, and it's interesting because for me,
before we were doing some research for this show, for
this episode, I had always just thought of land yachts
as a very American thing, you know, and I was
a little I mean, it makes sense because it fits

(18:31):
the definition. Like you said, you know, four doors, no
aftermarket stuff. It's just got a really long length. It's
kind of low, it's heavy, it's not nimble anyway. Well,
I mean, I know we're going back and forth with
a couple of examples here, but I just want to
point out that there were there were so many examples that, um,

(18:52):
like my friend, my friend in high school, your friends,
I should say, one hand an a Delta eighty eight.
The other one had, um, a Vista Cruiser station way
like like on that seventy show kind of had the
little window at the top. I was used as his
parents owned a hardware store and they used it kind
of as like the you know, the the hauler. I
guess first stuff they needed back and forth between home
and there, and um, that was a cool car. It

(19:14):
was a lot of fun. And then you know, another
friend drove full size Chevy Caprice. Not station wagons, but
full size, you know, big sedan's I guess that we're
really boxing, really squared off, huge engines in them. Um.
That's the same friend that had the Vista Cruiser by
the way. Um. But yeah, there were people there that
had some enormous vehicles, and you know, it's a lot
of fun to hang out in those things. And there

(19:35):
were other examples from you know, more prestigious man manufacturers
and oh, you know what I can let's say this
before I even forget. There was another friend in high school.
I had a checker cab. Yeah, checker cab. At the
end of it. Somebody I knew through a friend, so
I didn't get it right in it a lot, but
he had bought an old, decommissioned checker cabin. It was
a gray vehicle, almost like a Primer gray. It wasn't

(19:55):
yellow at the time. Had I beams for bumpers, that's
how heavy duty this thing was. Wh you got in
the back seat, you know, there's like three ft of
room between your knees and the back seat of the
back of the front seat, I should say, Um, an
enormous vehicle, but it was a huge fun car to
be in. You know, have the plate ups plate. No,
I didn't have this at a different time. Now, this

(20:16):
was all all open inside, but there was just a
ton of space inside of it. Um. The other prestigious
ones we're talking about are like you know, of course
we mentioned Cadillac and Lincoln and Buick and you know
other other Um, I guess American brands that had large
size sedans could also have you know, um, well, I
I guess what they are sedans, the big full sized
versions of these things that were full of luxury features.

(20:38):
So um. You know one that kind of gets overlooked here,
and it's one of the Uh. This is an author
from my classic garage who wrote an article about some
of the longest American cars in the fifties, sixties, and seventies.
This author brings up one of his favorite examples, and
it's the nineteen sixty six Oldsmobile Toronado. And this one
gets overlooked a lot because I mean it's just not

(20:58):
what you typically consider. There is a land yet I
think this was a front wheel drive car to begin with.
That's something unusual different. Um. The production run began in
nineteen sixty six. They had a huge wheelbase for a
two door coupe you got to consider that it's two doors,
so it has this real long look. Anyways, the wheelbase
was one hundred and nineteen inches and a total length
of two hundred and eleven inches, So that's a pretty

(21:19):
long vehicle. We're talking about ballpark. I'm gonna guests, I
don't have the calculating in front of me here, but
but that's about eighteen feet maybe a few inches less
than eighteen feet, So it's a big vehicle. Um, but
that's the kind of size you're talking about for a
lot of vehicles that around the road that in that
time and that era. Um, other specifics, I guess, um
you can take talk about the Continentals. Huge Continentals had

(21:42):
enormous V eight engines. Those are popular choice among um
people looking for old um you know, I guess maybe
old hot rods to you know, still, I don't know
you if you call a Lincoln hot rod to begin with,
but a lot of people have turned them into hot
rods because of uh, you know, the engine, engine and
transmission comedy that they had along with these really cool
slab side looks. So they get turned into something that

(22:05):
they weren't meant to be original. But others like to
just you know, completely restore it, but it's not a
little conservative and honestly, go back and yeah, I guess,
honestly go back and look at just about any vehicle.
You can look up specs for any vehicle, right, so
if you type in nineteen sixty, uh, let's make something
up mercury, uh coupe specs, erst and specs or or whatever,

(22:27):
you're gonna find that. You know, these wheelbases are in
the or not wheel base, but the overall lengths are
going to be in the eighteen foot range for just
about everything that they made. And that's just one example.
You could do that for almost any vehicle really of
that era, unless it was you know, purposely like a
sports car or um hatchback or something that was meant
to be small. It was more like the that longer

(22:49):
length and the wider frame in general was just more mainstream,
most closer to what was considered normal. It was common. Yeah,
it was common. That's the perfect word. And what we
see there is in some ways that the status symbol
part of it, because you know, yes, you're you're buying
the family's first car, right it's nineteen fifty something, and

(23:14):
you are you've been talking to the dealer, right, And
unfortunately for you, this is before car stuff existed, so
you don't have you know, you don't have tips and
tricks on how to buy cars a few years before
us a little bit, a little bit and uh and
you you know, you want to get something that makes
an impression. You want to be able to haul the

(23:34):
kids around the stuff. But you also don't want at
the time, like your neighbors to come up to you
and say, like, oh, Bill, you got is that even
a car? Anything? Did you lose your job? Bill? Yeah?
Did you? I mean, I've never seen a covered go kart.
But here's the thing, Like you go, you go into

(23:56):
a showroom in that era, you know, the seventies, everything
you see is gonna be big compared to now. Really, yes,
and there's an important reason for that. Okay, what's that? Well,
I think we've mentioned it a little bit earlier. Is that,
beginning with the oil crises in the nineties seventies, the

(24:17):
sort of hierarchy of desires from a car changed fundamentally,
even for even for people who ordinarily would would never
worry about that, you know, yeah, exactly so, even if
you're you know, stepping into let's say a Dodge Dart
or something like that. Now that's not a huge car
from that era, but it's big compared to a lot

(24:38):
of the sedans that we see today, or not maybe
not sedans, but maybe, uh maybe some of the two
door coups that are a little bit on the smaller side. Now. So, um,
it's all in. It's all perspective, it's all in. Uh,
it's relative, I said, I guess maybe that's a better
way to say, that's relative. So I've got an idea.
With some of the pros and cons that we've we've
outlined so far. We've talked about, you know, when the

(24:58):
pros space just luxurious, very smooth down the river kind
of ride. One of the cons would be, of course,
the handling is just piss poor. Can I say that
on the air? I think you just did. Okay, fair enough? Alright? Sorry, Uh,
any children or parents listening to the show G thirteen,

(25:18):
what's happened and we're slipping? We're slipping. I need to
take it out, No, not leaving all right? Okay, So
the the handling, it's rough. The fuel efficiency is rough.
But one thing we didn't talk about in detail was
was the engine, the engine work, the engine specs. Yeah,

(25:40):
I guess, And what we saw is a lot of
I guess we'll call them truck sized engines and cars
of the day. And the thing of here's the the
situation with them. Though they're not quite the powerhouses that
we see today. You know, they weren't extremely well some Okay,
I'm gonna back this up a little bit. I was
gonna say they weren't high compressional monsters, but there were
versions of them that were that that were stuffed into

(26:03):
you know, smaller body vehicles, you know, muscle cars of course,
but these these engines that powered some of these great
big sedance and these big luxo you know, luxury barges.
I guess that you know around the road, um or
luxo barges. That was the worst. Yeah. They were, Um,
they were giants. They were enormous engines, but they were
relatively underpowered. Uh so you know they had the two
barrel cars on them instead of the four barrel or

(26:24):
you know, I guess this all depends on how you
ordered them. But um, they were paired with you know,
a three speed automatic transmission that wasn't the fastest shifting
automatic that you could get. It wasn't the manual transmission
of course, uh, you know for a little sporty or
fuel Um, the gearing wasn't exactly the same. So you know,
there was a lot of um, I wouldn't call it
strikes against these engines, but they were enormous vates that

(26:47):
weighed just they weighed so much, and they put them
in the front of these things for the you know,
the giant rear wheel drive platforms that they that they
often came with. And you would be surprised by some
of the low number as they came out of these
enormous engines. So there are some that you know, again
there's there, you know, uh, exceptions to all this. So

(27:07):
sure I found a list of of eight of the
biggest V eight engines the Detroit ever sold in the car. Now,
the problem with the list is, um that some of
these are also the most powerful engines that you know,
they were also stuffed into some of these, you know,
you could order them in the big luxury cars, but
they mostly came into sports cars. The reason that I
was intrigued by this article is because it ends with

(27:27):
one of the engines that we're going to talk about
in the longest production car that we're gonna get to
at the very end of this podcast. So you see
my dilemma here. I can't really even read you number
one out of this list yet because I want to
wait for the reveal at the end. Well, let's get
to let's get up to number two and then we'll
we'll have a little bit of a cliffhanger, all right.
So starting here at number eight, the Chrysler four forty,

(27:47):
that is a that's the four forty. That's a huge
engine to start with at number eight on the list.
But you know, they sold performance versions of this with
the you know, the the t NT version um for
some of the there's bour of your cars, I guess.
But but they also sold kind of a modest version
I guess of the four forty big block of course
that was that was for you know, some of the

(28:08):
other vehicles that were more family oriented. I guess that
you know, didn't have quite the how you know, the
the the output of the ones that were I guess
geared more towards the sporty buyer. Alright, right, I'm probably
overstating all this, but uh um as you as you
could guess, performance started out really high back in nineteen
sixty five when they first launched this thing, and by

(28:29):
nineteen seventy eight it had dropped all the way down.
So and the reason was because of UM emission regulations.
So starting out, you know, like a three horse power
and you know we're on nineteen sixty sixty eight. Um,
they could even produce more than that. It was almost
up to four hundred horse power if you had to
three barrel, three barrel carburetors on it, you know, with

(28:50):
the with the six pack version or um a four
forty six barrel for Plymouth as well. UM. Oh the
six pack by the ways for Dodge. I should have
mentioned that. Um. But the point is that you know,
these could be kind of hopped up, I guess to
make up make a better version of them. Um. But
in nineteen seventy two, all of these engines that we're
going to talk about, everyone across the board was really

(29:11):
paired back because paired down because they lowered the compression
ratio for a lot of them. Uh, they had more
conservative cam timing for a lot of them, and of
course other changes to comply with these stricter emissions controls
that came into place, and of course, um, you know,
the four or forty was the one that suffered. So
it dropped down to like three thirty five horse power
around nineteen seventy two, and then you know, if that

(29:32):
was just gross horse power, you want to talk about
like the say net horse power than a horse power
rating was all the way down to two twenty five
at that point, from from like yeah, three nine down
to that or three seventy five, let's say, and then
even more in nineteen seventy eight dropped all way down
to two hundred and fifty five. And at that point
they only allowed it to be used in you know,
police car applications or maybe you know, taxis or or

(29:54):
something like that. So all of the engines that we're
gonna talk about dropped in power or output like that.
And it's not necessary that they were producing less, it
was just they were choked even more. You know, fuel
economy became more of a concern, and these are the
engine that they were stuffing in some of these biggers
across the board. Again, yeah, that's right, they were across
the board. All US manufacturers had to deal with the
same type of things. So you know, that's just one example.

(30:16):
But um some other engines that were thrown into both
sports cars and sedans. Is a three way tie for
number five, the Pontiac five, the Oldsmobile fifty five, and
then the Buick for five. And those are all different engines.
They've all got their own specs and uh dead that
you can look through. And number four on the list
is the Lincoln four sixty, which you might have already guessed.
But then number three would be the Lincoln four sixty two.

(30:39):
And and you know, you would think that that's such
a small distinction there, you know, up to you know,
two cubic inches. What's the big differences? It's completely different engines,
So architecture it warrants its own, you know, a place
on the list. I guess there's a modern version for
number or modern engine rather for number two, and it's
kind of the bringing back of the the old big

(31:00):
block Chevy engine. And this is the Vorte and essentially
this is the big block that has been increased or
upped to about four nine six cuba inches um by
you know, increasing the stroke on the thing. So and
again that's a modern version. And the number one engine
on this list is the one that I can't tell
you about because that's what we're going to talk about

(31:22):
with the largest or the longest production car that the
US ever produced. That was a long list, but you
know what, if you dig into it, there's a lot
of detail from this. There's like called gearheads dot org
that I went to for that, and you can read
all about it and you can argue with you know,
the specs and stats that are on that site. And
one thing I will say to put some some fuel
on the fire here for the land yacht purest is

(31:45):
that that modern engine you mentioned, the Vortech is used
for Chevy and GMC trucks, vans and suburbans. Yeah. But
the reason that they included it on this list, and
you would think that why is it on the car
list is because those vehicles can use car license plates.
So that's the that's the one that's the one reason

(32:06):
that it qualified for this list. That the rules, I
guess is the author put together for this list you
can use passenger car plates. And so the idea is that, um,
you know, this thing kind of resembles, I guess the
old big block, but it's it's uh, it's it's up
to a little bit. I think we've added our our
gasoline to the fire. Now for what is number one?

(32:30):
What is the mystery we've been teasing for this episode? Uh,
we'll be back with the answer after a word for
my worst sponsor. Oh, hen, we're back. That was a
That was a rough intro to our ad. He almost

(32:51):
forgot what we're talking about. Onto the next onto the
next show. Oh man, whoa any segue you can walk
away from? Right, That's exactly right. But let's uh, let's
let's not keep the people waiting any longer. I'd like
to ask for a drum roll from our super producer

(33:12):
Dylan Scott Benjamin. What is the largest of the land yachts?
The nineteen seventy four to nineteen seventy six Cadillac Fleetwoode.
And it's huge. It's huge, It's right, yeah, And it's
a it's a giant vehicles twenty one feet in length.

(33:34):
That's A. That's incredible. It's it's two hundred fifty two
point two inches overall. If you want to get you know, uh,
you know what you'll read in the in the papers.
I guess um no one reads papers anymore. That's what
you're gonna find on all the autoblogs. The wheelbasis thing
is one and fifty one point five inches, So that
means that you know, from wheel center to wheel center,
you know, on the vehicle, you're talking about twelve and

(33:56):
a half feet between the wheels. That's a huge car.
It's a nord trying to picture that in your garage
the next time you go home. There's their photos of
this online of one that was I guess kind of
spotted in the wild, right, and I think the one
that they saw was the nineteen seventy three, which is
two inches shorter than the nineteen seventy four six version.
Um and it's longer than the box truck that is

(34:16):
parked next to be gives you an idea of how
big this thing is. So most crazy, most modern garages
will not fit a this vehicle. It's it's too long.
I've got a I got a house. My my house
was built in let's see nineteen I think it was
a mouse. I was gonna say, maybe not even modern.
It's an older house. Really, Uh was it twenty three

(34:38):
years old? Now at this point? Oh yeah, no, it
just hit me time to trash that place. I mean,
I'm trying to move on. No, I'm just kidding. It's
it's it's a it's a relatively newer place. My house
in Michigan was building fifty five and it hit a
nice deep garage and there was a reason for that.
It's because they had these giant vehicles. You needed that
extra length to be able to park in there. Well,

(34:59):
when I brought my latest car home, my my project car,
this is years ago. Now, it doesn't careful, careful measuring
to make sure that it wouldn't stick out of the
back end, I'd be able to close the garage door
behind it. There'd be no way with this. When I
have a I have a total of nineteen feet of
length in my garage if that's if you touch the
front wall, and that's where the garde door closes too.
So you know, let's say I have eighteen ft eleven

(35:20):
inches to play with in the garage and that's it,
and it nearly takes up that for my Chrysler. But this,
this Caddy would stick almost three ft well, it used
to be two ft out of the back end of
that thing. You it wouldn't be able to close the garage.
So that would be a problem for a lot of people. Um,
the weight of this thing, this in this this behemoth
is nearly six thousand pounds. It's like twenty pounds shy

(35:42):
of six thousand pounds. So it's a three ton car
that's on the road. And again, I want to make
I want to make this clear. What we're talking about
here is a it's a Limo body. And you may
think that disqualifies it from our list because it's a Limo.
But this is a factory built Limo. It wasn't a
Limo that they sent out for production, you know, again

(36:03):
to a custom coach builder. This is something that GM
built on the assembly line, and therefore it qualifies, as
you know, one of these the largest vehicles ever. They
sold thousands of these, They sold something like two thousand
every year. Um. And they really weren't terribly expensive. They
were about twelve thousand dollars around that, you know, Ballpark.
And I know that when you start loading up with

(36:24):
features and you know, extras and add ons, it gets
to be quite a bit more. But um, Ballpark twelve
thousand dollars at the time, and that's if you want
to adjust that for now, it's a right around sixty dollars.
You know again in ballpark, still expensive, but you're getting
a Cadillac Limo six grade. Yeah, I mean, if sixty

(36:46):
grand is too rich for your blood, what are you
doing in the limo game? And and you know, we
mentioned you know that Cadillac continued to build Limos for
a long time after this. It's just that they sent
them out to these custom coach builders and that happened
right around again no coincidence here, right around nineteen seventy seven,
when they started to shorten the catalect, they started to
downsize Caddy. And so from seventy seven until about I

(37:07):
want to say, it's testing the lengths of my memory
here that the depths of my memory bend. I want
to say, seven is when they stopped building uh entirely. Uh,
they stopped building the cat They stopped shipping catalacts out
from the factory to be stretched into limousine form. So
that kind of shut down the whole process right away. Um, Okay,

(37:32):
now we need to get to the engine. These are
enormous cars. I mean, is there more you want to
say about the interior of them? Because they're impressive. I
think you've got it. Yeah, they're big, they're big. Cars.
They have things like that's funny is the one that
we're looking at here in this this photograph has a
TV in town on back. It looks kind of like
the tail of a jet. I'm talking about those like
a big boss hog style uh um caddy with you

(37:52):
know these these just weird looking antenna thing on the back.
It's nothing like the modern antennis uh engines. Okay, these
are the big engines. Now, these are I guess you
could call them. I hate to say this because this
is a you know, it's a perlative. I guess the
world's largest production VA engines that power sedans. And I hated.

(38:14):
I know that someone will contest this. You know, there's
some caveats, but I think I think you're you're pretty
accurate because well say that again so everybody can walk
through it. The world's largest V eight engines powering powering
production sedans, powering production sedans. Okay, so there's a lot

(38:34):
of caveats. And again from the factory. So I know
that people stuff larger engines in there, but you know,
modifications aside um. You know these giant Cadillac engines. Now
up until night they used a big engine, right, not
too small. But by nineteen sixty eight, I believe it
was that I meant it just said, uh, they had

(38:55):
already been surpassed by like the Chrysler four forty or
Lincoln's four sixty and four sixty two engine that they
had now that we mentioned just a moment ago. So
they upped it to about four hundred and seventy two
cubic inches. And again this displacement, you know, seven point
seven three leaders. It's a huge, huge engine, but there
was a possibility of upping this um I designed up

(39:17):
to a six hundred If you board and stroke this engine,
it could it could have a potential of being a
six hundred cubic inch displacement engine from the same block.
So again same Well, anyways, you got the idea. Um
it had three horsepower five d and twenty five pound
feet of torque at just three thousand revolutions per minute.
So uh, this thing is only like eighty pounds heavier

(39:39):
than it's than the old four twenty nine that it replaced.
And this was the one that was used through nineteen
seventy four. But by then, in nineteen seventy they already
had another option optional engine available, and that was the
five hundred cubic inch engine from Cadillac. Now it's been
it sounds really impressive, right, but so we do need
to step back a couple of years here though, because
in nineteen seventy Adillac fitted a crankschef with a longer

(40:02):
stroke on this engine block and you know, achieved as
we said before, it had a potential for six hundred
cubic inches. They've now up to the five hundred cubic
inches from the factory, so you can get a five
hundred cubic eng engine an eight point two lead from
the factory. The horse power output was you know, gross
house horsepower rather, was about four hundred horse power and
five hundred and fifty pound feet of torqus. That's pretty strong.

(40:24):
That's pretty good. Again, massive car, six thousand, six thousand,
gone car. Keep but keep that in mind when you
realize that in ninety one they reduced compression from ten
point one to eight point five to one, and the
lower compression ratio dropped the five hundreds output from about
four hundred horse power to about three d sixty five
horse power. Um Sometimes, well, I guess if you want

(40:46):
to look at the s A ratings that we mentioned before.
You know, if all the add ons and you know,
emissions restrictions, et cetera, gets down to like two hundred
and thirty five horse power at this point, and that's
not the bottom end because in nineteen seventy six, the
final year, all of this stuff combined, you know, everything
that they kept adding on and piling on with the regulations,
and this five hundred cubicans engine in nineteen seventy six

(41:09):
had had something like a hundred and ninety horsepower down
to one from four hundred you know when it was
launched in nineteen seventy, so just six years and they
shut it down. Now there was an aftermarket or I
shouldn't aftermarket, but there's a different type of electronic fuel
injection system that you could get as an option, and
that increased the power uput to about two fifteen. But

(41:31):
again that's half of what it was when it was
launched in nineteen seventy. So you can see where this
these restrictions really cut into, uh, you know that the
performance of the vehicle. In the performance it's another thing
that I should mention here. Oh man, there's so much
to cover in this this episode. On the nineteen seventy
four Cadillac Fleetwood seventy five astonished me with these stats. Well,

(41:54):
ten point two miles per gallon was about what you
could expect, right, and that was probably really you know,
that's kind of probably geared a little bit towards fuel
economy at that point, you know, because that's the era
that we were going through, so a little bit towards that,
not as much towards performance. So it's somewhere in between,
like a you know, it's still drivable in history transition. Yeah,
so ten point two miles per gallon is what you

(42:15):
could expect out of this particular vehicle. Zero to sixty
time was twelve point six seconds. I don't know. How
do you get on the highway, Well, that's the thing.
You got to get a good running start at it,
I guess. And then once you get on the highway,
the top speed was only one hundred and nine miles
per hour. Not that you're gonna want to take, you know,
a car that's twenty one ft long and six thousand
pounds up to one nine miles per hour, but maybe

(42:36):
you would, who knows, like the salt flats, Yeah, I
guess so, I mean it depends on how many It
depends on how many bodies you got in the trunk,
because that trunk was like an eight body trunk, you know,
the big one that's back from when they used to
rate land yards by how many bodies you can fit
in the chunk. I'm talking about driving movies. Of course
you're like sneaking into driving. Oh what were you talking
about the same thing? I'm sure? Uh this was also

(42:59):
interestingly uh uh, this engine family was the last of
Cadillac's cast iron engines. Yeah, the great big v eates
you know, well the big blocks I guess big block
caddies really. Um okay, well, there's one more thing that
we need to cover here that we've neglected, right, which
is that although the Fleetwood holds the current title, uh

(43:23):
fear not, the the era of land yachts, while diminished,
continues in the modern day. Yeah, there's this constant fluctuation
between sizes of vehicles. We noticed that now they're kind
of getting bigger, right, cars are starting to get bigger. So,
like then, we've talked about this, the mini is getting
a little bit bigger, said answers. Try starting to get
a little longer, a little wider, little lower again actually

(43:44):
because I have to be honest, man. Uh if I
if I recall correctly, when we talked about, you know,
the the cycle of cars shrinking and expanding, I was
the one complaining about the I was the one complaining
about the mini. I remember ranting, you know, like, don't
call it a mini if you keep making it bigger.

(44:06):
It's right. Look at some of the Fiats that they
make now, uh, you know the Chrysler Fiats or Fiat
Chrysler's that are on the street. Now, some of those
are really big cars. I mean they're they're great big hatchback. Anyways,
get off track here. Let's let's talk about this list
that I I pulled from a blog site called zero
to sixty Times, and it's funny. They completely ignore the
classic vehicles here. This is more of a modern list,

(44:28):
I guess, the largest cars in the world. And I
think it's it's the point of this list is that
its current production and again excluding SUVs and you know
the big trucks and stuff, we know they're bigger vehicles.
And I'm just gonna hit you with the number one vehicle,
the longest one. I don't think it'll surprise anybody, but
it's a Rolls Royce Rolls Rice. It makes sense, right, Well,
you think the Cadillac or Rolls Rice or something would

(44:49):
still be out there, and maybe even Lincoln. But it's
Rolls Royce Phantom extended wheelbase, which has a wheelbase of
two hundred I'm sorry, not a wheelbase has an overall
link uh of tutor in thirty nine point eight inches.
That's just under twenty feet. So even so, the current
largest car in the world, um is still uh what

(45:10):
what a foot a little more of the foot shorter
than that Cadillac that we just talked about. Yeah, man,
can you imagine parallel parking that thing? You don't even
know if you would attempt to parallel park that, Yeah,
it would just be like I don't need to go
to this place. Yeah, where's the where's the semi parking
right exactly in a place where you don't have to
back up at all? Ever. Yeah, But I I gotta
be honest, man, I I wish that I had been

(45:34):
alive in the time where that was the normal, you know,
like those late fifties, early sixties, just cherry cars, uh,
And I I remember, you know, that was one of
the things that we had talked about briefly when we
looked at the cars of Cuba in a podcast ages ago. Uh,

(45:55):
where that would be the that's like outside of a
car show, that's the closest place to that sort of
experience we can find. Yeah, exactly, you're right with some
of the old classics, that the giant boats that the
driver around there. Now, this list, it includes fifty of
the largest cars in the world. So I'm not going
to read all these, I promise, but there's some surprises
on this was a lot of these are separated by

(46:15):
just you know, like you know, point one of an inch,
you know, so very very small, um, small small difference. Yeah,
I guess a minimal difference between each one of these.
So as we go up the list, you know, starting
down at number fifty, ferrari Ff is on the list.
That's the the number fifty on the un list with
one point two inches overall length. Um. Going up some

(46:37):
of the surprise I'll just read the surprises because that's
what we're looking for. Number forty one on the list
is the Toyota Avalon. Oh, by the way, this list
is probably built in if I had to guess, I'm
there's no date on this I'm guessing team based on
the you know the years that models that we'll see
um again. The Toyota Avalon comes in at number forty one.

(47:00):
It's like gets an idea of where we're headed here.
UM Tesla Tesla Model S comes in at number thirty
seven on this list. Kind of jockey and I know
it's a big car, but it was among the biggest
on the road right now, thirty seventh on the list.
That's relatively high, right it's getting up there. Number twenty
four Dodge Charger. I wouldn't have guessed that. I don't

(47:21):
know why I would not guess that. Number nineteen on
the list, So climbing up even higher. The feen Chevy
Impala is on the list at at one point three
inches as an overall length. And here's the one that
is probably the most surprising and the highest on the
list out of the ones that are surprised, as I guess,
Number fifteen on the list is the ten Ford Taurus.

(47:45):
Is that strange and I seals on the road all
the time, I would never guess that's the fifteenth longest
road on the vehicle on the road. UM in fourteen,
I wouldn't sixteen point nine ft long. That's a that's
a long vehicle, dude, that's wild almost seventeen feet long
for a um again four Taurus. I guess I don't
really know a land yacht when I see it, you know,

(48:07):
it has it has a different appearance, that's maybe a
little bit, a little bit taller, you know, more. I
don't know. I would say a road presence, but I
would say stance. It's got a different stance. Yeah, it does,
it does. Yeah. But I just thought that was a
big surprise, you know, because if you go down this list,
it's you know, Rolls, Royce, Bentley, Audie, Jaguar, Mercedes, all
the luxury marks and then number fifteen is the Ford
Taurus for tourist and the charger. I think more of

(48:32):
a as I think of more as a performance car. Yeah,
I guess I think it evolved into that over the years.
Now this is list that's four years ago. Back then
it was it was a slightly different animal back then.
That's a good point. Yeah. So with this, we want
to thank you again Rudy for the excellent suggestion. And
I wanted to ask you this guy, do you think

(48:54):
we'll see a continuing trend of larger and larger vehicles.
I feel that we will. Yeah. I think that Lincoln,
the Lincoln brand is coming back strong with some of
these big luxury vehicles that people wanted back, you know,
thirty years ago. And I think they're going to continue
to build big sedans that become more and more luxurious
and longer and wheelbased, longer and longer in length. And
I think Caddy is going to have to respond to

(49:16):
that by kind of going away from the direction they've
gone now with you know, sportier sedans, back to some
of the big luxury you know again luxury barges that
we see on the have seen on the road from
them in the past. I think that that's my gut feeling,
is that people are gonna want maybe not so much
the crossover that's luxurious and feels good or the you know,
the even the pickup trucks you know that are luxurious

(49:37):
and feels good on the road, but they're gonna want
you know, more of the uh, the comfort in the
style of the the old classic sedan with you know,
modern elements. Of course, it's gonna have modern technology, is
gonna have modern look, it's just gonna be the size
of those old vehicles. It's gonna be like a you know,
rolling studio apartment. Like I said, so, what do you think?
Do you you have a gut feeling on this. Yeah,
I think it's tied to I think it's honestly in

(49:59):
many ways, to the price of gas. So as we
see the cost of energy lowering or you know, as
we see that spiking or falling, then we kind of
see a correlation with the kind of cars people want
to buy. Yeah. Sure, all these these outside factors that
influence what we buy. Um, it seems like almost overnight,

(50:21):
doesn't it, The way that it fluctuates, the way it feels. Yeah,
it's weird how quickly the response occurs. But yeah, I
think so. And personally, I don't have anything against smaller cars.
I just I like the bigger ones because if you're
on a road trip or something, or you need to
haul something, you know, is is there many the right choice.

(50:46):
It's just so I'm saying, it's just because of what
I like to do with a vehicle. Uh, they're you know,
bigger cars are just better for me. Up. But oh
wait wait, we can't. We can't go on right now
we gotta we gotta talk abou one more quick thing, well,
two things. I guess we mentioned earlier that we think
that maybe um uh station wagons are makeing a comeback.

(51:07):
So let's hope that that happens. Yeah, that more manufacturers
come out with more station wagon designs. And we haven't
given Dylan his nickname yet. Open good. Let's how about
this Dylan the Chopper, because I hope he chops out
a lot of that rambling that I had somewhere in
the middle there, and this becomes a shorter podcast that
our listeners will never know about them because he's done
his job right, He's cut it down. Well, he's like

(51:29):
the invisible hand, or unless they still hear it and say,
my god, how long did he talk? Because but but
let's say the Chopper or how about it doesn't relate
today's topic, Dylan Big Block Fagan. I like it, I
don't like it. Well, we'll see and if you have
any suggestions for Dylan's nickname for this episode, let us know.

(51:50):
Longtime listeners, you know, this is the part of his
show where Scott and I end up going off the
air to continue looking at this stuff. I'm gonna look
up ices for station wagons. I'm not gonna buy one.
I think I'm just gonna look look a window shop,
ye see if there's any. I'm gonna look around on
Craig's List and see if there's any Fleetwood seventy five
for sale. Oh, this is gonna be like the go

(52:11):
kart thing all over. You know that there's there's absolutely
no room for this thing. I could even park it
diagonally in my garage. It's a funny thought, isn't it.
Hopefully it comes with a like a portable garage. But
you can find us on Facebook and Twitter in the
meantime where car Stuff hs W. On both of those,
you can check out the episodes we mentioned previously on

(52:32):
our website car Stuff Show dot com, where we have
every audio episode we've ever produced, and stay tuned. We
will be back next week. I don't want to spoil
it too much, but we'll be back next week with
a little bit of a different story. Another listener suggestion
about a disaster at seat all right sounds good. I'm
I'm I'm on the edge of my seat right now,

(52:53):
Ben right right, and I even know what it is.
What did you used to say? You pay for the
whole seat, but you only need the edge. That's right,
that's the old you know monster truck add some radio, remember, Yeah,
that's yes. And Monster Jam's coming to Atlanta in March.
It is, it'll be here soon. Oh you know what.
That's the final event for the Philips Arena, is it right?
Or the Georgia Dome? Which is it? I can't remember?

(53:14):
Oh no kidding, Yeah, it's the final thing. Sid it
would be like the last thing before they completely tear
it down. I hope we get to go, provided we
survive next week's vicarious maritime disaster. Uh And if you
have a suggestion for our super producers nicknames, or if
you have some uh strong opinions on land yachts or

(53:39):
just a just a fond memory of the best land
yacht you ever drove, or you can tell me if
they're going to tear down the Georgia Dome or Philips Arena.
I don't remember which one it is, because yeah, because
we don't want you to accidentally show up there and
then be caught in the demolition side by side. Come on,
someone can make that mistake. Well let's yeah, so set

(54:00):
us straight on that one. And if you. If you're
not given to the social media rigamarole, no worries. You
can directly contact us via email. We are our stuff
and how stuff works dot com and I really want
that answer for more on this and thousands of other topics.

(54:21):
Is that how stuff works dot com. Let us know
what you think.