Imagine it’s 1969. John Z. DeLorean is at the top of his game within General Motors, riding the tidal wave of success that had been his trademark path ever since the 1964 Pontiac GTO came onto the scene. He is living the high life, jet-setting everywhere, hanging with celebrities, angering the stodgy GM executives with long hair and a lack of ties with his opened suits. He had recently had to swallow the bitter pill that General Motors was not going to let him make the Banshee but would instead force him to use the majority of the Chevrolet Camaro if he wanted a sports car of his own. Can you picture him languishing in his office one day, brooding over that snub, when the idea of a sexy, Italian-bodied personal coupe hits him? It happened, and this car is the result. DeLorean got in touch with car designer Paul Farago, a designer and engineer who was known well in Europe and America. Farago had done work with the Dual Motor Company and was responsible for the design of the Dual-Ghias that had been sold. Farago had recently teamed up with Italian designer Sergio Coggiola (Saab Sonnet III, Volvo 262C) to create Carrozziere Coggiola, and DeLorean wanted a show car to tour with to drum up excitement for the brand.
The CF 428 is the result. It’s mostly a Pontiac Grand Prix, but the body is all Carrozziere Coggiola. The name stands for Coggiola, Farago, and the 428ci Pontiac thumper under the hood. Besides the coachwork, a special one-off set of Firestone tires and wheels were fitted to the car, and the whole thing was slathered in deep red paint. From some angles you get Fuselage-era Mopar, other angles you can see some Toronado influence, and if you squint a bit you can even make out some AMX/3. It’s a finished concept…it runs, it drives, and it even has most of the Grand Prix’s interior. It’s believed to be currently owned by Farago’s nephew, who has kept good care of the car, and other than a repaint in the 1980s, is as it was back in the day. Shame there’s only one.
It looks like somebody stole the original wheels for their own project and swapped them for those totally ridiculous stock wheels off a Pontiac Grand Prix. At least I hope that’s what happened as this fine car is ruined by them, and I can’t see the point of that. A set of 16 inch deep dish Borrani wires would look just right and make this the beauty it was always meant to be.
I have photos of this car when it was at the Keels n Wheels event a few years ago
I’ve always felt that John DeLorean’s big successes were on the shoulders of other people in a corporate arena with challenges and restrictions he needed to have on him, and his own personal eye for style was a little…off.
WOW!
Just can’t wrap my head around it as if someone stepped on the front of the car. From the doors back, yes, but the front just fugly.
Fascinating. I don\’t agree that it\’s an abomination or hideous. No, it doesn\’t quite work (makes the nose on the Superbird/Daytona look positively restrained). But it\’s an incredible mash-up (is that what the kids call it now?) of almost diametrically opposed American Muscle design and Italian design. Like when you use a cheesy app to combine two people\’s faces — it never works, but sometimes it\’s really intriguing.
7/10, would drive.