The year is 1987 and Cadillac is desperate to shake off its image as a manufacturer of land boats for people who wear white loafers. They want to compete with Mercedes-Benz and BMW! But this isn't the GM of today that produces gems like the ATS and the new CTS. No, this is 80s GM, and so they go into battle with this: the Cadillac Allanté.
Featuring a 4.1-liter V8, a body designed and built by Pininfarina in Italy after a flight in from Detroit, a convertible hardtop and glorious front-wheel-drive, and a sticker price that comes out to more than $100,000 in today's dollars, the Allanté was widely embraced by... no one.
Somehow the Allanté stuck around for six years, but it's hardly remembered as a hit for Cadillac today. It is perhaps most notable for being superior to the Chrysler TC By Maserati, which was designed to compete with it.
That's not really a trophy anyone wants to take home.