Physics buffs probably 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 is likely to 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 trying, and sportier than anything within the Caddy lineup. Promoting touted the new-think automobile as “European,” this given its tidy dimensions and high-tech options which included gasoline injection—uncommon within the mid-Seventies.
And for Cadillac patrons, the Seville’s showroom affect was profound. The brand new smaller Caddy, which was priced above different model fashions, was greater than two ft shorter than the favored Sedan DeVille, and weighed virtually 1200 kilos lower than the old-school mannequin.
However in the event you thought that Cadillac was making progress updating and modernizing its car portfolio, you’d be unsuitable, 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 virtually unfinished. And whereas there was little most folk may or would do in regards to 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 Seaside, Florida.
Seville Opera Coupe
The Grandeur Motorcar Company was seemingly based to supply one car: The Cadillac Seville Opera Coupe. For an ungodly sum of cash, the Grandeur crew would do issues to Caddy’s new premium journey that probably 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 beneath:
- 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, severely messing with proportions (The advert claims the Opera Coupe sports activities “mid-engine dealing with.” We have now our doubts.)
- Faux side-mounted spare tire covers
- Chromey grille modifications
- Star Wire 30-spoke wheels
- Like them or not, they have been expensive
Costs
First provided on 1978 examples, the Opera Coupe conversion added roughly $6500 to the worth 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 strong 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 writer.
Lincoln Versailles
Grandeur additionally constructed a number of related conversions of Lincoln’s compact Versailles, a automobile with a mission and market place much like that of the Seville. Additionally, there are photos of some conversions of next-generation “Bustleback” Sevilles (1980-1985), that are painful to take a look at. We will’t affirm that any have been really bought to the general public.
Energy and Efficiency
Unable to discover a assessment 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 mentioned, the doorways, shortened as a part of the conversion, look very small for a luxurious car. Husky automobile collectors, take word.
Collector Worth
The Seville Opera Coupe shouldn’t be particularly uncommon immediately, displaying up often at auctions, and commanding what we imagine are scandalous costs, given the commonly 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 basic vehicles.
If Newton have been right here to evaluate the state of affairs, one wonders if he would admire the gravity of the matter.
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