A 21-Foot-Long 1975 Cadillac Limousine Can Rally, As It Turns Out

We’ve seen the gang over at Team O’Neil put a lot of different, unsuspecting cars through their paces on a mock rally stage, but this might just be the strangest car to get slung around the snowy course: a 1975 Cadillac Limousine. For better or for worse, the ’75 Caddy is the ultimate embodiment of mid-’70s Malaise-Era American automobiles, which isn’t exactly a compliment. 

There are some conflicting mentions of this Cadillac’s model and model year in these videos, but we’ll take Team O’Neil’s word that it’s a ’75 Cadillac Limousine. That means it’s commonly referred to as the longest production car ever sold in the United States with a whopping 21-foot overall length, or 252.2 inches. To put that into a modern perspective, it’s nearly two feet longer than a 2026 Cadillac Escalade IQL, the extended-length electric Escalade. It’s not quite as heavy as the Escalade IQL, which weighs about as much as the moon, but it does weigh a hefty 6,000-ish pounds. Remarkably, the evil geniuses over at Team O’Neil managed to rally it, and it actually impressed the driver with its handling and braking, if you can believe it.

Despite the shock and awe caused by the lumbering limousine’s brakes and steering that were pleasantly adept in the snow, with handling hugely helped by the studded Nokian Hakkapeliitta snow tires, the big Caddy was hamstrung by its dismal power output.

The Fleetwood is hiding a gargantuan 500-cubic-inch (or 8.2-liter) V8 under its long flat hood, but as with all American cars of the Malaise Era, the engine is smothered by early government-mandated emissions control systems. Its V8 produced a mere 190 horsepower when new, but it made a more reasonable 360 lb-ft of torque, and it was only offered with a three-speed automatic transmission and an open differential.

The example that Team O’Neil found was actually in great condition considering that it was sitting in a snowy car lot, with just 42,000 miles on its odometer according to the Facebook Marketplace ad. Unfortunately its massive curb weight, low power output, and open rear differential made traction difficult in some scenarios, but overall the Fleetwood did a remarkable impression of a rally car.
Sure, it racks up the slowest time in ‘Will It Rally?’ history, but it’s also one of the most entertaining videos in Team O’Neil’s series, too.

Seeing this utterly mammoth limo sliding around snowy corners, taking up the entirety of the roadway, looks so wrong and yet somehow so right. Watching the driver chuck the steering wheel around is a laugh, too, though he insists it has surprisingly good turn-in. As a native Angeleno, there aren’t many things that make me want to spend time in the snow, but if I knew I was going to sling this barge around a snowy circuit, I’d grab my coat and be out the door in a heartbeat.