The “Milan Coupe” – A Rare Shortened 1979 Cadillac Seville

The Cadillac Seville Milan coupe was a car that was built in very limited numbers by a private specialist company in California called Milan Coach Builders Inc.

Each Milan started life as a four-door Cadillac Seville, it was then chopped and shortened so that its 114 inch wheelbase became 96 inches. The goal was to compete with the likes of the Mercedes-Benz R107 SL, but success was limited and only 500 or so are thought to have been made.

Fast Facts – The Cadillac Seville Milan Coupe

• The Cadillac Seville Milan Coupe was the brainchild of Milan Daniel, he believed that the Cadillac Seville could be turned into a luxurious short wheelbase coupe and that people would buy them.
• The styling of the Milan coupe was somewhat controversial. Many believed it was shortened too much and looked awkward, there were also some safety concerns about the car and its much lighter rear end.
• Approximately 500 examples of the Cadillac Seville Milan were built by Milan Coach Builders Inc., they also provided kits to other company who wanted to do their own conversions, though it’s not known how many kits were sold.
• The Milan coupe kept the engine and transmission of the Seville that it was based on, as well as all the refinements including options like air-conditioning, cruise control, electric windows, and opulently proportioned seats.

Cadillac’s Answer To Mercedes And BMW

The Cadillac Seville was developed and built as a direct answer to the increasingly popular vehicles being sold in the United States by Mercedes-Benz and BMW.

The shortened wheelbase of the Milan coupe, 18 inches less than the standard Cadillac Seville, takes a little getting used to.

Cadillac had long been once of America’s permanent luxury car builders, but a new generation of luxury cars coming out of German proved that many American consumers didn’t want land yachts, they wanted cars with all the bells and whistles that were easy to drive and easy to park.

Cadillac Seville Specifications

The Seville was built with unibody construction rather than the more traditional body-on-frame construction, and it used a bolt-on subframe with a rear suspension based on the 1968–74 X-body platform.

Power was provided by an Oldsmobile-sourced 350 cubic inch (5.7 liter) V8, unusually for the era it was fitted with a Bendix/Bosch electronically-controlled fuel injection system. This engine produced 180 bhp resulting in a 0-60 mph time of 11.5 seconds (reasonable for the era), power was sent to the rear wheels via a 3-speed TH-400 Turbo-Hydramatic automatic transmission.

The Seville offered gas mileage of 17 mpg in the city and 23 mpg on the highway – these numbers were remarkable for a Cadillac, as many of the Seville’s forebears had single digit mileage figures. Interestingly Cadillac introduced a diesel V8 version of the car in 1978.

The sharper lines of the car combined with the Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow-inspired front end and the smaller overall size resulted in it being popular with buyers in the USA, but perhaps not quite enough to tempt people en masse away from their German sedans.

The first generation of the Cadillac Seville would remain in production from 1976 until 1979. It was deemed a success by Cadillac, both Lincoln and Chrysler responded with similar cars of their own, resulting in the Lincoln Versailles and the Chrysler LeBaron.

In this configuration the car keeps its original interior from the B-pillar forwards, the rear seats and rear doors are removed and the roof is shortened.

The second generation Seville was built from 1979 to 1985, the front end was broadly similar to the earlier model but the car featured razor-edged bustle-back rear styling.

The Cadillac Seville Milan Coupe

The Cadillac Seville Milan coupe was introduced in 1976 to fulfill demand for a shorter wheelbase two-door version of the new Cadillac.

The plan was to compete with the European luxury coupes like the Mercedes-Benz R107, the BMW E24, and the Jaguar XJ-S.

The primary change that was applied to all cars was also the most obvious – the body was chopped and the wheelbase shorted from 114 inches to 96 inches. This 18 inch change resulted in the rear set of doors disappearing and the roof shortening noticeably.

Much has been said about the aesthetics of the change, not much of it complimentary, however over 500 people liked the conversion enough that they laid out up to $15,000 USD to have it done – on top of the cost of a new Cadillac Seville.

Some Cadillac dealers offered the conversion service to new car buyers and as a result some where sold off dealership showroom floors, however General Motors never condoned this or encouraged it.

Demand for new Milan coupes was such that at one point, Milan Coach Builders Inc. was producing 100 – 125 of them per year at a rate of up to 10 per month at their facility in Simi Valley, California.

Unable to keep up with demand they developed kits that could be applied by other companies, and conversions were also done on the East Coast and in Mexico.

Some later versions of the Milan coupe had 500 lbs of concrete added in the rear to help improve handling and weight distribution issues.

Today there’s a committed community of Seville Milan owners dedicated to keeping the cars on the road and providing information and other resources to owners. Love them or loathe them, they’re a microcosm of their age.

The 1979 Cadillac Seville Milan Coupe Shown Here

The car you see here is a 1979 Cadillac Seville Milan coupe, from the final year of production.

It was originally delivered on the 22nd of June 1979, finished in white over a red leather-trimmed interior with contrasting wood veneer. It was ordered with electrically windows and seats, cruise control, climate control, and automatic “Sentinel” lights.

As you would expect the car is powered by the correct 350 cubic inch (5.7 liter) V8 which is sending power to the rear wheels via the reliable 3-speed TH-400 Turbo-Hydramatic automatic gearbox.

This car is now for sale, it’s accompanied by its original owner’s manual, warranty card, historic registration certificates, some spare parts, a jack, spare wheel, and four keys.

If you’d like to read more about it or register to bid you can click here to visit the listing on Collecting Cars.

Images courtesy of Collecting Cars

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The Rare Iso Grifo A3/C – Bizzarrini’s “Ferrari 250 GTO Mark 2”

The Iso Grifo A3/C was developed by Giotto Bizzarrini as the high-performance, racing version of the road-going Iso Grifo A3/L. Bizzarrini had earlier developed the legendary Ferrari 250 GTO, he said that the Iso Grifo A3/C was intended as a direct successor to the Ferrari.

With all of this in mind, it’s a surprise that the Iso Grifo A3/C isn’t considerably more famous than it is. Relatively few were made, and after Bizzarrini left Iso he created his own company specifically to build more examples of the A3/C.

Fast Facts – The Iso Grifo A3/C

• The Iso Grifo A3/C was developed on the Iso Grifo A3/L for racing, specifically to compete at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and other similar endurance events.
• The car was developed by a veritable dream team, the body was designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro, the engineering was done by Giotto Bizzarrini, the car was built by Piero Drogo, and it was powered by a modified 5.4 liter Chevrolet small block 327 V8 engine.
• Many changes were made to the A3/L to create the A3/C, the car was given an entirely new body, the engine was moved back for better weight distribution, and the final production car weighed in at less than 2,200 lbs (1,000 kgs).
• Thanks to its tried-and-tested Corvette V8 with 350+ bhp and its excellent aerodynamics, the A3/C was capable of reaching speeds in excess of 170 mph. When it competed at Le Mans in ’64 and ’65 it was one of the fastest cars down the Mulsanne Straight.

Giotto Bizzarrini – Father Of The 250 GTO

There can be no denying that Giotto Bizzarrini is one of the most important Italian automotive engineers of his time.

He’s most famous today for leading the development of the Ferrari 250 GTO, now the most valuable production car in history, but he also developed cars for Alfa Romeo, and earlier at Ferrari he had been deeply involved in the development of the Testa Rossa V12 engine, the 250 TR Testa Rossa, and the Ferrari 250GT SWB.

The Iso Grifo A3/C uses all of Bizzarrini’s experience with aerodynamics, to create a low, lightweight car that was capable of over 170 mph down the Mulsanne Straight.

After leaving Ferrari in 1961 after the “Ferrari night of the Long Knives,” Bizzarrini established Automobili Turismo e Sport (ATS) with some other former Ferrari engineers to build the ATS Serenissima and a Formula 1 prototype.

He would later develop the Ferrari Breadvan for Piero Drogo of Carrozzeria Sports Cars, and he was hired by a tractor manufacturer named Ferruccio Lamborghini to develop a new V12 engine for a series of high-end GT cars he had planned.

Bizzarrini would later develop the Iso Rivolta IR 300 and the Iso Grifo for Iso Autoveicoli S.p.A., taking the Iso Grifo A3/C design and starting his own marque after a disagreement with Renzo Rivolta, head of Iso.

The Iso Grifo A3/C

The Iso Grifo A3/C was developed on the Iso Grifo A3/L platform as an out-and-out race car to compete at events like the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Sebring, Daytona, the Nürburgring 1000, and other major endurance events of the era.

The similar model names were separated only by a single letter, the A3/L was the luxurious GT car – the “L” stands for lusso, Italian for “luxury.” The “C” in the A3/C model name stands for “competizione” which, as you may have guessed, is the Italian word for “competition.”

The interior of the car is purposeful, it was designed for racing first and foremost with little weight sacrificed for luxuries.

An entirely new aerodynamic body was developed for the A3/C made from Duralumin – a special alloy of aluminum, copper, and magnesium. This material was essentially impossible to weld, and so the car had many of its panels riveted into place, giving it a distinctive, almost aircraft like appearance.

Suspension and braking systems were revised to better handle the rigors of endurance racing, and the engine was moved back as far as possible to improve weight distribution, resulting in a car that is front-mid-engined.

This also meant that certain engine maintenance tasks had to be carried out from inside the car after removing a panel in the dashboard.

Despite its exceedingly low development budget the Iso Grifo A3/C proved surprisingly successful in competition, at Le Mans in 1965 an A3/C driven by French racing drivers Regis Fraissinet and Jean de Mortemart took the 5.0+ liter class win after a long battle of attrition, coming in 14th overall.

A year later in 1965 the Iso Grifo A3/C would finish third in class and 9th overall. These strong results have led many to wonder what might have been if the team had better funding, giving them a budget closer to that of juggernauts like Ferrari.

The modified Corvette engine was a favorite of Bizzarrini, he liked the immediate throttle response and its excellent reliability, which made it ideal for endurance racing.

Bizzarrini had such conviction in the design of the A3/C that after a falling out with Iso he started his own marque, Bizzarrini S.p.A., to build the car under his own name and further refine it – creating the Bizzarrini 5300 GT Strada.

The 1965 Iso Grifo A3/C Shown Here

The car you see here is a 1965 Iso Grifo A3/C, it’s believed to be just the 14th car produced, and it features the highly coveted flat rear windscreen – this was only used on the earliest Grifos.

On close inspection you’ll notice the rivets used to hold the Duralumin body in place, this helped to keep the weight of the vehicle to under a ton. When combined with the 350+ hp Corvette V8 and the excellent aerodynamics, the A3/C was one of the fastest road-legal cars in the world at the time.

This Iso is due to roll across the auction block with RM Sotheby’s on the 14th of May in Monaco. It has a price guide of €1,550,000 – €1,750,000 which works out to approximately $1,680,000 – $1,900,000 USD.

If you’d like to read more about this car or register to bid you can click here to visit the listing.

Images courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

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This Is A Vintage American Sand Rail: A Beetle Powered Dune Smasher

As Sand Rails first began to appear in the 1960s, they represented the second major evolutionary step for off-road buggies after the more primitive creations that had started appearing on American dunes in the years after WWII.

The fundamental architecture of a sand rail typically consists of a tubular steel chassis that includes integral roll over protection. They rarely have much in the way of body panels, and they’re typically powered by a rear-mounted engine – often from a VW Beetle.

Fast Facts – A 1967 Sand Rail

• Sand Rails first started appearing in significant numbers in the 1960s, their design was so well-suited to the task that they’re still being made today in much the same way.
• Most of the early Sand Rails were powered by engines from the VW Beetle. The brakes, suspension, and transmission were also often sourced from the same car.
• Sand Rails get their name from the fact that they’re driven on the sand, and you can see the chassis rails. Beach Buggies are so named because many of them were made from VW Beetle platforms, and Beetles were often called “Bugs.”
• The Sand Rail you see here is a good example of the genre, it has a tubular steel space frame chassis, VW front and rear suspension and brakes, and a VW Beetle engine mounted in the rear sending power to the rear wheels via a 4-speed transmission.

The VW Beetle And The Unstoppable Beach Buggies

The explosion in the popularity of beach buggies that occurred after WWII has been largely attributed to returning servicemen who had grown fond of driving off-road in Jeeps, tanks, trucks, and half-tracks during the war.

Sand rails typically have two bucket seats with harnesses to keep the occupants safely seated even when doing jumps and other high speed maneuvers.

Initially many people used military surplus Jeeps and other modified road cars but it wasn’t long before it was discovered that the VW Beetle was the perfect, albeit unlikely, donor car for sand and beach driving.

Early pioneers like Pete Beiring took the VW Beetle floorpan and shorten it a few inches, then add a simple body. The all independent suspension, reliable drivetrain, and rear weight bias was perfect for driving in deep sand.

These Beetle-based vehicles became known as “Buggies” after the fact that the Beetle was known as the “Bug.”

The Meyers Manx

In the 1960s Bruce Meyers developed the legendary Meyers Manx, he took a shortened Beetle pan and added a new fiberglass body over the top that allowed for off-road tires to be fitted.

The Meyers Manx became the de facto “Beach Buggy” and it’s been copied by countless companies over the intervening years.

This rail is powered by a VW Beetle flat-four engine, these simple air-cooled motors have made up the backbone of the beach buggy and sand rail community since the 1950s.

Interestingly you can still buy a Meyers Manx kit today and build your own road-legal beach buggy at home.

The Arrival Of The Sand Rails

As the 1960s progressed the engineering that went into buggies became more and more complex. Soon people were building vehicles with tubular steel space frames that had integrated roll cages, the wheelbases were lengthened, and many VW Beetle parts were used including the rear-mounted engine.

The use of a rear-mounted engine was seen as ideal as it kept the weight over the driven rear wheels for better traction, and it kept the front tires light so they could almost float over the sand.

Before long many sand dunes were inundated with sand rails of all shapes and sizes, companies appeared selling frames and full build-it-yourself kits, and people started experimenting with more powerful engines and long travel suspension.

Having the engine in the back over the driven wheels gives optimal traction, it also helps keep the front wheels unencumbered so they float over the sand without digging in or bogging down.

Sand rails are now one of the most popular self-built, off-road vehicle types in the country and it’s possible to pick up good secondhand examples if you don’t have the space, time, or inclination to do it yourself.

The 1967 Sand Rail Shown Here

The Sand Rail you see here is documented as a 1967 model which would put its arrival close to the beginning of the sand rail revolution.

Power is provided by a 1.5 liter (1,493cc) flat-four VW Beetle engine fitted with dual carburetors. Power is sent to the rear wheels via a 4-speed manual transmission and a Scat shifter. The frame is finished in red and it has a black interior, with a galvanized checkerplate center console and flooring.

The vehicle has an integrated roll cage for safety as well as bucket seats, and it’s riding on steel wheels fitted with BF Goodrich All-Terrain T/A tires.

This sand rail is due to cross the auction block with Mecum at the end of March, it’s being offered with no reserve and you can click here if you’d like to read more about it or register to bid.

Images courtesy of Mecum

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There’s A Custom Ferrari 412 Pickup “Ute” For Sale – $19,500+ USD

In the long and storied history of Ferrari the company has never built a pickup, or a “ute” as they’re called in Australia. This didn’t stop the team at the London Supercar Workshop from building their own – it’s based on a 1989 Ferrari 412 and it’s powered by a 5.7 liter small block Chevy V8.

The act of taking a Ferrari, chopping up its Pininfina designed body, then removing its Colombo V12 and replacing it with an American V8 would likely be enough to get you hung like Mussolini in much of Italy. Fortunately the car was built in England so its creators are still alive and kicking.

Fast Facts – The Custom Ferrari 412 Pickup

• The Ferrari 412 has never been the most loved of Ferrari models. It was a member of the model family that included the 365 GT4 2+2, 400, and 412 – known for their stark angular departure from the more curvaceous Ferraris that had come before.
• The 412 was the final and most evolved model in the series and it was the first Ferrari ever offered with Bosch ABS. All of the cars in the 400 series shared fundamentally the same chassis, body, and suspension over the 16 year production run.
• The sharp-edged styling of the 400 series Ferraris was penned by Leonardo Fioravanti at Pininfarina. Though it was initially controversial the cars are now becoming more and more popular.
• The modified Ferrari 412 you see here was built by the London Supercar Workshop for the “Ultimate Wheels” television series in 2013. It’s fitted with a small block Chevy V8 and the rear has been converted in a teak-decked cargo bed.

The Ferrari 412

When the Ferrari 412 was released in 1985 it was to be the most refined car in the Ferrari 400 model series, it was also to be the last of the series before it was eventually replaced by the Ferrari 456.

The rear cargo area doesn’t have a fold down tailgate, so you’ll have to heft any loads over the back. The bed is all lined with teak, and there’s an upper shelf for additional items.

Perhaps the most significant change when compared to the 400i was the fact that the engine had been bored out slightly, increasing the displacement from 4,823cc up to 4,942cc, with a corresponding 8% bump in power.

The 412 was also the first Ferrari fitted with Bosch ABS, a safety feature that was appearing in more and more passenger cars as the 1980s progressed.

Though the body and chassis was largely the same through the 16 year production of the 400 series there were some minor changes made here and there. The rear deck was raised for more luggage space, the side window trim was changed from chrome to black, and a deeper front spoiler was used for better aerodynamics.

The majority of 412s that were made were fitted with the optional 3-speed automatic transmission, though today its the cars with the 5-speed manual box that tend to get the best prices on the classic car market.

Each of the models in the Ferrari 400 series, including the 365 GT4 2+2, 400, and the 412 endured many years where they were considered “lesser” Ferraris, with prices and desirability more inline with other less desirable Ferraris like the Mondial and 308 GT4.

Above Video: This walk around video gives you a good idea of how the car will look in person.

In more recent years the 400 series cars have enjoyed a surge in popularity, possibly helped along by the inclusion of a Ferrari 400 in the Human After All music video by Daft Punk in 2005.

The Ferrari 412 Pickup Shown Here

The car you see here lit up the internet when it was built back in 2013 for the Ultimate Wheels television series. It was built by X Elo and Will, the show’s hosts, and it caused no small amount of controversy.

The car had its original quad cam Colombo V12 removed by a previous owner, apparently as it was the cause of too many troubles. It was replaced with a reliable but far less exotic Chevy small block V8 mated to a 3-speed automatic transmission.

This engine conversion is likely the reason that the car was priced low enough for inclusion in the TV series, and perhaps also the reason it was seen as a good target for customizing – as no matching numbers car would be harmed.

During the build the rear roofline was completely changed, the C pillar was brought forward almost up to the B pillar and the rear section was converted into a cargo bay. The car has no rear tailgate so any cargo will need to be lifted in and out, and the floor of the rear section has been covered in teak decking.

The car is now being offered for sale in a live auction with Bonhams, the price guide is £15,000 – £20,000 and you can click here if you’d like to see the listing.

Images courtesy of The Market by Bonhams

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Full Vintage Documentary: Vacuum Control Chevrolet Gearshift – 1938

This short film, titled Vacuum Control, explains in detail how Chevrolet’s then-new column shifted manual transmission works. It was produced and released in 1938 to accompany the new technology.

For many drivers during the early days of the automobile, the manual transmission and its clutch pedal were the biggest hurdles. The need to use both in synchronization whilst also steering, braking, and navigating traffic has proven challenging to generations of drivers.

The relatively complex system of levers and arms required to make a column shift manual transmission work are fascinating, and that’s before you look into the pneumatic assistance systems.

Much work has gone into simplifying the operation of the transmission, when the automobile was first created many transmissions were operated with floor-based levers.

The next step in the evolutionary process after this was the column shifter that was easier to use and also cleared the space on the floor where the traditional manual shift lever would have been.

After column shifted manual transmissions came the rise of the pre-selector and finally the automatic transmission, which simplified gearbox operations even further. The first mass-produced automatic transmission was the General Motors Hydra-Matic, which was released in 1939 – just a year after this film was released.

The film’s introduction goes into great detail about air pressure and pneumatics, before explaining how these principles are used to help actuate the column shift transmission.

Column shifted manual transmissions are no longer in mass-production for automobile use, but they were a fascinating step in the evolution of the transmission and the complex mechanism they required to transmit movement from the column-mounted lever to the transmission is a feat of engineering in itself.

If you’d like to read more about automobile transmission types you can click here to read the article by the Universal Technical Institute. It breaks down the major transmission types and explains how they work.

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