The Party Line:
The El Deora was a custom, after-market variant of the Cadillac Eldorado in the '70s. It was the gaudiest, most over-the-top automobile you could buy. A company called ASC (originally American Sunroof Corporation) took the basic Eldorado, already a rather audacious, 2-door, land shark of a car, and made everything about it more extreme, -using styling cues from every other luxury car of the day. They added a chrome Rolls Royce radiator grill in front. A Lincoln Continental-style spare tire hump to the trunk. So much vinyl to the roof that it spread down on to the top ot the window sills. They extended the front and rear fenders of what was already one of the longest vehicles on the road. And the list goes on. If it was on a luxury car of the era, it was on the El Deora, but more so. They added opera windows, landeau bars, -not one but two of each! Shag carpet -on the ceiling!

It was a hidious, Frankenstein of a ride. At the time it occupied a niche halfway between the gold-chain retired white guy and a production pimp-mobile, but somewhere along the way it crossed over into cool. Examples found today are typically trashed, and it's that final layer of patina making them even more appealling to me. If I had a garage, I'd have one. If I had one, it would likely be pouring smoke out the rear, -or up on blocks in the yard with weeds growing out the fender wells. A car like that speaks to fallen aspirations, shattered dreams, bad checks. It's my kind of country.

-Maurice