They wouldn’t admit it out loud, but you can’t help the feeling that the good folks of Cadillac were a mite worried about image. The diesel Seville didn’t go down all that well, and their current base model was the Cimarron, a Cavalier size car that was tiny by Cadillac standards. What was needed was a flagship, a true Cadillac in the traditions of the V 16s of the 30s, or the Eldorado drop heads of the fifties – the sort of car which appealed to those who had it made in a big way.
Built by Italy’s renowned pininfarina on a shortened Eldorado chassis, the new two-seat 1987 Allante was Cadillac’s answer to the high-dollar Mercedes SL convertible. Bodies were built in Italy and flown to Detroit. A fortified 4.1 liter V8 sent 170 horses to the front wheels through a 4-speed transaxle. Rich appointments, two tops, and power everything were included for $54,700, and was the costliest car ever offered by a U.S. automaker, and sales would never really get going as Cadillac had hoped. The 1987 tally, for example, was a meer 3363.
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