The Allanté was Cadillac’s answer to the Mercedes SL convertibles. These cars dominated the luxury open two-seater market in America for decades.
The 1987 Cadillac Allanté, described as General Motors “new passenger car flagship,” represented Cadillac’s move upward into the ultra*-luxury automobile market.
In search of a sophisticated European image for its new flagship, Cadillac joined forces w/ the Italian house of Pininfarina.
The Allanté combined quality European coachbuilding with advanced American engineering and assembly procedures. The automobile’s bodies and interiors were built by Pininfarina of Turin, Italy (currently the builders of the Ferrari Testarossa body), then flown 3300 miles across the Atlantic ocean aboard specially equipped 747 jetliners to Detroit where the powertrains and suspensions were installed. Cadillac general manager John O. Grettenberger described the Allante’s Turin-to-Detroit airbridge as “the world’s longest automotive assembly line.”
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