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Spaghetti Westerns: 18 Cars with Italian Styling and American Engines

Vukasin Herbez May 16, 2019

  1. Cadillac Allante

Cadillac envisioned the Allante as a competitor to the Mercedes SL convertible. It was a two-seater luxury convertible with Italian styling by Pininfarina, a Northstar V8 engine and front-wheel drive. That was quite an unusual combination, but the car looked and performed well.

Even the production process was specific since they did the fabrication in Italy in the Pininfarina factory and then shipped the cars to the U.S. by jet. But that made the cost of the final product much higher. The Allante stayed in production until 1993 and they built just over 21,000. Unfortunately, the car was too expensive to produce, so the factory allegedly lost money on every example they made.

  1. Qvale Mangusta

The late ‘90s brought the Qvale as a new player on the international sports car scene. The project started as a De Tomaso concept, but they continued as a Qvale when De Tomaso went out of business. Under the sleek and modern design, there were quite a few Ford Mustang parts, including the 4.6-liter V8 engine and dashboard.

The most interesting feature of this car was the roof. Each Mangusta was also a coupe, Targa and convertible thanks to a retractable hardtop system that allowed for several positions. Unfortunately, the car wasn’t well received, so they discontinued it in 2002 after producing only 284 of them.

These are the cars like spaghetti westerns with Italian styling and American engines. Did any of them strike your fancy? If so, be sure to check the price tag first since most of these are extremely expensive. Sadly, some of these cars are no longer available, but they all made automotive history.

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