1963 Cadillac DeVille

Every once in a while, a car comes through the doors at #TheWarehouse that makes #MrBusinessMan stop thinking like a dealer and start thinking like a collector. This 1963 Cadillac Coupe DeVille is one of those cars. This is not another red Chevelle, black Corvette or restored Mustang parked in a line with ten more just like it. This is more than eighteen feet of genuine American luxury, finished in a shade of pink that refuses to apologize for itself and equipped with one of the most unusual interiors we have encountered in a 1963 Cadillac. Some cars get attention because they are loud. This Cadillac does not need to make noise. It simply arrives. The original Fisher Body data plate is still mounted to the car and documents exactly what Cadillac built. Style code 63-6357 confirms it as a genuine 1963 Series 63 Coupe DeVille two-door pillarless hardtop. The 03B production code indicates that its body was produced during the second week of March 1963. Paint code 26 tells us that it originally left Cadillac wearing Somerset Blue Metallic. Somewhere along the way, somebody decided that Somerset Blue was simply not enough. The Cadillac was refinished in the unforgettable Playmate Pink you see today, a color inspired by Fords famous 1967 Playboy Pink. We do not have documentation connecting this particular Cadillac to Playboy, and we are not going to manufacture a fairy tale to sell a car. What we do have is an authentic 1963 Coupe DeVille wearing one of the most attention-commanding colors imaginableand it absolutely owns it. But the pink paint is only half the story. Open one of those enormous doors and you will find an interior configuration that separates this Coupe DeVille from the overwhelming majority of 1963 Cadillacs: factory bucket seats with a full center console. Cadillac buyers in 1963 normally wanted the traditional wide bench-seat experience. It fit the Cadillac imagelarge, comfortable and designed to carry its passengers down the highway like a living-room sofa. Bucket seats and a center console were a completely different proposition. They gave this enormous luxury coupe a personal-car cockpit more commonly associated with an Eldorado or a high-end specialty automobile. This was not the interior Cadillac put in every Coupe DeVille. It was unusual when new, rarely ordered and extremely difficult to find intact more than sixty years later. Cadillac offered an almost unbelievable number of interior combinations and luxury appointments during 1963, but surviving Coupe DeVilles with legitimate factory bucket seating and the proper center console remain exceptionally scarce. We do not have a verified production total for bucket-seat Coupe DeVilles, and #MrBusinessMan will not invent a number just to make a listing sound better. What we can say honestly is that most people familiar with these cars have never seen one equipped like thisand finding another in Playmate Pink is going to be an entirely different kind of challenge. The white interior is exactly what this Cadillac needs. It is bright, dramatic and completely appropriate for the cars larger-than-life personality. The bucket seats, full console, extensive chrome trim and sweeping Cadillac dashboard make the cabin feel less like an ordinary automobile and more like a private lounge from the golden age of American luxury. Power windows complete the experience, allowing the pillarless hardtop body to open up with uninterrupted glass-free sides. Underneath the long hood is Cadillacs legendary 390-cubic-inch V8. For 1963, this engine was rated at 325 gross horsepower and approximately 430 lb-ft of torque. It is paired with Cadillacs automatic transmission and delivers its power through the rear wheels exactly as a full-size American luxury car should. This was never supposed to be a nervous, high-strung sports car. Cadillac built it to produce effortless torque, smooth acceleration and a commanding highway ride. Turn the key, drop the transmission into Drive, point that