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This car was unique. It was built in two places in the world, the chassis was built in Michigan while the body was built in Italy at the Pininfarina plant. Here is a quote from Wikipedia.
The body of the Allanté was designed and built in Italy by Pininfarina (of Ferrari fame)[1]. The completed bodies were shipped 3,300 miles from Italy in specially-equipped Boeing 747s, 56 at a time[1], to Cadillac’s Detroit/Hamtramck Assembly plant. The bodies were then mated to the chassis[1]. This led to a few interesting nicknames, such as “The Flying Italian Cadillac” and “The world’s longest assembly line.”
Also, I found another article with a conflicting story.
Interestingly, the Allante chassis was put together in Detroit, Michigan and then flown to Italy where the body was then mounted to the chassis! After this was completed the cars were put back on planes and shipped back to Michigan to be completed. Of course, being a luxury automobile made the Allante expensive, but the price tag rose because of the long assembly to about $54,000 the first year. This was the most expensive Cadillac ever. Because the Allante had to make two trips just to be put together there were only 21,000 units ever built.
More Information, from a Allante club click here
Either way, this seems like a lot of trouble to build a car.
© Fred Winograd copyright 2010