Somewhere in the bowels of San Antonio, Texas, there’s this. This… thing. Hard to miss, considering the canary yellow, but what really calls for the double take is that this Mercedes-Benz has a truck bed in the back. That’s because this Mercedes-Benz isn’t a Mercedes-Benz at all. It’s actually a 1973 Chevrolet El Camino that’s been contorted to look like a Mercedes.
According to the Craigslist listing, the one-off is known as El Cedes, and utilizes the frame of a 4th-gen El Camino (which also doubled as the skeleton for the Chevelle station wagon), a Mercedes SEC front clip, “Testa Rossa” doors and “ALOOOOOT of time on fiberglass work.” The engines for these models ranged from a moot 250-CID inline six to a 454 Big Block. Of course, El Cedes features the 454, but for $12,000, the price sure is a lot to pay for an abomination.
Comments
This thing is really bizarre.
Probably found a written off W126 SEC front end and though “Yes! Just the ticket I need to make this nightmare look classy”.
very nice work but very ugly car, again why
This is not abomination-this is ingenuity and great sense of humor. One should tackle a project like this himself before dispensing critiques.
“One should tackle a project like this himself before dispensing critiques.”
Bullshit! By extension, nobody is allowed to be critical of any piece of music without first being a musician.
Art creates art; it’s not to be exclusionary just because someone can’t take criticism. Everyone IS a critic afterall.
Hey grawdaddy, spoken like another armchair warrior. You and the guy who wrote this worthless piece should learn some actual building skills to allow others to crap on your stuff.
Practice what you preach. I don’t see you building anything, posting pictures online, and taking all the criticism that comes with it. You shouldn’t be afraid of criticism.
And even if I did waste bondo and fibreglass making something like this, I wouldn’t become a pussy and cry when someone didn’t like what I made.
You’re problem is that you don’t want any negative criticism for anything you’ll ever make. Thankfully, you’re not an adult yet so you have a few years yet to grow a thicker skin and accept criticism.
Well, at least you found somebody new to unload your venom on.
You do not know me and obviously do not understand what car customizing is all about. What this person did is considerably better than the typical crowd slapping Bentley grilles on Chryslers 300. Custom cars are there to please their creators and their owners not whiny armchair warriors who take cheap shots online while lacking the skills and respect for other people’s hard work and dedication. Both you and the author should be forced to at least smell the resin for a couple of hours a day before being allowed to spew their dim witted remarks on the internet.
“Custom cars are there to please their creators and their owners not whiny armchair warriors who take cheap shots online while lacking the skills and respect for other people’s hard work and dedication”
Then they have no rational excuse to think that posting images of their craft online isn’t going to draw criticism. If their grasp of their craft is so brittle and weak that it can be damaged by a negative comment on a web site, then they are…. bluntly, immature and inferior; irrespective of their craft or trade.
If someone can’t take criticism, then they shouldn’t allow themselves to be subject to it by “showing off”.
It’s even simpler than that; if you can’t take it, don’t dish it out.
And nothing on GMA’s user conduct statement (should there be one) says you it’s users must suck up to car customizers and ignore the shortcomings of their craft…
…so their really isn’t anything you can do to stop negative criticism on the internet; you’re just as powerless as ever, and you’re demanding that people show deference to craft that isn’t respectable.
And worst of all, the car is rice. Rice is never respectable.
Grawdaddy, educate yourself on the subject of rice. The car is far from being rice, apparently you have no clue not only about building and customizing cars but also lack sense of humor necessary to understand the pun of this build.
Nevertheless, consider yourself lucky that others actually build their stuff, what you and others would be trashing then? This is not my car but unlike you and the author, I can respect hard work someone put into this project, regardless if it pleases me aesthetically or not. Building skills of this guy are considerably better than your own writing skills, this is a fact.
“Grawdaddy, educate yourself on the subject of rice. The car is far from being rice, ”
It IS rice. Rice is any modification that doesn’t improve performance. That can be as mundane as a vinyl pinstripe, to the bondo handiwork as seen above. Effectively, I’m calling a spade a spade.
“Nevertheless, consider yourself lucky that others actually build their stuff, what you and others would be trashing then? ”
Everything needs criticism; every single thing.
Is it that hard to grasp? You don’t have any idea of craft knowledge or material intimacy in any field of design, so it won’t help your flimsy argument…and it won’t matter what you’ll say to that anyway.
To you, criticism shouldn’t exist, and when you live in that kind of bubble, you’re hopeless; no voice of reason can breach it. Not on here, or in the real world.
I know English is an ever evolving language, but the term “Rice” was created strictly for poorly modified JDM wanna-be and actual poorly modified Japanese cars. This is the whole other end of the spectrum. A US redneck mobile with a extreme desire to be high class European!
I say we call this an example of “sauerkraut” or maybe even “linguini”.
Or maybe even good ole fashioned USDA “Grade D BEEF”!
Country of origin doesn’t enter into it. Rice is rice; one word for all directionless automotive design done for selfish personal aims.
Before u was joking. Now I’m being serious. I know this is the “internets” but you can’t just change origins and definitions of words at a whim. Rice is what it is. And sorry this ain’t it.
Tacky, crazy, weird, tasteless, heck even horrible! But definitely not Rice.
Sorry, try again.
And neither can you make up your own words. Rice is a catch all term as nobody calls a riced Cavalier “beef”.
Here, I’ll even google it for you.
https://www.google.com/search?um=1&hl=en&biw=1344&bih=749&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=ricer+cavalier&oq=ricer+cavalier&gs_l=img.3..0.4654.5756.0.5865.9.4.0.5.5.0.88.335.4.4.0…0.0…1c.1.14.img.rb2RaqvjJzE
Except for the color, and Testarossa flutes I LOVE this abomination! Although it is fairly tacky, I must admit, the craftsmanship is top tier. I wouldn’t drive it…(until I painted it black and and installed some deep dish, AMG Hammer wheels) but I gotta give props to the idea and execution.