Friday 11th March 2011

Coachbuilt Beasts From The Decade Taste Forgot

Discover a Lost World of outrageous 1980s excess

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With the current profusion of what, for the sake of not swearing, we shall call 'tuners of dubious taste', it's often easy to forget that the art of creating spectacularly extravagant, outrageously gauche customised cars ain't exactly new.

Long before nouveau-riche Russians provided the likes of Mansory, Techart, Hamann, Lumma and FAB Design with endless opportunities for creating automotive mutants, there were plenty of tuning and coachbuilding companies doing horrifying - yet fascinating - things to expensive cars.

And, thanks to the wonders of the internet, we have found our way to a place called 1000SEL.com. This, according to its creator, is "the only site on the web fully dedicated to coachbuilt, tuned and modified luxury cars from the 1975-1995 era".

It is a true Aladdin's cave of the sort of epic creations that graced the pages of Fast Lane magazine in the 1980s, many of which would make even the most gaudy Mansory seem like a paragon of good taste.

Fancy a convertible Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit in lurid yellow? Course you do - and in 1986 you could have had one for just £200k courtesy of Autocostruzione SD. Or how about a W126 500SEC with gullwing doors? That'll be the Sbarro Shahin, then. Perhaps a stretched Range Rover with a Rolls grille is more your thing - Rapport Engineering would have been only too happy to help.

Some of the interior tweaks are pretty special too. The creativity of those heady days didn't stop in the cabins, either. Among our favourites are the cocktail cabinet in the back of the BMW 6-series coupe 'improved' by ABC Exclusive, the various massive tellies (there's even a VCR in a few images), and the obsession with huge amounts of audio equipment (The cliff-face dash of the 'Benny S' S-class and the in-roof stereo on the Buchmann 928 Targa are particular highlights in this respect).

One thing really confuses us, though - what's the idea with putting stick-shifts into all those S-classes?

So, have a click through to 1000SEL.com, start making your way through the list of tuners and coachbuilders on the left-hand margin of the 1000SEL.com homepage and tell us your personal favourites - and if you've ever seen any of these beasts out on the road. But please don't blame us if you get no work done today...

Our thanks go to PHer RetroWheels for bringing the site to our attention in the first place, and to Bram Corts of 1000SEL.com for creating such a cornucopia of gaudy riches.

[s3fella]

Love that 928 interior!! Proper retro!

[Gallen]

Fantastic to see.

These designs (and modifications) all have their place in time and contribute to Automotive history - I think it's great to see, although the Rolls certainly does look paticulary horrific.

One thing you can pretty much guarantee is that some of these fetaures, fittings and styling traits will come back in to fashion (if not re-designed, modernised and toned to suit our time).

I think that 928 interior and gadgetry looks great! Very "Cannonball".
(and an improvement over and above Pashca anyway!)

Gallen.

[Zod]

s3fella said:

Love that 928 interior!! Proper retro!

er, it does look a little bit, er, you know, er, gay.....

[Zod]

I have a neighbour with a fleet of old Mercedes from the tasteful, a 600, through the impressive, a 450 SEL 6.9, to a white "1000 SEC".

[balls-out]

top website.

Now thats class...

[PompeyM3]

Ahhhhh the 80's

That website looks like Garlicks lottery list !!.

[mat205125]

Having grown up in the Knightrider days, and thinking how cool the Hoff was working KITTs interior overhead switches, I have to absolutely love this!!



I remember when my dad got his first car with the interior light above the rear view mirror, and with map reading switches for the passenger ..... he owned the coolest car in the world in my nieve eyes back then.

I still think that there is an opportunity for more overhead switches in cars!!!

[johnnymaestro]

No idea why, but I like this alot. Even if it looks truly awful.

[petrolsniffer]

^^^^ I obviously have no taste either because i like that too

[Riggers]

petrolsniffer said:

^^^^ I obviously have no taste either because i like that too

But that's the genius - these things manage to be hideous and wonderful at the same time...

[piefacemate]

Now where would I go about getting a replacement centre armrest like this for my XJ8?

[Munich]

Zod said:

er, it does look a little bit, er, you know, er, gay.....

Rainbowtastic...

[stewy68]

I remember having a lust for the Koenig BB.
It's still my favourite Ferrari (standard one).

Incidentally, does anyone remember GTS magazine?

[Munich]

I had the BB Porsche 928 Targa as a radio controlled toy car, coloured gold. But it had a big spoiler on the back.

[george h]

So it's these we have to blame for Mansory!

[AdamPT]

my eyes, my eyes....

Peurto Banus (where else?) circa 1985, me a car obsessed 9 year old spotted a stretch white Merceded 1000SEL with gold lettering...thinking that can't be right? Surely not? Well I remembered that car, its stayed with me, somewhere blurred between a dream and reality, in the murky depths of my memory. Did I really see it or was it a 9 year old's fantasy nightmare? Low and behold, it was real, today I saw that same car again....The Glenfrome SEL1000

[rpguk]

Link didn't work for me, had to key it in manually.

[Engineer1]

That is so wrong it's right.

I need that car. ( the Gemballa BMW)

Edited by Engineer1 on Friday 11th March 13:08

[Garlick]

Me, with my 124. Yesterday.

[Garlick]

rpguk said:

Link didn't work for me, had to key it in manually.

Riggers has sorted