When I ran across this shot of a genuine curbside Seville Milan posted at the Cohort by whatnext2010, it reminded me of some shots of other Seville conversions from the web I had in my files. The gen1 Seville is a bit of a controversial subject around these parts, and although its styling is not exactly my cup of tea, I have always said that it is a fairly handsome car. In its unaltered state, that is. Unfortunately, it inspired a host of bizarre and tasteless conversions. Let’s take a quick look through some.
Like this Seville Grandeur Opera Coupe (the name alone says it all). But no opera window?
I’m still trying to decide which angle flatters this car best. The view of the undercarriage?
If you’re looking something for a bit more parking lot friendly, let me show you the brilliant Seville Milan Roadster.
Who needs a Mercedes SL when there’s a genuine home-grown alternative available? I’m sure Bill Mitchell approved. On second thought, maybe he really would have, despite its stubbiness. The Allante, by Cadillac. No need to fly the bodies in from Italy.
If opera is not your thing, you might want to stick to the more traditional Grandeur Formal Sedan. It doesn’t get much grandeur than that, eh?
There’s also this shorty coupe, the Seville Tomaso Coupe. BTW, hacking off the rear passenger compartment had the effect of doubling the price of the Tomaso over a plebeian Seville. But at what price prestige?
There was actually one tasteful custom Seville, the San Remo. It didn’t try so hard to improve on the Seville, but just turned it into a convertible, and one that suits the Seville’s lines very well. Too bad the factory didn’t try this.
That’s more like it…it boggles the mind to think that folks would even consider one of those chopped or stretched Sevilles, when this was available. What’s the old line about taste?
Note: a rerun of an older post with updated images.
San Remo Seville look better with rear lowered 2″ and front 4″…
Good grief.
The first thing that comes to mind from looking at these are the CC articles from about 3 years ago by poster “Fuzzyman”. Others may recall the kind of mind-bending cars rendered by I guess what we’d now (in this advanced future time) consider rather primitive AI.
I’m not sure if it’s better or worse that someone actually chose to render these mutant Sevilles in actual metal.
Some people’s taste is all in their mouth
In addition to the San Remo convertible, they (San Remo) also made some handsome first generation 2-door coupes retaining the same wheelbase as the 4-door sedan.
I’ve seen coupe and convertible conversions of the second generation (bustle-back) Seville and they all looked pretty hideous, but then they didn’t have much to work with to start with.
Also, there was a very handsome coupe conversion of the fourth generation (1992-1997) Seville shown at auto shows that was done by ASC. I don’t think ASC ever actually produced any for public sale, but the car was much nicer looking than the Eldorado that Cadillac produced at the same time.
BTW, isn’t that, um, William Mitchell posing by his white Seville Milan Roadster?
Boy, anyone on this site who has read stuff I’ve posted also knows that I’m a Caddy guy. But they probably also know that I’m not into conversions. In my eyes, there’s nothing worse than when someone ruins a perfectly great looking car by adding huge (ugly) grilles. Or cheap extra “chrome” all over. Or most any after-market tops. Or fake spare wheels on the sides or rear.
But of them all, I honestly feel that these Seville alterations may be the worst of the worst! Just horrible looking things. It’s what I’d call an abortion of a car. Of those shown above, the ONLY one that is maybe half ok would be the San Remo. In that black convertible it looks nice with top up or down. I’ve seen them in coupe styles as well. So I wouldn’t personally go looking for one, but they look more normal to my eyes. The only thing I never understood is why they removed the standard taillights and replaced them with the horizontal ones.
Where most of these fall down is in not lengthening the doors. That’s the main thing that sticks out, once you get past the usual kitsch/bad taste dreck these cars seem to major in. The exception would be the San Remo, which does have lengthened doors to balance the appearance.
It looks like a real car. It’s properly proportioned.
The others are more like clown cars.
Really, it makes me wonder what other aspects of the cars’ construction the others have cheaped out on. I mean, the Seville Milan – has it been properly reinforced underneath? Does the top seal properly around the door window? How much cowl shake is there?
The very definition of “FUGLY” .
I’m sure any of these that survived could be used as joke character cars in comedies featuring bald, cigar chomping jerks .
-Nate
I assume that sidemounts served a purpose on cars of the ’20s and ’30s, but they certainly don’t today. Same principle as the fake landau irons you sometimes see.
If they mounted the spare behind a detachable panel in the front fender, they could say they were taking a page from Bristol’s book.
I truly feel for Dan and any other Cadillac enthusiasts. It’s kind of like the groom at his own wedding reception looking across the table and catching a look at his new aunt-in-law. You know, the one whose been married four times and had bad cosmetic surgery between each former husband.
Or so a friend tells me….
On one hand I find pretty much all of these gross and disgusting, but I can’t help but admire the effort these builders put into absolutely ruining these cars on the dime of the tasteless rich. Now a days you all you get is a gaudy vinyl wrap and hideous wheels that are easily reversed
These are all pretty awful, but I recently saw (but unfortunately couldn’t photograph) a similar conversion done to an XLR. That somehow managed to be even more jarring in its stylistic disfunction.
The San Remo is nice. As for the others, they make this thing look like the pinnacle of style and elegance.
With the exception of the San Remo, all the others make my tummy hurt. Really, a visceral reaction. I usually like funky, different, cars just for the novelty, but these are a crime against nature. Why? Why?
The San Remo has a certain elegance to it, with the top both up and down.
The others are best forgotten…
The “San Remo” looks a professional, alteration. The others look like cartoon, mobiles.
What’d be interesting is some of these same shorty versions on the “slopeback Seville” that followed this one.
I’ve seen both concept sketches where the hood and front were greatly exaggerated from the production version, and a clever “Fauxtoshop” rendering of a 2-door “Eldorado version” that looked unexpectedly good by comparison.
Here are some links I found on Google:
https://www.schmitt.com/inventory/1978-cadillac-seville-grandeur-opera-coupe/
https://car-from-uk.com/sale.php?id=30358
https://car-from-uk.com/sale.php?id=86525
https://www.mecum.com/lots/387686/1984-cadillac-seville-opera-coupe/
First thing that came to mind was Waylon Jennings’ Seville bustleback Opera edition, in his “America” video. Not my cup of tea, but better looking than these shorty versions. That red one at the top of the page, at first glance reminds me of a K car.