Theme updates

Made a few minor updates to the blog theme here at Caddyinfo.com, which is to say the appearance.

Now the top (header) has a brown leather texture instead of plain brown coloring. Hopefully this is reminiscent of the leather used in Cadillacs.
The buttons along the blog now have a touch of wood instead of none, and coloring has changed. I try to use wood touches throughout Caddyinfo.com in the same way that wood touches are used in Cadillac automobiles.
Coloring on the text in the header matches the rest of the page.
Light wood paneling added to the background instead of a solid color background.
Improved framing for the header.
Previously I had changed the upper right photo; I think it may change now and then.

Previous (old) Look

I am open to more changes, so if you see things that are not as elegant as they should be please feel free to share. I think it is not quite where I want it, but I am still sidling up to what the next changes should be. I also look for opportunities to tie themes across the website and forum as well as here on the blog.

My personal tilt is to analysis much more than art, (function over form), so if you have a good eye for this sort of thing let me know your ideas. I am keen to keep the same overall theme, but looking for more visual customizations or changes that would suggest Cadillacs, luxury, performance.

UPDATE: was aghast to see the blog was not spacing properly under IE6, although it did space properly under IE8 and Firefox.  Updated some picture widths and now it all flows properly under IE6 as well.  Dropped the book embed from google as it was taking forever to d/l.

Cadillac Books: The Cadillac that Followed me home

I recently finished reading The Cadillac That Followed Me Home by Christopher W. Cummings.   The book was published by McFarland & Company, London, 2003.  I purchased the book on Amazon.

The book tells the story of the Author’s lifelong love for older model Cadillacs.  The bulk of the book is very very detailed information about his restoration over decades of two 1941 Cadillacs.  The text varies from a mention that years went by before he was in a position to work on a car, to days that he would attempt to move a stuck crank then wait for tomorrow, to excruciating detail on individual repairs.  Throughout the book the text is understandable, although for the very technical portions more diagrams or pictures would help one to follow the repair or restoration described.  I finally gave up on some passages altogether and skipped to the summary or resolution paragraph for that section.

Restoration of antique cars has its own issues.  Wires and tires disintegrate over time and have to be replaced.    When young the author is often afraid to address very detailed repairs.  By the end of the book he seems fairly capable of doing most any repair given the space in the garage.

His lifelong dream was to have one of the great motorcars, a Cadillac V-16 from the 30s.  Almost as an afterthought, at the end of the book the Author finds such a Cadillac on ebay, and is able to purchase it.  My impression is that the book was basically complete as a description of the two 41 Cadillacs, and that the chapters that address the V-16 model were added almost as a postscript.

If you love antique cars, especially antique Cadillacs, this is a good book for you.  If you would be put off by very intricate, detailed descriptions of specific repairs on a 41 Cadillac, then I would look for another Cadillac book.

Although the rear flap gives the impression that it is, this book is not really about the V-16, and has very little information about these cars.

I liked the Author’s descriptions of resources, approaches, and help from other Cadillac owners he received along the way.  I think he would be a great person to have out for coffee, or to talk to at a club event.  In fact THAT is the way I perhaps should describe this work — a very long anecdote about one man’s love for Cadillacs.

2009 Cadillac CTS-V Comparison Tests – Car and Driver

Car & Driver tested a Cadillac CTS-V vs a Jaguar XFR vs a Mercedes E63; they pick the Mercedes 1st, the Cadillac 2nd, and the Jaguar 3rd:

All other things being equal, if the CTS-V had been equipped with an [available] automatic transmission like the two other cars here it might have tied the Benz in overall points. How, you ask? A six-speed automatic V we tested in April for CARand DRIVER.com managed the quarter-mile in 12.2 seconds, 0.4 second quicker than both the manual in this comparo and the one from our November 2008 road test. The difference would have tipped the quarter-mile-acceleration score in the Caddy’s favor.

Read more: 2009 Cadillac CTS-V Comparison Tests – Car and Driver.

This probably is the best summary:

Even with the muted soundtrack, our usually home-team-loyal German correspondent quickly deemed the Cadillac to be the sportiest-feeling car of our trio and one that, at $67,345, undercuts the test’s second-priciest Jaguar by more than $12,500. It will cost you about $8000 more than the Jag to start looking at the Mercedes…

Despite the disparate window stickers, everything else—horsepower, weight, terrible fuel economy, even tire width—is nearly identical in this group. Even the acceleration to 100 mph ended up in a three-way tie.

The three cars are very close in mission, performance, and luxury.  The Cadillac manages to achieve it all for $12K – 20K less cash.