The Zephllante: 1947 Lincoln With a Cadillac Heart And An Allante Interior

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. This weird Lincoln-Cadillac custom was something else entirely.

Cars like the black 1988 Lincoln Signature Edition 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 bizarre 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, 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!

Note: an updated rerun of an older post.