Frequently Asked Questions

Charlene is a 1964 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz Convertible — one of Cadillac’s most iconic and luxurious creations of its era.

In 2024 Charlene turned 60 years old and still rides as strong today as when she rolled off of the lot and onto her first public street!

The recommended capacity for Charlene is 3, with 2 passengers in the rear, 1 in the passenger seat and room for your driver, The Colonel, to navigate your dream drive!

Now, I can’t tell you exactly why I named her Charlene. Some things, they just come to you — like a song you’ve always known but never heard before. The moment I laid eyes on her, sun catching what was left of that turquoise paint, the name slipped out before I even knew I’d said it. Charlene.

She’d seen some years — the kind that wear on you, but also impart unto you wisdom from another time. There was strength in her bones, grace in her lines, and something in her silence that felt familiar - like home. I’ve been around long enough to know that not everything worth having comes easy, and some things… well, some things are meant to find you.

Took five long years to bring her back, but truth be told, I think she was just waiting for someone to listen. And I guess I was too. Funny how life works that way.

Now she’s more than a car. She’s a kind of poetry on wheels — steady, beautiful, and built for the kind of arrivals that make folks stop what they’re doing just to look a little longer. I don’t claim to understand fate, but I know this much — me and Charlene were bound to cross paths one way or another.

Cadillac produced 165,959 total cars for the 1964 model year, 1,870 of those being Eldorado convertibles, making it a relatively rare classic by manufacture alone.

Charlene’s rarity, however, comes from her beautiful paint color and her options, specifically the front bucket seats and upgraded center console.

Since Cadillac did not release color production numbers, we must estimate. A reasonable, though conservative, estimate is that Charlene’s color (Turino Turquoise) represented 5% of the total production, or 94 total.

The bucket seat and center console were an option was rare, estimated at only about 10% of ‘64 Eldorados having this option. That means that only 9 or 10 total models like Charlene were ever produced.

Lastly, the survival rate for 1960s luxury cars varies greatly, but a 15–20% survival rate is a realistic estimate for a popular and collectible car like the Eldorado. Using that number, we can estimate that Charlene may be 1 of only 2 survivors of her kind left in this world!

Factor into it her rehabilitated and upgraded Italian white leather interior and blonde birds-eye oak trim and there is no doubt that she is simply 1 of 1.

Charlene is indeed a rare breed!

The 1964 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz marks the end of an era — the final year of Cadillac’s signature tailfins and the last rear-wheel-drive convertible ploatform before the model went front-wheel-drive in 1967. Distinct for its clean, skirtless design and open-wheel look, it carried a sportier elegance that set it apart from its siblings. Inside, fine leather and real woodgrain reflected Cadillac’s highest standard of luxury.

The 1964 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz wasn’t just elegantly styled—it offered full-scale luxury at a moment when few cars did. The 1964 model introduced major innovations, including the first fully automatic climate control system (“Comfort Control”) and GM’s new Turbo-Hydramatic transmission. With power steering, power windows (six of them), a power convertible top, power seats, cruise control, air conditioning and heat, it embodied a new standard of refinement and luxury.

Charlene, and the 1964 Eldorado, is powered by Cadillac’s robust 429 cubic-inch V8, delivering higher horsepower and torque than the previous year’s offerings. It features GM’s then-new Turbo-Hydramatic THM-400 3-speed automatic transmission—one of the most advanced and durable units of its era.

While sharing certain components with Cadillac’s full-size line, the Eldorado Biarritz model was distinguished by its convertible-only body and the absence of fender skirts—giving it a sportier stance and character. With power steering, power brakes, and refined suspension, the 1964 Eldorado offered a combination of smooth ride and strong performance—luxury and muscle in one refined package.

In 1964, a base model Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz convertible listed for $7,410 before optional extras.

That amount in today’s dollars would be roughly $70,000 cash but that’s just part of the story. Taking into account the additional auto-industry inflation rate, the adjusted “real luxury-car equivalent” would be closer to $95,000 or more in today’s dollars.

To put that all into perspective: in 1964 you could buy a cup of coffee for $0.10, loaf of bread for $0.20, a gallon of gas for $0.30, a dozen eggs for $0.50, and a movie ticket for around $1.25.

So, purchasing an Eldorado Biarritz meant buying the automotive equivalent of thousands of movie tickets or millions of loaves of bread — it was very much a luxury statement.

No, but every effort to keep as much of Charlene’s original components was made! Charlene was in a preserved but rough shape when we came into her life and a lot needed to be done to get her back on the road again.

While the engine is original and has matching numbers, a number of mechanical components were past their lifetime and needed to be replaced. Her brakes were shot, her bushings were gone, she needed a new carburetor, new hoses, a new convertible top motor and more. They were all replaced with the right parts and with care and attention to detail.

Charlene’s body and interior were worn by the elements and time and needed restoration. Completed by the best shops and the most skilled hands in all the land, her paint was meticulously matched to the original, top-grade italian white leather was used for her interior upholstery all complimented with a premium birds-eye maple natural wood trim to give it that eye-popping WOW factor!

A lot. We don’t like to think about that.

We like to focus on the happiness that Charlene brings and the connections that she makes possible. Charlene has a way of bringing people together and you can’t put a price on that!

Charlene was purchased in 2021 from an individual in Los Angeles, California. This person brought Charlene in from a private automobile museum in Canada, where she had been stored and on display in a climate-controlled space.

All we know is that at some point she was shipped up to our neighbors up in the Great White North and lived somewhere out in Canada’s Mountain-West region.

Charlene whispers to us and from what we know, she was treated well in her time up North. She was introduced to, became accustomed to and a big fan of the sport of ice hockey. An exotic and sophisticated lady, Charlene always romanticized of the french-speaking cultures of the Eastern providences and when Quebec was awarded a team in 1979, that became her own. Throughout the years she has continued her support of the team and when they moved to Denver, Colorado in 1995, so too did her hockey heart. Today she is an avid supporter of the Colorado Avalanche.