Usually when I check out the cars for sale on eBay, I gravitate to Volvo 200, 700 and 900 Series, Cadillacs, Lincolns, Buick Electras, Olds Ninety-Eights and Imperials.
As a matter of fact, I was searching for 1985-89 Lincolns. Cars like the black ’88 Signature above was what I was looking for when this, um, creation? Yeah, creation came up. Prepare to be shocked.
The body of this 1947 Lincoln club coupe has been attached to a 1989 Cadillac base. My first thought was that some waylaid Sedan de Ville was the donor. Oh no. Think bigger…or odder, as the case may be.
Yes, that’s right, this car has been merged with an Allanté! Including the entire instrument panel, steering wheel, and console.
It is so bizzare to look inside this classy postwar luxury car and see the oh-so-modern, techy ’80s dash! And could this be the first instance of a Pininfarina logo on a Lincoln?
But not half as odd as popping the hood and seeing a FWD Cadillac 4.5L V8! The 4.5 was newly added to the Allanté for 1989, and had 200 hp–not bad at all for the time.
For those of you still with me, here is what a factory Allanté looks like, found at a little car lot last weekend. Quite nice, but its genesis was one of GM’s most convoluted, and at nearly $60K in the late ’80s, is was priced too high to really get any traction. But they were beautiful cars in my opinion. Jason Shafer’s CC on how the Allanté could have come to be can be read here.
So too, were the 1946-48 Lincolns handsome cars, with their “Wurlitzer” grille and instrument panel–if not quite as handsome as the 1940-41 models. But still a true Classic. I’ll withhold judgment on this concoction, but I can tell you, I never would have thought a Cadillac Allanté and a late ’40s Lincoln coupe could have been combined like this. One thing is certain, it is not another resale-red bellybutton 350 street rod!
More pics can be seen here at the eBay auction. Oh, and if you want to see more pics of that lovely triple black 1988 Town Car, click here!
This is wrong on so many levels.
And right on so many more…!
I still can’t decide if I like it or not. Such ingenuity, and if both cars were basket cases, why not do something with them? But I really hope a good, driveable ’47 Lincoln wasn’t used.
These cars are gorgeous in stock form (from collectioncar.com).
Many, many wrongs do not make a right.
Next up, a Hudson with a Yugo drivetrain.
Agreed. Some builder needs to be taken out back and shot. I can only hope that is was a “barely there for a parts car” Lincoln that was ruined for this abomination.
Coulda tried getting the wheelbase right, its awful, though reasonably well done.
I could do without the headlamps, and how the hell were they able to make a Lincoln Continental, a rear-wheel drive car, out of a Cadillac Allante, a front-wheel drive?
Well the Caddy had a subframe that the power train and lower front suspension mounts to. So my guess is that they cut the frame of the Linc and somehow welded it to that subframe. Not sure what they did out back but they always could have left the original axle or sourced the straight axle out of an old Eldo/Toro.
Years ago I was at a car show where there was a 60’s Riv that had been made into a uni-body by welding the floor pan of a large GM FWD car. I’m certain it took a lot of work to do that.
As everyone should know, being the Standard of the World is all about interchangeable parts, although this really isn’t quite what Leland had in mind or the Royal Automobile Society for that matter.
Wow that is amazing and if I had a lot of money to throw around I would buy that.
The Town Car is also impressive and I think still commands presence even 26 years after it was built. The rear leg room looks a bit tight so that is probably one of the reasons why Matthew McConaughey’s character in Lincoln Lawyer sat on the passenger side.
This was at the 2005 Louisville Street Rod Nationals, and the square headlamps ruin this car. Square headlamps look good on cars from the late 70’s and 80’s, but should never be part of any resto mod from cars of prior years.
I shouldn’t like that car, but I kind of do.
So this is a second car right? The greenhouse is different and so is the front bumper.
Yup, different car. The maroon car appears to have been based on a Continental coupe, the “Zephllante” is based on a standard Lincoln club coupe.
I was going to try to say something substantive about how much money and effort was wasted on that Lincillac, or Allanticon, but I’m sorry, you’ll have to excuse me, because I’m going to be very sick.
Although it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, I really do admire the creativity and adventure here. The designer definitely thinks outside the box, and that should be commended. Whether you agree with his/her taste or not. The final product is finished and detailed remarkably well. Kudos to the owner for doing something so outrageous and fun. Even if it is oddball and eccentric… they tried something different.
I really enjoy and appreciate the variety of topics and subjects Paul, Perry and the contributors tirelessly present here everyday. Thank you Tom!
If this is thinking outside the box, perhaps they should get back into it!
dang….and I thought the custom Caddie a few days ago was bad…I thought it was impossible to make the front of 40s Lincolns look worse than they already did.
I’m not sure what is stranger, that Lincoln/Allante hybrid or the fact that an ’88 Town Car is evidently now considered collectible enough that the linked example is already at almost $5000, with almost 2 days left on the auction.
After seeing so many 48-54 Chevy trucks on S-10 platforms with completely custom interiors, this is nothing new.
I have seen more than a few of these get the wheelbase wrong too. That really messes up the proportions. So wrong!
What a waste of two good cars. If the guy wanted a Cadillac powered car why didn’t he just by a Cadillac?
I have a hard time thinking of any 80s cars as classics. They’re not that great in any way.
What an intriguing creation! The headlights don’t quite work for me – and the front wheels being too far back in the openings ruins it, but top marks for creativity!
I feel like those Nazis at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark…..
Lots of really hard work here .
Thanx Thomas .
-Nate
I guess I’ll be that guy. After driving a 57 chevy that was bone stock for several years I can sure see the advantage of updating stuff. I think I could like this but it would be nerve wracking to drive. Those body parts must be made of unobtanium.
Not setting anything in stone but I like it.
A resto mod or swapping in modern mechanicals is appealing to me in many cases but this particular swap just doesn’t work. A boring Chevy 350 swap with stock dash would have been less work and turned out better.
The only thing uglier than this is a stock 47 Lincoln!
I too can understand the desire to update a car as old as the one in question, especially if its already a mixmaster-what does it hurt to completely refurb it? That said, at what point do you so fundamentally transform something to a point in which it basically lacks most of what made it the original thing? If you want to drive an Allante, get a frickin’ Allante and drive it. Why waste all the time, money, shop time, etc. into making this sort of abomination?
Honestly,, what sense is there in combining a Lincoln and a Caddy-and the Allante of all Caddies? Especially the front square headlights and the whole Allante dash, wheel and shifter. Your basically driving around a bastardized Lincoln shell with a lot of the engine and interior internals of a lackluster sporty-ish 80s Caddy. That makes no sense at all.
Yeah, the headlights are the worst aspect of it and really ruin any aesthetic appeal. They’re not even flush. It makes the end result an unsatisfying (if not otherwise intriguing) effort.
Really, though, couldn’t the guy have found something like an old 1946 Cadillac Fastback in a junkyard for this?
(scratches head) Did you hear the one about the Cadillac that went as a Lincoln to a Halloween party? Neither have I, but if you ever do this is the punchline
I can’t help looking at this with an unhealthy interest like looking at an accident or reading about a particularly horrible murder.I can’t decide whether it’s a stroke of genius or madness.
Frances: “Talk about throwing your money away. I hope you kids see what a silly waste of resources this was.”
Audrey: “He worked really hard, Grandma.”
Art: “So do washing machines.”
(apologies to Christmas Vacation)
That said, the overall workmanship (wheelbase and headlights aside) is pretty impressive…
While not my cup of tea, I do have to give the creator props for doing it, looks to be decent craftsmanship and execution.. if a bit on the ‘why’ factor.
I will be the first to admit that there was always a high proportion of these that got engine swaps, either Mercury V8s or even Olds/Cadillac V8s – just because the Lincoln V12 was such a challenge to keep running. However . . . .
I am not a resto-mod fan, lets just get that out there. Too many are personal monuments to their builders. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. My biggest problem is replacing the beautiful 1940s chromed dash and the translucent red plastic steering wheel with this mass of black plastic. Ugh.
Yes. How can you possibly improve on this?
Agreed. One of my favorite things about a classic car is its interior. If they would have left that stock, added a/c (which it may have), left the headlights stock and tried to move the powertrain a little more forward, it wouldn’t be half bad. These cars probably couldn’t handle that well in the first place so placing the powertrain a little forward with fwd would make this car a little more manageable in the snow and rain. Didn’t Allantes have ABS and traction control also? It would make for a great daily driver…if you’re into making old cars easier to drive…in which I’m not.
I think I just threw up in my mouth…
I’ll start off by saying the finishing work, and really all visible aspects, look high-quality. Somebody spent some time and money getting this thing right.
That having been said–why the he** would anyone actually -do- this? An Allante, of all things? Even if you already had one lying around, it’s such an odd frankenstein job that it seems it would be less money to sell it and buy some more suitable parts. And that dash…oh dear lord. That dash doesn’t look good in the car it came from, and it looks absurd here, especially given the late Art Deco beauty of the original. And to add insult to injury, a black dash in a brown car? Just no.
I’ve seen some mixology of this type that works much better; there are at least two 40’s Continentals out there with Lincoln Mark VIII drivetrains and interiors. The interior is still a little jarring but it works better than this 80’s tomfoolery, and you get 270+ HP with one of those.
This is making a lot of other cars look much more appealing, I could almost go for the unaltered Allante’ after seeing this…..almost..
The criminal who did this must be stopped before he assaults our visual senses again.