Can You Identify This Crazy Cruiser?
Here’s a car that I bet few of you have ever seen. That’s because only five were ever built. It was designed in the late seventies, it cost more than a Ferrari 308, and it had a top speed of 125mph! Any guesses as to what it could be? Keep reading for the answer. Thanks goes to Doug M. for the submission!
It is a 1980 Kanzler Coupe and it’s currently listed for sale here on eBay. This unique machine was designed by Ernie Kanzler Jr. who was a distant relative to Edsel Ford. Not sure how that gives you credibility, but it must have given them motivation. The engine came from a Cougar, the chassis from a Lincoln, and the body was based off an Opel. See the resemblance? There were some odd cars being constructed during this same time period, but this could have been the king of them all!
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Comments
Now I know exactly what to do with my Opel GT!
I think I saw something like that in a bad dream once!..
That’s interesting!
Yep, I also see the GT hiding under all of that….whatever it is.
I saw the Opel GT before I read the details…but the rest of it? Yikes, the perils of steroids!!
$105K? There were lots of folks building cars in the 1970s, many based on the Lincoln Chasis, so what makes this thing so valuable? Here’s one from the museum that needs to be sold. Who knows what it might be worth, perhaps a tenth of the asking for this Kanzler?
That looks like a variant of the Gazelle that several builders stamped out in the 70’s. I have one, though overall slightly different in design than that in subtle ways, that would normally be pinto or VW powered but currently has a Toyota 20R and 5 speed as it’s powerplant. It cost me around $1800 to winch it from the garage it’d been parked in for a decade. Luckily they’re pretty light weight since it slid one tire all the way onto the trailer.
Fun car tho, can hardly wait to get that back on the road!
David, is that a Squire?
Opel gt
the builders of the Kanzler should be charged with multiple offenses: poor taste, inflicting undue stress, indecent exposure and the main one: mutilating a real sports car! $105k??!! They should pay that in restitution…
I’m surprised five were made. Apparently nobody looked at the first one before they built the others.
What’s a Couger???
Without looking at the answer, I thought it was a long-lost relative of the Bizzarini!
Fuggly comes to mind!
had a work colleague years back named Don and he was into Sunbeams…..Cent. Pa. apololgies if your not him!
The only cheesy styling cue they missed was the Duesenberg-style exhaust pipes. Poor little Opel GT…
It makes perfect sense that Liberace owned one. I’ve always wondered if his taste for over-the-top gaudiness was for real, or if he was in on the joke and just having fun being Las Vegas in human form.
But I just can’t imagine anyone taking this car seriously, ever. It’s an amusing rolling laugh track, but only at a what-the-hell-I’ll-take-it price.
The latest issue of Road & Track is their “design” issue, and the best commentray in the issue is by Bob Lutz. His point is that the chief of design at any car company should make the highest salary, higher than the CEO. That’s almost never the case, but it should be because good design is necessary for building appealing cars that people will want to buy.
I’m guessing that the guy who designed this car had a real low salary.
Come on guys, it’s not all that bad, this could be some widows’ car, and her husband absolutely loved it. They’d take cruises over the mountain and look out over the city on moonlit nights.
They should have pushed it over the side.
Okay, looking at it from the rear I can see the Opel GT in the windows and particularly in the vents above the rear window. But if I look at the front I stick to my story about Glastron looking for a way to repurpose their boat molds…
Mark E got it right, you’ve heard of boat tail cars, this one’s a boat nose, inverted with goofy headlights, doesn’t match the Opel GT curvy body at all. It looks like a schizophrenic Phantom Corsair, the front clip is on LSD. The faux running boards between the front and rear fenders look like they were molded from little blow up balloons clowns use to make animals, they have kinks in them. It’s rare, only 5 made because the builder realized no one wanted to buy a butt ugly car. You could improve the appearance by getting rid of the center lower lights, (fog lights?) and scallop behind them, curve the front end to match the GT curves, no angular center point/boat bow, make it look a little like a XKE. I think they added a zero, 10,500 is about right.
I remember this. A penilmobile! The stretch version.
I hope it’s not the Bobcat engine, maybe a 302 or better yet the 351. OK, I looked and it’s the 351. http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2014/10/21/from-the-archives-kanzler-coupe/
The outriggers look like they are fiberglass, so its worth the risk to take down the boat ramp. If it floats, great, I hope it comes with paddles. If it sinks, even better!
“The Donald” needs this car.
This reminds of some of the model cars I built as a kid. I had a period where I slapped fat fenders on every model I made. They were poorly conceived and the execution always left a lot to be desired. Just like this abomination!
Most definitely.
Automobile Abomination
Another that someone think “rare” = $. No demand for this = no money.
I was going to say Tatra-calibur.
Some cars are rare for a pretty clear reason
Best argument I ever saw about the dangers of cocaine . . .
…or eating too much canned chili with beans and washing it down with a couple six-packs of PBR.
Finally — a truly awful limited production car that wasn’t built around a Spridget tub! ;)
listing has ended.
Looks like it just escaped from the circus.
Should have left the Opel GT alone.
Grotesque comes to mind. Hard to look at. So ugly it hurts my feelings.
I thought it was a Renault Alpine at first. There are certainly a few resemblances!
I thought so too at first glance
What a crime and a shame to do this to an Opel GT, which was a rather nice little car.
BAD DESIGN!! Almost ruined my breakfast! The back isn’t all that bad, but the front reminds me of some mud dobber lizzard with weird eyes! And from any angle, all I can see is appendages stuck onto an Opel GT! Bad!
There is a 911 body in there somewhere.
I thought I saw 911 in there, too. The Opel GT was the poor man’s Porsche, back in the day…
That is the thirteen ugliest cars I’ve ever seen.