1995 S & S Coach

This 1995 Sayers and Scovill Cadillac Victoria Funeral Coach originally served the Francis J. Joyce & Son Funeral Home in Waltham, Massachusetts from November, 1994 to April, 2005. The low, flat roof of this coach is traditional for S&S Victoria model hearses, whereas the Masterpiece model has a higher, taller roofline. Other traditional S&S signatures are the coach lamps in the landau shield area, the black cobra long-grain rubber-textured top, the S&S chrome grill crown (which is reminiscent of the S&S date marks) and the body-colored inserts on the landau bars.

In the early 1960s, Willard C. Hess, owner of Hess & Eisenhardt and S&S coachbuilders, perfected a more modern interpretation of the Victoria style funeral coach which S&S invented in 1938. As one person said , "S & S is the Episcopal way to go," meaning that traditional, understated elegance is paramount in S&S styling. This S&S Victoria is a commercial glass funeral coach, so all glass is taller and larger than passenger-car glass, requiring a nearly complete restructuring of the car, aft of the dash, in addition to lengthening the special rear-wheel drive B9Q Cadillac Fleetwood coachbuilder chassis by 31 inches.

In #41, sable black, with lower bright chrome rocker moldings, it has a black top and a #75 dark cherry velour interior with 6-way power leather seating. An AM/FM cassette radio, power windows, power steering, power brakes, automatic door locks, power windows, cruise control, power mirrors, electronic level control, intermittent windshield wipers, tilt wheel, dual air bags, twilight sentinel headlamp control, umbrella storage, and electronic temperature control are featured in the cab (driver's area) of the hearse. Behind the three piece glass divider etched with the Sayers and Scovill script logo is the casket compartment lined with the same dark cherry velour, wood accents on the landau area, dark cherry velvet swag draperies and a carpeted casket floor with ten chrome plated, die-cast rollers. Special extra load polished cast aluminum alloy wheels support the extra weight of this coach. Interestingly, there is no visible radio antenna on this car. S&S has hidden the antenna in the landau area with the landau irons. Power comes from General Motors' 5.7 litre LT-1 Corvette engine. A 19 gallon fuel tank feeds the LT-1.

The wheelbase of this S&S funeral coach is 151.5", with an overall length of 21'4". The height of the coach is 5'5", whereas the taller Masterpiece series is nearly 5" taller. The original MSRP of the S&S Victoria hearse was just above $70,000 and all indications suggest that fewer than 25 Victorias were built in 1995.

Based on the late 1994 date of manufacture, this hearse was built in the former S&S/Superior plant at 600 East Wayne St. in Lima, Ohio. In January 1995 this plant would be replaced with a new, larger, more modern and efficient manufacturing plant on Central Point Parkway in Lima.

We purchased this hearse in November, 2006 with 40,000 miles from TCT Professional Cars, the S&S/Superior/Eureka dealer in Millbury, Massachusetts. According to Brian at TCT, the Joyce Funeral Home replaced this hearse with a 2005 S&S Masterpiece funeral coach with oval windows.