Cadillac Seville Opera Coupe

I've posted the Seville Opera Coupe before, but one just came up for sale on eBay.  It's in beautiful condition, yet still quite ugly.  The perfect car to overcompensate for your manhood or lack thereof.

SLdorado

Again, not sure why exactly.  500SL + 1960 Cadillac = Wrong.

Fleetwoodsman

Not really sure what's going on here.  I think this is a late 50's GM truck with it's roof chopped off and a Cadillac welded to the bottom.  Whatever it is it has some severe muffintop going on.

If autofug were a country, this would be it's leader.

Click here for it's video on YouTube...

Wish I had more info butI can't speak the language in the video. It appears to have been filmed in Florida, however.

It appears to be mostly Mercedes wagon based, although you would think it may need a larger engine to push all that mass around. It's possibly a Chevrolet truck diesel, given that the engine sounds a bit larger than a Benz unit to my ears (and there's a random Chevrolet emblem front and centre on the hood). Other notable pieces are Chrysler Imperial headlights and pieces of older Cadillacs wedged in the bodywork.

I'm actually kind of impressed that it's actually driveable, and that the rear wheel steering seems to work so effectively. For the looks of it, you would think it would collapse in on itself with any movement at all.








Update:

It's for sale! It's 29 feet long and weights 7500 pounds! He hopes to get $950,000, which is about 100 times to more than it's worth.

1955 GM Concept Cars

Something was in the water in 1955 at the GM headquarters. It was this year when all of their divisions released concepts that not only looked to be based off the same architecture - they were all monumentally ugly. Sounds remarkably like GM in the 80's and early 90's...

Chevrolet Biscayne

First up we have the Chevrolet Biscayne. From the windshield back it's not too bad - there's a lot of Corvette in there, and although you can't see the rear it seemed to have inspired later Corvettes and the Corvair. That front however looks like an unappealing mix of Austin Healey Sprite and bulldozer. Also it seems to look remarkably like the cars in Fallout 3.

Cadillac La Salle II Hardtop Sedan

Next up we have the Cadillac La Salle II Hardtop Sedan. Note the identical DLO, save the back window. Early experimenting in what would lead to the Cimarron I suppose. Again this car has a grille-less front end, although the headlamps are moved further out and you have the additional chrome Cadillac rocket extensions. Oddly, this car looks even more like a Corvette than the Chevy, with the two tone scalloping and rear light detail recalling the first generation Vette. Compared to the sleek and simple ugly of the Biscayne, the LaSalle comes off as over-accessorized ugly.

It may not be share as many components as the others, but this possibly Corvette based roadster version of the La Salle II also appeared alongside it on show stands. Sharing the front end (but with cutouts under the headlights), it has the appearance of a mutated 1958 Corvette with it's ass chopped off. Although to be fair, it likely inspired the '58 Vette's front end design.

Pontiac Strato Star

Next is the Pontiac Strato Star. A bit more conventionally attractive than the above two, it also doesn't share their roofline (but then it's a 2 door). I'm not entirely sure it shares a platform with the above, but it does have similar proportions and similar odd detailing, like the inset headlights and overall heavy looking appearance. Another odd detail is the gigantic front wheel wells, which flow back to almost reach the doors. In later show circuit appearances these were painted red, making it look like someone took gigantic chunks out of the car's flesh.

Oldsmobile 88 Delta

The last of the bunch is the Olds 88 Delta. You might be thinking "where's Buick"? There was a Buick show car in 1955 - but it was the Wildcat III, an evolution of the previous two concepts and likely unrelated (and not fugly). Speaking of not fugly, I don't really consider this Buick to be fugly. A little ungainly, but it's the best looking of these four. Why include it? The windshield and front wheel wells look to be shared with the Pontiac, so it might be related to the other cars here.

Little Chop Top of Horrors

I don't know about you, but I think this might not be a factory job.

Fug and Let Die

Some screen shots of the Corvorado featured in the James Bond flick, "Live and Let Die". The last two words of the title are most appropriate in this case.

The Corvorado has been featured here in the past. Basically a period Corvette styled to look like a period Eldorado, for whatever reason.

Cadillac CTS Hatch. I mean Coupe.

I fear that by posting this car I'll get a lot of disagreeing comments, but I for one can't bring myself to like the CTS Coupe. The car seems to be heralded by the media as the style leader of 2010. But in my mind a sleek, svelte coupe should not look like an overly tall hatchback.

Don't get me wrong - I like the regular CTS and Caddy's overall direction for the brand, but this car is too tall and stubby for my liking. The only view I don't mind is the side view, and even then kind looks like the ass end is cut off. 3/4 views front and rear look like a hatch, and the straight on rear view looks horrendous - it looks taller than it is wide.

Looking closer at the pictures, I'm beginning to think the problem lies within the signature Cadillac taillights. The narrow and heighten the look of the rear end, and the fact that the top edges meet the back window enforce the hatchback look. I think it'd look nicer with horizontal tails - but then it wouldn't look like a Cadillac. I suppose it might look like a 80-85 Seville, but who wants that.

Old School Crackard

Apparently, no one realized this was a bad idea 30 years ago.

ECTO-11

The Ghost Busters, 11 years later (this is a '70 Caddy as opposed to a '59).

Sbarro Windhawk

The first of a few Sbarro creations. Sbarro is a French car design and manufacturing facility. They create one off custom products, show cars and replicas. A lot are attractive and feature ingenious design features.

This concept was produced in 1980 - the Sbarro Windhawk 6x6 based off a Cadillac Eldorado. Many of Sbarro's creations in the '80s seemed to heavily feature the off road, hunting, and/or 6 wheels. Cadillacs do not offen mate successfully with G.I. Joe type military vehicles, and this is why.

Dunham Corvodaro

SWEET MOTHER OF GOD.
This one is much worse than it's sister the Cabalista. Believe it or not it's actually a Corvette too. But with a Cadillac Eldorado front and rear tacked on. And then they were much modified. This is like fugly overload. And these things were FOR SALE. And people BOUGHT THEM.

Lets see... The front is actually a take on a Stutz (another neoclassic) I think, with the huge round "headlights". Or chrome disks hiding the real headlights. Actually chrome is a continuing theme. Practically every vertical piece of body has a huge piece of chrome on it. Oddly the customary neoclassic side exhausts are sorta rectangular in shape. I'm not sure why - it just makes them bigger and uglier. Also note the hubcaps - they stick out so far they look like wire whisks. Handy for making whipped cream on the road? Or tenderizing roadkill?

Also looking at the side view, you can tell that a Corvette has a much shorter length stock than the Eldorado, and has a much shorter wheelbase. After the pieces are stuck on it looks like the wheels have been pushed as close to the centre as possible.

The rear end is so full of crap I don't know what to talk about. But I noticed one thing which got me thinking. The "trunk" has tie straps, which many neo-classics have as a throw back to when trunks had no latches but were tied shut using similar looking straps. BUT - the Corvette had no trunk. Just the glass/plexiglass hatch. One reason they did this was to keep the fuel filler/Corvette logo in the centre of the trunk. You can see the filler is still clearly in the centre of the trunk area. So does this mean that under the miles of metal rear of the roof is empty space that can't be used? That's efficient.

Ok - I have to stop looking at this or I'm going to have a seisure.

Keep on Truckin'

Sure it looks ugly now, but wait 'til it's finished.

Cadillac Eldorado Evolution 1

Evolution I - a custom Eldorado coupe by Parisian fashion designer, Pierre Cardin. He should stick to clothes. Women I suppose should flaunt their "front overhang", but not cars. I don't know what is hidden in the 5 feet of space in front of the front wheels. A walk in closet?

Base price was $58,000. In 1981. The "equipped" price was $63,000.

Cadillac Seville Innsbrook

Global Coach Corporation again, this time with an unstretched convertable version of the Seville called the Innsbrook. Again using sedan front doors, but it looks even weirder because they cut the extra sedan length out of the body where the rear passengers would sit, creating a weird mini-Caddy.

Cadillac Seville Opera Sedan, Part 2

Same again, in the second generation of the Seville. Slightly better, because the newer Seville had longer front doors, and they used a more appropriately sized grille. However, it also enherited the ugly new Seville ass.

Oh - and the third pic has OPERA WINDOWS! Class act.

Cadillac Seville Opera Coupe, Part 1

The first generation of another Cadillac made by the Global Coach Corporation. Although similar in design, it's one of their first customizations and much, much worse.

Basically, the front of the car has that same stretched look with fake tires. Except this time the grille is taller and narrower, and looks like it was taken from another car.

However, where it really fails is from the windshield back. The Eldorado is a coupe, and therefore has nice long coupe doors. The Seville is a sedan. Instead of making new doors, the just used the ones of the sedan. So they're tiny in comparison to the body. Made worse by the 50 foot front end. And of course there's the customary neoclassic roof, which contains no windows aft of the doors and ends abruptly.

Cadillac Eldorado El Ballero

Basically this is sort of a partial "neoclassic car" - a car whose design is inspired by older designs. Sorta like the current retro crap, but more extreme. Most offen "neoclassics" try to emmulate a design from the 1930's or before. With horrible results.

This Caddy does so, but only goes halfway and ends up looking like a really long and ugly Eldorado. Step 1 - monster chrome grille. Step 2 - make the hood 2 feet longer and ad fake tires. Step 3 - remove rear quarter windows. Step 5 - add vinyl to make a faux convertable roof.

To elaborate - these are semi-kitcars. They're not production cars and they're not one offs. Companies produced parts to make multiple versions of these monsters.

*EDIT* - I found this and many other's in a craptastic 80's goldmine of modded Cadillacs. This was made by Global Coach Corporation.