Tag: gilded

Auctions: Liberace’s gilded Cadillac could be yours

Filed under: Classics, Convertible, Auctions, Cadillac, Celebrities, Luxury

Liberace's gold '31 Cadillac

With their chrome grilles and oversized wheels, it’s hard not to notice a Cadillac these days. But this one is even more blingtastic on account of the 23.75-karat gold-leaf bodywork.

The 1931 Cadillac Golfer’s Drop Head Coupé is said to have belonged to the inimitable performer Liberace, who didn’t just have it covered in gold – he also had the exterior door handles plated in silver and the inside handles in 24-karat gold as well. It’s also got a white leather interior and headlights that – well ahead of their time (if you’ll pardon us, Mr. Tucker) – pivot with the steering wheel. All that bling is powered by a 5.7-liter V8 mated to a three-speed automatic transmission that pales in comparison to the seven, eight and even nine-speed gearboxes appearing on luxury sedans today.

The project was undertaken over the course of three years in the 1970s by one Jack Smith from Kansas. Smith (if that was his real name) sold it at auction in 1975, and it was most recently displayed for 12 years at a museum in Germany which claimed it was Liberace’s own. The car is now going up for sale by Barons’ at the Sandown Park horse racing track in Surrey, England, on September 17, when bidding starts at 85,000 pounds – equivalent to over $130,000 at today’s rates.

Continue reading Liberace’s gilded Cadillac could be yours

Liberace’s gilded Cadillac could be yours originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 27 Aug 2013 11:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Too much? Chinese customer orders $670k gilded Fiat 500

Filed under: Convertible, China, Luxury, Fiat

Fiat 500C La Dolce Vita by Fenice Milano

Fiat 500C “La Dolce Vita” – Click above for high-res image gallery, follow the jump for video

The beauty of the Fiat 500 is that it’s loaded with Italian style, but comes cheaper than anything this side of a Vespa. So if you were in the market, how much would you consider spending on a Cinquecento? $20K? Maybe $30k for a fully-loaded Abarth? How about €500,000? That’s equivalent to about $670,000, and stands as the absurd price some anonymous Chinese businessman has apparently paid for a particularly opulent tacky example of the retro minicar.

The order came to Fenice Milano, the Italian studio whose Liberace-grade work we’ve reported on previously. They started with a 500C Abarth convertible, slathered it in paint infused with real 24k gold flakes, decked the interior out in teak, replaced the brightwork with more 24k gold and gave it a diamond-studded iPad docking into the dashboard. And just for good measure, they let Romeo Ferraris have at it. Their tuning jacked the stock 140-horsepower engine up to 200 hp, and they added Brembo brakes and a custom suspension for good measure.

The end result is about as nauseating an example of nouveau-riche excess as you’re likely to find. If the owner thinks that by tying in his investment to a solid commodity like gold to stave off the negative effects of depreciation, he may be in for a rude awakening come resale time. Check out the video footage after the jump and the updated high-resolution image gallery below.

Gallery: Fiat 500C “La Dolce Vita” by Fenice Milano

[Source: Fenice Milano via CarScoop]

Continue reading Too much? Chinese customer orders $670k gilded Fiat 500

Too much? Chinese customer orders $670k gilded Fiat 500 originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 22 Jan 2011 10:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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