Despite the Texas license plates on it, this eight-wheeled epitome of exuberant excess was neither created nor currently resides in the Everything Is Bigger state. Rather, this much-modified 1977 Cadillac Eldorado hails from Down Under, where it will cross the auction block later this month.
According to the Shannon’s auction description for the Cadillac, chassis number 6L47S7Q306322, a Brisbane-based American car enthusiast exported the bone-stock 180hp 425-cu.in. V-8-powered coupe from Texas to Australia in the 1980s and immediately began to convert it into an eight-wheeler using Holden One Tonner ute tandem axles, at the same time leaving the Cadillac front-wheel driven (with all four front wheels steering) and left-hand drive. The stretched body panels to cover the stretched chassis were reportedly done in sheetmetal rather than fiberglass.
In 1999, the Cadillac then went to a Melbourne-based owner who apparently felt that an eight-wheeled Seventies Cadillac required even more to stand out from the crowd. In the lengthened section between the back glass and the full-size trunk lid he added a two-person hot tub, while under the lengthened hood in the empty space between radiator and engine he added a propane grill (“We put a grill behind your grille so you can grill while you chill”) that cantilevers out for barbies at the car show. An in-dash television, CCTV camera mounted in the right front fender, whiskey bar in the trunk, strobe lighting, train horns, and six exhaust pipes round out the modifications.
