UPDATE 09/19/2026: Sometimes compromise and a change of tack are required if an owner is to taste sales success. Such is the case with this 1974 Clenet Roadster. It is still searching for a new home, and the seller has decided to list this rare classic on a different online site after having no luck on eBay. The other piece of positive news is their decision to slash the price. You will find the Clenet listed here on Craigslist in Valley Center, California. I must say a big thank you to Barn Finder Jack M. for spotting it back on the market, and to JDC for the original lead. If the previous price of $45,000 tempted you, the current figure of $39,000 might make it more interesting.
05/28/2026: If there were a dedicated league for neoclassical cars, there would be multiple divisions and conferences capturing the many different manufacturers who once dominated this space. Curiously, these companies were not unsuccessful in their attempts to convince the rich and famous that they needed a car like this to accurately capture their status in life, but sadly, very few of these cars retain value anywhere close to their original sale price.
That’s not exactly pocket change for a car that’s a borderline curiosity. Built on a Ford chassis with Ford V8 running gear, the Clenet was clearly marketed to an affluent customer base. The company was headquartered in Santa Barbara County, California, and built about 250 examples throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Although Ford donated the engine and underpinnings, the rest of the car was conceived with high-end features including leather seats, Italian walnut dashboards, and Waterford crystal ashtrays. These details pushed the price into the $100,000 range.
Of course, that didn’t faze customers like Farrah Fawcett and Rod Stewart, who were among the company’s loyal customers. These days, Hollywood celebrities don’t have much interest in a car like this, but that entire era is a bygone one, when actors and singers considered a car like this essential to their identity. The various custom Cadillacs and Lincolns that members of Sinatra’s “Rat Pack” favored were another tangent of this high-luxury coachbuilt industry, but given how limited the Clenet’s production numbers were, this high-style roadster seems far more exclusive.
A robust Clenet database tracks the surviving cars, but I’m not sure how actively the webmaster monitors the current status of these obscure cars. The example shown here is said to have just 425 original miles, which is likely the motivating factor behind the high asking price (and likely justified with such low mileage). With working A/C and front and rear disc brakes, it’s hardly a penalty box to drive. The question is, could you manage all of the attention that comes with a classic Clenet like this one?
These types of cars has always been intriguing to me. They were always way above my pay grade but if I ever won the powerball………Hmmm
Is it “Cle-nette” or “Cle-nay”?
…in French: “Cle-nay”!
Amazing what you can do with an MG Midget tub.
It’S Ford-based, not MG.
Center section is Midget sitting on the Ford chassis.
It’s actually a Lincoln chassis with an MG midget cab. It’s been fitted with an extra long hood as well as unique one piece fenders and running boards.
Series 2 and up used a VW cab.
…and he switched to convertible VW bugs when he ran out of Midgets!
At least it already comes with extra cheese.
I don’t think much of the front bumper.
Yeah, I saw that, too. That’s a high school shop class job.
There are several details on this car that would indicate that it is not one of the original series Clenets. Therfore potentially making it worth a lot less.The fenders, hood, spare tire covers,side pipes etc were all available at that time. A MG midget used for the passenger portion along with a full sized Ford, Mercury or Cadillac doner car could be had from out of the the Recycler magazine for a very reasonable amount.
Please elaborate.
I suspect you might be right. The point (literally) where the bonnet and the cowl meet does not look like any other Clenet I can find photos of. Most of them slope the bonnet at this point, and have louvers on the sloped part of the bonnet. this one does not. I’m no Clenet expert, but it looks odd. The only one on BaT that sold in the $45k range was a guy buying back his wedding car, from a dealer who had overpaid and lost money on the flip.
It looks a little too much like a kit car as opposed to a faux classic, to command that much money. Still, it’s all there, clean and shiny. I like the interior too.
Delusions of grandeur, execution de crap.
When I did a stint the Ford Design Center in in the late 1970’s as an aerodynamicist, the head of Ford Design,Gene Bordinat, occasionally drove his Clenet. I guess he had one because it was Ford based underneath, with a few Lincoln switches thrown inside the cockpit for good measure. It had an MG Midget tub on a Lincoln Mark Chassis with a 460 mill. My thought back then was that it was a poser mobile, just a couple of steps above a kit car. I thought it was rather strange that the head of design drove something like that. But he also drove a Mangusta to redeem himself or maybe because he was a friend of Alejandro. Actually the Clenet was no doubt a more reliable and far more comfortable than the DeTomaso.
Well, that helps to explain Detroit’s fascination with cheesy vinyl wood trim, cheap knobs, plated plastic, vinyl roofs, and velour seats.
A few years after this car was built, some of the Clenet guys formed Sceptre and built the gorgeous 6.6S Roadster:
https://barnfinds.com/1-of-15-1978-sceptre-6-6s/
Sadly, only about 15 were built before they went under.
At least with the Blue Oval power? You’ll get where you’re going.
If you have a Silverado tow truck.
I always thought that these were ugly.
You thought right. Stunningly ugly.
Pretty versatile. Looks a lot more sleek with the MG than the later VW.
I’m building a monster Cadillac 500 for mine.
There were some similar cars running around this area in the 1980’s, they always left the impression the owner was trying too hard.
It seems like most of these belonged to the nouveau riche.
Steve R
Nouveau riche is spot on.
While celebrities helped these things get traction, it was the extroverted small city entrepreneur who really stood out in them.
The guy who owned a local construction company or car dealer or a small time manufacturing plant. Whatever, but they built businesses. A lot of them were war veterans. One guy I knew was a P-51 pilot, with lots of sorties over Germany.
They took these kinds of cars (as well as fancy Cadillac’s and Lincolns and Imperials) to the country club while wearing plaid golf pants, all to be seen and make a statement of some kind.
They typically had line of BS a mile long and were friends with everyone they met. Booze had a lot to do with it. Probably a string of local girlfriends, too, including their buddies wives, maybe. Divorce was pretty common in that crowd.
If you grew up in a country club environment a small town, you’d see them in action, up close. Even get to be friends with them.
TV and Hollywood and the golfers like Doug Sanders and Trevino and the rat pack guys had a huge impact them, as the conformity of the 50s gave way to individual expression in the 60s.
Times were different then. These types of guys were often dirt poor as kids. Once they had some money, they wanted the world to know it.
What time to be a kid.
I just read everyone’s comments, and I have to say that the comments not only had me intrigued, they had me lmao! I commend everyone on the humorous banter!!!
Someone from the “never do in moderation what can be done in excess” school of thought sacrificed two Midgets to create dual-cowl roadster “in the Clenet style”. Unfortunately, the rear cabin didn’t get triple windscreen wipers but to handle the additional weight a 460 was used.
https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1979-clenet-roadster-limousine/
I’d bet a dollar to a donut those rear taillights are from a Harley Davidson FLH.
Cruella DeVille’s car from animated 101 dalmatians
This whole genre of vehicle always made me want to upchuck a little. Cheesy then, ridiculous now.
Was body steel then?
Never could understand the attraction some people have for these eyesores – any of the versions out there. They don’t even come close to what they try to emulate and just look bad kits cars to me, regardless of the crystal ashtrays. I bet the owner sits on this thing a long time at the asking price, maybe forever.
Such a big car with a small Spridget interior section. I still have a couple doors lying around if he wants them. Then maybe he can ask for another couple thousand $ for this overpriced ‘kit car’! ‘To each his own’!!’
For some reason, I always associate these cars with Penthouse Pets. Hmm.
I recall one was in a big scene in the movie S.O.B. by Blake Edwards.
The name said it all.. “delusion of grandeur” 😆