Physics buffs seemingly keep in mind Newton’s Third Regulation of Movement, which reads, “For each motion, there’s an equal and reverse response.”
And whereas Newton’s Third Regulation enjoys common acceptance as reality, you could be asking your self the way it applies to automotive advertising and promoting. I’ll clarify…
Cadillac Seville Opera Coupe
All-New Seville
Cadillac launched the Seville for 1975. The brand new sedan was smaller, cleaner wanting, and sportier than the rest within the Caddy lineup. Promoting touted the new-think automotive as “European,” this given its tidy dimensions and high-tech options which included gasoline injection—uncommon within the mid-Seventies.
And for Cadillac consumers, the Seville’s showroom impression was profound. The brand new smaller Caddy, which was priced above different model fashions, was greater than two toes shorter than the favored Sedan DeVille, and weighed nearly 1200 kilos lower than the old-school mannequin.
However should you thought that Cadillac was making progress updating and modernizing its car portfolio, you’d be improper, as Newton’s Third Regulation of Movement kicked in with a vengeance.
Grandeur Motorcar Company
It’s attainable the all-new Seville design seemed so clear and stylish, that it appeared to some as a clean canvas. One thing nearly unfinished. And whereas there was little most folk may or would do concerning the new Caddy’s comparatively minimalist look, there was an organization in Florida that noticed the Seville as a block of clay simply ready to be molded…and gilded, and closely ornamented. That firm was the Grandeur Motorcar Company of Pompano Seashore, Florida.
Seville Opera Coupe
The Grandeur Motorcar Company was seemingly based to provide one car: The Cadillac Seville Opera Coupe. For an ungodly sum of cash, the Grandeur staff would do issues to Caddy’s new premium journey that seemingly made manufacturing facility designers and engineers cringe. Right here’s a listing of the modifications required to show a Seville right into a Seville Opera Coupe as pictured within the advert under:
- Shorten physique
- Shortened by 18 inches, rear seat and rear doorways eliminated
- Elongated hood
- Engine and firewall pushed rearward on body, creating longer hood, larger distance from doorways to entrance axle, critically messing with proportions (The advert claims the Opera Coupe sports activities “mid-engine dealing with.” Now we have our doubts.)
- Faux side-mounted spare tire covers
- Chromey grille modifications
- Star Wire 30-spoke wheels
- Like them or not, they had been dear
Costs
First provided on 1978 examples, the Opera Coupe conversion added roughly $6500 to the value of a buyer’s Seville. That’s about $32,000 in 2026 {dollars} to smash a wonderfully good Cadillac Seville.
Manufacturing
There are not any stable manufacturing figures available, however most estimates put the whole variety of Opera Coupes constructed between 1978 and 1979 at 600—a determine that, frankly, frightens this creator.
Lincoln Versailles
Grandeur additionally constructed just a few comparable conversions of Lincoln’s compact Versailles, a automotive with a mission and market place just like that of the Seville. Additionally, there are footage of some conversions of next-generation “Bustleback” Sevilles (1980-1985), that are painful to take a look at. We are able to’t affirm that any had been really bought to the general public.
Energy and Efficiency
Unable to discover a evaluation of the Opera Coupe, we are able to solely assume that it’s on-road efficiency was fairly Seville-like, regardless of the ill-considered modifications. That stated, the doorways, shortened as a part of the conversion, look very small for a luxurious car. Husky automotive collectors, take observe.
Collector Worth
The Seville Opera Coupe shouldn’t be particularly uncommon as we speak, displaying up often at auctions, and commanding what we consider are scandalous costs, given the widely upsetting look of the truncated Caddies.
Latest private-party gross sales of good-condition Opera Coupes put the worth the of the transformed Caddys between $15,000 and $25,000, which appear nuts to us.
Newton’s Third Regulation of Movement
However, again to Newton. Our level is that this: As Cadillac moved to replace and modernize its lineup, an equal pressure, from Florida, pushed again in opposition to the trouble, turning choose Sevilles into baroque caricatures of what most individuals keep in mind as traditional vehicles.
If Newton had been right here to evaluate the scenario, one wonders if he would admire the gravity of the matter.
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Cadillac Seville Opera Coupe Footage
