The Magical Mystery Tourer
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Over the summer of 2021, I attended every single Exotics at Redmond Town Center car show; the show commences every Saturday morning from 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM from the beginning of April to the end of September, and it's near enough for me to bike to.
One morning, before the show, I was walking up the line at the gate to see what was participating. I was walking toward the sun, so it was a little hard to see. I was elated to see a...something. Excalibur? Zimmer? Clenet? Destiny/Tiffany? As I got closer, I couldn't believe my eyes. It was a limousine, too!
I talked to the owner, who told me that it was a Lincoln Town Car stretched by Tiffany Coachworks, and then given fiberglass styling add-ons by a company "down south" (he couldn't remember which) for $25,000 ($38,000 in 2022 currency).
When I got home, I did some research. I found pictures of cars with matching styling, though not matching color and condition. Every one of them said it was an Excalibur.
However, they were all wrong. The one I saw was a 1997, but Excalibur stopped building cars in 1996. Luckily, Excalibur still makes parts for their cars, so I emailed them pictures of the mystery car. Excalibur themselves said that they didn’t build it.
I think I pinpointed the source of the misinformation. The owner said that he bought it from a limousine service in Oregon, and I found one in Oregon that had a limousine identical to the one from the show, albeit with the custom license plate "ROSE II". I contacted them asking if they still had it, and they said yes, identifying it as an Excalibur.
- Pictures of Rose II:
The mystery car was back the next weekend, and I asked the owner if it used to have an Oregon license plate, and if said plate read "ROSE II". He said yes. But he still could not recall the name of the company, and I couldn’t find it on the internet.
On the third week, the owner told me he had some documents to show me. I was handed a folder, and told I could sit in the back. Inside the folder, there was the "ROSE II" plate, pictures of the car from 1999 before the conversion, and the purchase agreement from when the fiberglass add-ons were installed.
The conversion was done by Legendary Performance in Montgomery, Alabama, in 2003, and was dubbed “Golden Spirit II”. Thankfully, the company still existed, so I contacted the CEO, who told me, "We built about 120, however many poor quality imitations were made by others".
Mystery solved!
Weather update, cooler temperatures today, and the floor is no longer lava.
- Pictures of Rose II:
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@Sam-Blockhan mitsuoka could only dream of making a car that ugly
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@Sam-Blockhan That hood ornament!
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@Sam-Blockhan Investigative journalism!
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@Sam-Blockhan I'm picturing you in the backseat of this thing with documentation spread out all around. Nice work!
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@Sam-Blockhan I think I remember that company - the pitch was for livery businesses with older style 1st and 2nd gen Town Cars to convert them into neoclassics, so they wouldn't look obviously outdated, given than there was a major redesign in 1998, could keep them in the limo fleet for years longer and actually charge a premium
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@Sam-Blockhan I wonder if these Lincoln-based limos just had a model name of 'Excalibur' from whatever shop made them. IIRC the actual Excalibur brand limos somewhat resembled a prewar Cadillac Series Sixty Special.
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@fintail This example's full name is Legendary Performance Golden Spirit II.
Weather update, cooler temperatures today, and the floor is no longer lava.
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@Sam-Blockhan That's like the name of a Chinese copycar or maybe a fancy motorhome, word salad.
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That was some dogged investigating you did there - nice job.
Speaking of dogs, next time you see the owner ask if they're in the market for some dalmatians... -
@Sam-Blockhan I want A fox body Zimmer REAL BAD! I just need the people who own them to quick thinking they're worth $25k+.
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@Sam-Blockhan kill it with fire!
