Back in the ‘80s, The Cadillac Allanté hit the scene as a two-door, two-seater luxury roadster fitted with a body designed and produced by the legendary Italian coachbuilder Pininfarina. GM’s arrangement with Pininfarina included flying the completed bodies from Italy to Detroit for final assembly, resulting in what some called “the world’s largest assembly line.” Now, we’re getting an inside look at what the Cadillac Allanté factory In Italy looks like today after it was abandoned.
Clocking in at a little over 12 minutes, the video includes some background on the factory, as well as the Cadillac Allanté, plus a recent walkthrough of the factory as it stands today in disrepair.
As the story goes, GM and Pininfarina reached an agreement in 1983 wherein the Italian coachbuilder would design and build the Cadillac Allanté before final assembly by GM in Detroit. The project led to Pininfarina building of the San Giorgio factory featured here in 1985.
Cadillac Allanté
GM saw the Cadillac Allanté as an aspiration model to take on European competition like the Jaguar XJS and Mercedes-Benz SL. Pininfarina was responsible for producing the Allanté body, as well as painting it, installing the trim, and installing the convertible tops. The partially assembled vehicles would then be flown from Turin International Airport to Detroit via specially equipped Boeing 747s, creating what became known as the “Allanté Air Bridge”. Roughly 56 bodies could be shipped at one time. Upon arrival in Michigan, GM would drop the bodies onto the U.S.-produced chassis, suspension, drivetrain, and anything else that was still missing.
Unsurprisingly, all of this made the Cadillac Allanté unbelievably expensive to produce. Production lasted between the 1987 and 1994 model years, and although Cadillac sought to sell 6,000 units annually, the Cadillac Allanté’s best year saw just 4,670 units sold. The entire six-year production run resulted in a total of 21,430 units produced.
Now, we’re checking out the factory where the bodies were originally made. Hit play to see it for yourself:
Subscribe to GM Authority for more Cadillac Allanté news, Cadillac news, GM production news, GM business news, and around-the-clock GM news coverage.
Comments
Wouldn’t it be great if Cadillac still build a 2-door, 2-seat performance coup?
Yeah, well the American Allante plant was razed a decade ago. Now it’s a giant cement slab. A perfect place for a solar farm, but nooo. They have to steal farm land.
Scotland cut down thousands of acres of trees to put up solar panels . Very green . Most roofs of factories are not strong enough to hold heavy solar panels .
If the egomaniac / nut job running the UAW gets his way, there will a lot more of these giant cement slabs all over the country where big 3 plants used to be.
American Allante plant was Detroit Hamtramck
The Cadillac allante, and the 90s Cadillac North Star were an embarrassment. GM should have never left the Toyota NUMMI partnership. The NUMMI partnership created some of the longest lasting drivetrains in their history.The last 6 years of GM cars and trucks represent the worst drive trains in their history. It’s not an opinion, it’s a verifiable fact with the number of problems. Thank God corporations haven’t been able to dismantle lemon laws. Separately, The series 2 and series 3 3.8 l v6 found in Oldsmobile Buick and Pontiac could attain 300,000 miles. The Impala though not awe inspiring, ran surprisingly well and was equally dependable. I will never buy another new GM again.
GenIV 5.3 would like to join your line.
I worked for GM. I remember driving an Allante. The body was not built very well. It creaked and leaked.
I have a ’93 Allanté and have always loved it. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a ’94 model. That was supposed to include a powered top which would have taken away a lot of the remaining negatives the ’93 model wasn’t able to address.
My ’09 CTS-V and Allanté are equally fun to own but for dramatically different reasons.
I had a 90 Allante now have an 88. Allante they are a fun car to drive. Mine are rear wheel drive. Fast well handling with the smooth Cadillac ride.
Well…. Slide underneath and be prepared for disappointment. All Allante’s, regardless of year, engine or color are Front wheel drive. If you have an Allante with a driveshaft and rear differential please take a picture and share with us… and GM.
Italian junk even when they do run well the Italian cars are so high maintenance or prohibitive and the cheap ones are just that cheap so I don’t understand why Cadillac would have got involved with them in the first place Italian junk I saw it as a big mistake even my first started it more Italians junk
IIRC the only Italian parts of the vehicle were the design and body shell. The rest of the components (driveline, electronics, suspension, and other mechanical parts) were pure GM “junk”.
That Italian body and interior will still be serviceable long after the HT or Northstar engines have blown their last head gasket. A big part of the Allante’s problem, besides ultra-conservative styling, was the tremendously underwhelming performance and mechanicals compared to comparable European competitors. A 560 or 500 SL would run rings around an Allante.
Er No. C&D rated the 89 Allante as being superior to the 89 560SL. The 93 Northstar Allante beat the significantly more expensive 93 300SL per C&D. True it was no match for the much, much more expensive 500SL or 600SL and Caddy pulled the plug. A 320+bhp 500SL is only slightly faster than a ’93 Allante, per C&D!
Today, my 93 Allante still looks great, (I get compliments all the time) rides and handles quite well. So far the Northstar & 4T80e have been trouble free, the soft-top does has its issues but is also pretty simple to fix (no hydraulics to fail, just 3 electric motors). Build quality has been good given it has been regularly driven on the terrible streets of the Big Easy. It is also far cheaper to run than any Mercedes or Jag with mechanical parts being off the rack Cadillac and the Italian parts (the interior, body work, etc.) being of good quality.
Picked up a “,,museum delivery” Vette in 2008 in Bowling Green Kentucky where the XLR was being produced in a separate area of the Corvette plant. This vehicle will be a collectable in the future. As far as the Allante , I feel that a low mileage one will fit into this category. The last year of production ( 1992 ) with the Northstar engine is the most desirable. Unlike an earlier post pointing to a negative post on the “Northstar” engine , this engine is/was bullet proof and also was used in Cadillac’s attempt in racing.
No such thing as a 1994 Allante
Northstar powered? Enough said. Steer clear.
How about a new Pininfarina styled Cadillac something?
I remember those cars. They were ughlee. Glad they don’t produce them anymore and whoever thought they were going to be great sellers sabotaged the company.