images posted at the Cohort by LeSabretoothTiger
(first posted 11/20/2014) It’s a rhetorical question, for sure. Undoubtedly those folks with a highly refined taste for the finer things in life that bought a Bugazzi undoubtedly never gave a Pinto a second thought, much less fifteen of them. Having plunked down the equivalent of $170k of today’s dollars for a tarted-up Mark IV ($30k in 1972, three and a half times as much as the Mark), or 50% more than a Rolls, they undoubtedly got their money’s worth in adulation and prestige. Yes, these George Barris Kustomized Bugazzis proclaimed that its owner had transcended mere cars like the Rolls, Mercedes, Lincoln and (gasp) a Pinto, and were now living and driving on a more exalted plane.
That is, until they opened the door. Or let someone else look inside. Because the Pinto’s genes would suddenly be all-too apparent. This was a car that really needed heavy tinted windows.
There it is, the same steering wheel as used in the Pinto and every other Ford car of the era. Doesn’t that just exude discriminating taste and $170k?
Well, just maybe there was a Bugazzi badge there, screwed to the Pinto wheel. And I see the rim has been woodified, or petrified. It’s nice to know that Mr. Barris was willing to spend some of that huge mark-up on thoughtful details like that.
It’s also nice to know that an AM/FM stereo radio was included. But where’s the Sony Trinitron tv?
Oh there it is. I knew it was supposed to be there somewhere down there. One does need to keep up with daily doses of “Let’s Make A Deal”, you know, no matter where the Bugazzi might take you.
The money was spent on more important things, like the fine tufted velour of the Mark’s seats. That must have cost $30k right there. Check out the delicate upholstery work on that armrest; old world craftsmanship at its finest.
On the driver’s side is proof of this Bugazzi’s provenance. This is the real thing, not a cheap imitation.
Further proof of the Bugazzi’s authenticity.
And even more! Wow; George Barris’ signature right there on the glove box, to impress your passenger.
This is the same artist who bestowed a whole raft of memorable cars on young Americans in the sixties, like the Batmobile, the Monkeymobile, and this exquisite Bathtub Buggy, undoubtedly the spiritual antecedent of the Bugazzi.
The headliner has also been bestowed with the finest materials to be found in Barris Kustom’s warehouse. Never mind the exposed screw heads in the black vinyl just below it. Or the opera window that has been covered over by the vinyl roof. Oops!
Time to get out of this interior and back into fresh air. I feel like I’ve done something dirty and need to go to confession now.
Ah yes; that’s better. The Mark IV’s genes are pretty apparent from this angle, if they weren’t on the inside.
But the finest end of the Bugazzi is of course its front.
This is what one paid the big bucks for, to let the world you had finally arrived…in a Bugazzi.
Now here is UGLY! I wonder how many will agree. I would surely take a 1964 Imperial any day to this.
+1 proof once again tons of money and good taste don’t often go together.An abomination that makes the 58 Lincoln a thing of beauty
I couldn’t agree more if I tried. I thought the 1958 Lincoln was ugly, this makes it look handsome by comparison.
I loved the look of the stock Mark IV. This thing is hideous. A real genuine pimpmobile.
Just wow. That’s all I’ve got.
Gawd its awful imagine paying a premium for this rolling turd and all you get is the same cheap steering utensil as a bottom feeder Falcon.
Exactly, couldn’t they be bothered to find a something- anything that didn’t scream “Pinto”
I suspect having to intetgrate the CC butttons into any other wheel was too hard.
The exact opposite of a Bugazzi… Mercedes 600. For people who want you to know how much money they have, but pretend they have good taste!
If I had the money, I’d prefer a Mercedes-Benz 600. It’s luxurious without being too domineering about it.
The Bugazzi tells people you have money.
The Grosser 600 tells people you have wealth.
They either had money (past tense) or found some fool to loan them the money.
The ultimate in tacky and tasteless. Ugh!
I want to take a black light to that interior….
Seriously, this thing sucks, possibly the worst pimpmobile conversion next to the Monte Carlo based Silver Cloud and the Chevette based Leata Caballero.
Why doesn’t the wood grain on the radio and wiper-lighter(?) “master alarm control panel” not match the rest of the fake wood? Are we supposed to believe that Ford took the time to seek out fake wood from 2 different fake wood forests?
Whenever people here critique 70’s Cadillac interiors, and they do that quite often, I look at this trash with its Pinto wheel, Torino “Philco” radio and F100 headlight switches and wonder what the hell are they smoking?
This is like a bad Stutz copy without any of the prestige and elegance….HA!
At least the Stutz took better care to hide the conventional Pontiac Grand Prix that it was based on.
In defense of the Pinto wheel, it looked more like a Lincoln wheel than say a Vega wheel would look like as Cadillac wheel 😀
Yes, let’s stop calling it the Pinto wheel!
My friend had a Pinto and it didn’t use that steering wheel. Only the full-line cars such as our 1971 LTD Brougham and the Mercuries did. This has the Rim-Blow horn (which was utterly useless, especially when cold).
Ahem….
Luxury-pack interior?
Seriously, that’s why seventies Fords had steering-wheel options, so you could get away from that thing.
It’s not as though there weren’t plenty of tasteful aftermarket steering wheels around that Barris could have chosen. But then, it was Barris, so…..
Most of the wheel options were on the lower end cars, so yes, you could get a Pinto with the basic 2 spoke, this wheel and the 3 spoke sport wheel, but when you got up the higher end cars, you didn’t have any wheel options.
Not to mention the fact that Pintos were never available with cruise (from the factory, anyway) or a tilt wheel.
“I want to take a black light to that interior….”
I wouldn’t dare. It’s an image I can live without.
Take a torch to it. The hot and burning kind.
Not just the steering wheel; the radio is straight stock Ford, and all those control knobs are the same ones that Ford apparently used since probably 1970. I think my 1970 Torino had those exact knobs. Really, Ford? This was the best you could do? Use a single parts bin for everything from the Pinto to the Mark IV (or whatever its numeral happened to be that year)?
That should have been labeled a Buttugli. Awful.
Neither a Bugatti nor a Moto Guzzi.
Best comment. Had I this much money to blow on a car in 1972, I would have picked an Eldorado, with a matching Moto Guzzi Eldorado 🙂 and enough left over for a 300SEL 6.3… how many of these “creations” actually got sold, anyway?
As a super-fly rolling period-piece, I actually really like it. Definitely a “so bad it’s good” kind of thing though. Something like this would be so much fun to own and cruise around in occasionally, now.
But the original owners don’t seem to have been in on the joke, that’s a ludicrous amount of money for this thing.
If I was crazy and really rich…(at least I’m halfway there) THIS would be THE CAR I would to take to an environmental fundraiser. While you swish into the room wearing a full length baby seal fur coat with a trashy woman on each arm.
A few years ago when the amount got really high, I bought the first and only lottery ticket of my life.
This thing was for sale on eBay at the time, it was going to be purchased ASAP just to put some Obama 2012 bumper stickers on; you know, to generally blow people’s minds. Don’t try to pigeonhole me!!! 🙂
Needs a digital camo wrap too.
and one of those “coexist” bumpers stickers with the crosses and star of david and whatnot.
Magic Happens
It does…..
Is that James Brown?
The Reverend Don Magic Juan…..he’s a pimp.
What’s with the opera windows? In the photo of the back seat area, you see an opera window….or was it replaced by a (lack of) vanity mirror? The picture of the back of the car shows that the vinyl roof covering has covered over the area on the “C” pillar where the window was/would be.
Something tells me that this is one of those “custom” cars that sounded REALLY good on paper, but as we can see, the execution leaves a lot to be desired. For starters: a brownish interior on a white and navy blue car? And velour, no less? It almost looks like the kind of car a middle-aged and single dentist might drive….if he was also a part-time pimp.
What makes that opera “window” even more ridiculous is the interior sail panel is custom covered with that stitched fabric, so it’s not like they couldn’t fill the hole in the panel
Maybe it was supposed to be covered with a mirror on the inside of the opera window like those strange Rolls-Royce mirror/courtesy lights on the C-pillar that they have used forever.
Like this.
I’ve seen these on Rolls’, but I’ve never understood the meaning of them? They are really to close to your head and awkwardly placed to be vanity mirrors, which is what I used to think they were, I guess they are just decorative? Any Rolls people want to chime in?
Maybe the interior upholstery was done before the vinyl roof went on, and nobody told them to hide the opera window because it would later be covered on the outside.
My 1968 Mercury Montego MX/Cyclone GT had those exact same knobs for lights, wipers, and radio. More than once I tried to pull out the wiper knob (which was supposed to be turned) when I wanted the headlights on. And the steering wheel looks older than a Pinto…dating to at least the 1st Mavericks.
That face…it’s like a ’71 Grand Prix swollen from a plastic surgery disaster…that characteristic “permanently surprised” look of a bad facelift, with added bad botox!
It looks like some of the trim is (fake?) marble, not fake wood. Take a look at the pic of the glovebox with the signature.
Never heard of this car, which is not a bad thing I guess.
For what it is, Barris did a pretty clean job. Would never own it, but I don’t mind it. Sammy Davis, Jr had one with a more modified rear end called a Titan.
George Barris did not create the Monkeemobile, that one was done by Dean Jeffries. You can tell because the Monkeemobile is actually well done, without the tacky geegaws that Barris puts on most of his custom cars.
Any time I see a good looking custom that came from Barris’ shop, I assume it was done by one of his employees without his input. He had a few really talented guys working for him that would later become famous in their own right.
There are those who allege that Barris was not the main creative force behind the Batmobile, either; and that it too was done by Dean Jeffries.
Tacky, tacky, tacky! I find it difficult to believe that there are those who would expose their extreme bad taste driving around in this. A beautiful car ruined by turning it into a laughing stock.
Ugh, I’m nauseous. Likely the combination of looking at this criminal travesty while having a snack.
Proof that P.T. Barnum was correct in saying a fool and his money are quickly departed.
BUGazzi. Named for the bug-eyed look? This never appealed to me, even in its time.
Regular CC readers know I have a particular hate-on for FoMoCo for using that cheap-ass steering wheel on everything in the product line. At least GM gave each division its own wheel and even within those divisions different models got different designs.
In it’s favor, this is at least the pre-1975 steering wheel, and was kind of attractive. Then came that one in 1975 with the bend-down ends of the spokes, and it went in everything Ford made for the rest of the decade – until it was replaced by that 4 spoke number with the goofy tilt mechanism that went in every Ford car for the first half of the 80s.
Then came the 2 spokes turned downward one that was in all the “aero” Fords and then came the big box 4 spoke airbag job that was in every Ford(and some Aston Martins) in the early 90’s.
My wife’s onetime boss had a Jaguar that had the same steering wheel as her Taurus but with the cat emblem instead of the blue oval. Probably it was done to simplify certification of the air bag.
This car is a two-bagger, for sure. Just goes to show that some people have more money than good taste! BTW, that wood on the steering wheel rim is the standard Ford version — the two-spoke Rim Blow steering wheel was used on cars equipped with Speed Control in the era. I also note that the radio/dash knobs likely had custom gold inserts at one time…
I am known as a Broughamophile, but this is just ugly–like a FoMoCo ’70s Stutz Bearcat.
Barris’s footprints are all over this thing. That’s not a compliment.
Paraphrasing H.L. Mencken “No one every went broke underestimating the taste or intelligence of the American public”
The Bugazzi is the very embodiment of visual vomit.
Thank you, I was trying to remember who said that. It should be rendered in Plasti-Kote and super glued to the glovebox.
What an abomination… I’d take the Bath Tub Buggy over this any day.
This customized 1971-2 Riviera could be a runner up, if not the winner, to the customized 1972 Mark IV – for being hit with an ugly stick.
The back of the car looks no better.
This must be one of the remaining 9 Bugazzis, according to information in this article: http://bugazzi.com/uploads/thebugazzibook.docx.pdf
That’s a fascinating read, not so much for what’s said, but how the writers seem to think this is some sort of automotive ‘art’ that should be in a museum: “The Car with Charisma – What Michelangelo Did in Marble, These Men Do in Steel”. Sheesh.
It’s telling that the first (of only 12 ever built) was sold to the owner of the Mustang Ranch in Sparks, NV. The owner of a brothel is exactly who you’d envision buying (let alone being seen driving) one of these. Who else would pay $30k (in 1972 dollars) for a Mark IV that that looked like it had been run through a JC Whitney catalog.
“You cannot be serious!”
$170k?
In today’s money. Back then: $30,000.
Surely you jest.
This looks like the sort of car that would be driven by the bad guys in some semi-comedic Japanese anime adventure series. It’s the perfect ride for a business-suited thug who sprouts tentacles or has a grotesque second mouth in his torso.
I wonder if the person who bought this new now owns a Mansory Bentley?
It’s actually kind of a conservative pimp mobile. No fur on continental kit, missing TV antenna. Where are the fake external exhaust pipes? No superfly headlamp lenses? Furless dash and door panels? Not even a hood ornament. Is this the base model for up and coming flesh peddlers, or the more discreet version for high end ‘dates’. It even has a friggen Pinto steering wheel!
According to the write-up mentioned in another comment, at least one of these did have the Super-Fly external side exhaust.
Also according the write-up, 2 of them were owned by the former owner of the Bunny Ranch, so they were literally pimp rides.
There was a Bugazzi featured in the 1975 movie Aloha Bobby and Rose. The character who drove it was played by Tim McIntyre, who played the Ferrati Daytona co-driver in The Gumball Rally.
The hidden opera window could be a black hole which sucked in the car’s original owner. There might be a couple of white great Danes in there too, some heavy gold chains and a wah wah pedal floating around a fuzzy hat.
This car is so tastelessly tacky that I`m surprised that it wasn`t featured in Steve Martin`s first great movie “The Jerk”. High camp, but it does have the ugliest business end since the Edsel or `61 Rambler Ambassador. `Bout the only thing its good for is laughs.Yeeeeechh!
If you took a black light and shined it on the interior of that car it would ignite like a sun going super nova. Or I could be really tacky and say it would look like a glowing Jackson Pollock Painting.
Barris must have really been banking on his name to justify what he was charging for these4d things. The interior of the Lincoln was Ford parts bin to start with, sharing most of not all switch gear and even that horrid steering wheel, and Barris didn’t do a whole lot more with it other than upholstery. I am sure he made a killing on them, too.
Well, Barris only built twelve, and I would be willing to bet he had a tough time unloading those. I can only surmise that they went for substantially less than the asking price, or they sat around in whatever showroom Barris used for a long, long time before finding buyers.
I mean, c’mon, the equally tacky (but a lot more original) Stutz Blackhawk started at $22.5k in 1971 (but could go as high as $75k), and ultimately 500-600 were built by the time production ended in 1987.
How anyone, even the most wealthy and delusional, could pay anywhere near $30k for a mildly tarted-up Mark IV, at a time when a new Rolls-Royce could be bought for $20k, is simply unfathomable, even if the Bugazzi had Barris’ name attached to it.
I wonder if Ford can somehow recall these?
Recurring themes: pimpmobiles and hearses.
Anyone got a picture of a pimped hearse ? A funeral of a pimp ? Both ?
Meanwhile I’ve got no idea what this is:
I think it’s a Corvorado.
That is definitely a Corvorado. Basically a Corvette turned into an Eldo pimpmobile. In dubious taste, but actually quite clever -> http://www.madle.org/edunham.htm
OK then….I thought it was someone’s Handyman’s Workbench 5000 project.
The first ones pictured in the link look relatively clean. That is, compared to the one above.
Well, this one has made the rounds around the interwebs for a few years…..
Body On Frame, definitely. Dead axles ?
Looks like a death trap, though the stiffness of the body is highly regarded……
Well sure, a real sleeper has a stiff body.
C’mon fellas , tell us what you _really_ think of this car ! =8-) .
I thought I was the only person who remembered ” Aloha Bobby & Rose ” .
-Nate
To quote Hooters, “Delightfully tacky, yet unrefined” Barf
The Corvorado without the add-on do-dads. A rather clean look and well done. It would be more interesting in person since you could see the reduced size as compared to a full size Cadillac Eldorado – especially back in the day when those cars were new. It could have been rather cool looking if made to look more like a factory designed car.
A foreshadowing of the Cadillac XLR?
I would say that the Corvado, in spirit at least, represents a better, or at least slightly more cohesive attempt at a Cadillac 2 seater than the chopped down Seville 2 seaters that started appearing from aftermarket companies in the later half of the 70’s
This kind of reminds me of the Cadillac Cimarron, if not in looks, at least in spirit!
1972 press announcement here–did they really retail these through L-M dealers?
July, 1972. Unsurprisingly, a Reno newspaper:
Just one more (Sept. 1972):
I actually drove one of these…it had the extraspecialsuper exposed exhausts. I was doing some consulting in Las Vegas in ’74 or ’75 and the guy I was working for ended up with this in trade for something (you’d have to know the guy) and had to get it back to LA. So, I drove it followed by my coworker driving his new Audi 5000.
One thing led to another and soon we were running across the desert at 90-100. Problem was, the thing was so heavy (I guess all the lead and gee gaws glued on added up) that any little dip would bottom it out. That stands out, along with the rememberance that the goofy add ons aged MUCH faster than the basic car, so it looked really tacky after 2-3 years (not that it needed help).
Not even worth a Vega lug nut.
I built a lot of AMT 3-in-1 model kits as a kid in the ’60’s, and the George Barris customizing stuff was always the worst, even to my 8 year old taste. It doesn’t look any better 50 years later …
Bugazzi? More of a fugazi.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=fugazi
Yes, that really is marble in the door panels and the dash. None on the steering wheel, though, although there it might actually have helped to disguise the wheel’s origins in a Mercury Bobcat. Another absurd affection was oriental throw-rugs laid on the floors and over the tranny hump. Some wag once likened the interior to “a dictator’s bathroom.”
And yet the esthetic (if that’s the word) behind the Bugazzi hasn’t gone away; it’s still alive and festering in 2014. In a recent episode of Counting Cars, Danny took a fire-damaged ’78 Mark V and turned it into what he called “part muscle car, part luxury car”… but what most people would call a tasteless travesty. I could only find pix of the exterior, which is bad enough — but the interior was utterly emetic, with thick red and silver crushed velvet all over the damn place. It looked like the Presidential Suite in a Bourbon Street bordello; and was easily the worst thing I’ve ever seen come out of the Count’s shop.
Cars like these are proof that pimpin’ ain’t easy… on the eyes.
It’s not a Pinto steering wheel. I know of what I speak, having grasped many of the hard, spindly things in my youth. The steering wheel in the Pintos with Interior Decor option packages were similar, but not identical. The Mark had ‘rimblow’ and ‘fingertip’ cruise control. The base Pinto steering wheel was like holding on to greased, uncooked pasta.
Jesus, that is an ugly car.
I think I’m gonna hurl. But first, this:
If my redneck blue collar self won the lottery, I would be tempted to buy one of these just for the “white trash with money” aspects.
And i would have the “BUTTUGLY” plates on it.
Kiwibryce speaks from m heart. In 2014 I had no idea of CC, so I missed all of these comments back then. I am laughing my head off at all of your comments. Great stuff, gents!
George Barris, King of the Schlock Kustomizers!