Cadillac Allanté: Transatlantic Tragedy

Filed in archive Cadillac on May 13, 2010

Mercedes, BMW, Porsche and Jaguar had sexy-looking 2-seat roadsters in their stables at the start of the 80s; profitable image makers that were the envy of other manufacturers; none more than Cadillac. Concerned over a diminishing perception of its vehicles, Cadillac management turned to market research. The results showed that the division needed a low volume high-tech "halo" car. Did anyone happen to notice that all those Europeans came with rear-wheel-drive? Or that buyers of such automobiles believed excellence in handling could only be had when the rear wheels provide the propulsion? Regardless, the only available platform utilised front-wheel-drive.

What happened next would fill a book, or at least a very long magazine article... too long for a blog. In essence, it was decided that GM, in spite of its size and wealth, could not cope with a highly-specialised low volume vehicle. Thus the design and production of Cadillac Allanté bodies went overseas, to the renowned house of Pininfarina. An efficiency expert would have collapsed with laughter had he or she been asked to analyse the production system. Bodies were built in Italy, flown to Detroit in specially-equipped 747s that carried as many as 56 Allanté bodyshells, then moved to the Hamtramck, Michigan plant in a fleet of trucks. There the bodies were joined to engines and suspensions and the finished car was given a 25-mile test drive.

The aluminum block 4.1 liter V-8 may have seemed adequate, but 0-60 times of around ten seconds were not. The dohc Northstar V-8, introduced in 1993, was the engine the Allanté really needed. The car could then reach 60 in less than seven seconds. But the sad part of this tale is that the Allanté had already been cancelled, so it was only used as a test bed for the Northstar before the engine was fitted to mainstream Cadillacs. Other problems included a manual top that was difficult to lower and raise (a power top was added later) and a price that was too high vs. proven competition.

At the time of its introduction the Allanté was praised by dealers, enthusiast drivers, and the automotive press. The design was much admired, the driving dynamics equal to its rear-wheel-drive competitors. But it took Cadillac five years to iron out the kinks and by the time the Allanté was truly refined, GM pulled the plug. As it did with the Pontiac ohc inline six, the Tempest transaxle, the Buick aluminum V-8 sold to Rover, the Vega (yes, the engine problems were finally solved), the 2nd-Gen Corvair, the 2nd-Gen Fiero, etc.

If there's any good news in this it's that not many Cadillac Allantés were built (a little over 21,000), and thus the car enjoys excellent prospects as a future collectible.

Link here to reach the Allanté owner's club]