The Cadillac Allante was a curious little-creation that ended up being a disaster for Cadillac and just about threw any profit margin down the toilet. But how did they get it so wrong? What, besides the cars having a private jet you mean? Read on…
When it boils down to constructing a car in a cost-friendly manner, it’s usually common practice to manufacture and press the bodyshell somewhere within the production line - perhaps next door or over the road, at a push. The body has to be welded, passed through the paint shop and baked, undersealed and then moved along to build a complete car. Any of Mother Natures delights savaging the bodywork at this vital point will likely result in a cars lifespan halving.
Nearly all manufacturers follow the above plan, even if history has shown that some big names have partaken in this automotive no-no. Rolls-Royce for one, buying shells for the Silver Spirit and Silver Shadow from British Leyland, who in turn carted their own body shells up and down the country in rawest form for all the elements to get at.
However, nothing so much as comes close to the absolutely bananas way Cadillac dealt with their Allante.
Besides getting a computer to pick a viable name from 1700 options, all appeared normal in the Cadillac world upon announcement. The body was styled by Pininfarina, offering a neat and crisp design, with a short wheelbase and a thumping great V8.
However, in true American fashion, all 4.1 litres of said V8 could only muster 170bhp - with a naught to 60mph dash in 9.8 seconds. That might not mean much to you if you aren’t yet a part of the automotive world, but to put it into perspective, a 3.9 Range Rover of the time can better those figures by some distance. The identity-crisis-riddled four-speed automatic didn’t really help - we swear the gearbox thought it was a fridge.
With all this considered, the most dramatic part of the Cadillac Allante was strangely not to be found when driving the blasted thing; but instead in its absurd construction.
Pininfarina are based in Italy. Cadillac is based in America. There appeared to be a rather vast ocean in the way. So, any rational thinking person would rectify that problem by building the entire car in one location - but not Cadillac. No, they actually transported the bodywork from Turin to America via jumbo jet.
Dubbed the ‘Allante Airbridge’ by General Motors, a trio of Boeing 747s were specially modified to carry the half-finished Allante vehicle across the Atlantic where the Detroit workforce then installed all the mechanicals. This cost Cadillac a fortune, as did the leaking roofs on finished examples.
When the elements weren’t preventing the trio of Allante-carrying planes from taking off or landing, they were busy pummelling new owners and leaving them with soggy carpets and pools of water in the footwells. This set back Cadillic another small fortune.
Then, Bosch discovered problems with the ABS braking system, while the sound systems crackled so badly customers assumed trim was falling off. This cost Cadillac yet more dosh.
Sales were slow, and despite attempts to make the car drive better and stop leaking, the public never really bought into it.
We can’t imagine General Motors made money on the Allante, with such ludicrous production methods and so many well-documented flaws. Only 21,430 models left the factory. This didn’t spell the end of Cadillac two-seater vehicle though, just the end of using a fleet of jumbo jets to help build a car.
Ironically, the Allante’s starring Hollywood moment involved it being chucked out a plane; the same style of aircraft that carted it across the Atlantic in the first place. You can view it below: