[1]Picture: Bob Flowers
If you’ve ever heard someone refer to a “land yacht,” chances are they mean the large luxury cars that dominated the streets of America in the 60’s and 70’s. Cadillac made some of the largest coupes and sedans ever seen on the roads, and many of these cars were bigger than the full-size pickups of the day. As it turns out, more than a few people thought their Cadillac would make a better pickup, than a pickup.
Hemmings Auto Blog [2]recently ran a picture of a converted-Cadillac pickup and was inundated with customized readers rides. We don’t know why these work so well…but they do.
[3]Picture: Tom King
As it turns out, a number of aftermarket companies were devoted to performing these conversions, among them Traditional Coach Works which produced the “Mirage.” Based on the 1975-’76 Cadillac Eldorado, Coach Works also built a station wagon variant called the Castilian. Alas, the shag-carpet pickup bed doesn’t look as utilitarian as the “Paris” model, based on the ’79 Coupe de Ville. Honestly, we had no idea such things existed outside of the imaginations of rednecks, and yet there’s something really appealing about a pickup truck with the plush interior of a Cadillac.
Other companies that got into the Cadillac-truck conversion business included Caribou, who built the Comstock Pickup and Sport Wagon (based on ’74-’78 Eldorados.) Looks like we may or may not have found our next wacky project car.