The sixties through the eighties were the glory years for replica manufacturers. Making molds for fiberglass bodies was cheap and easy, the world was awash in VW Beetles (which provided the donor engine and chassis of choice), and we were still a nation where people weren’t afraid to tackle projects in their garages. The largest manufacturer of kit cars, Classic Motor Carriages, wanted to offer more to their loyal customers. Combining a new Mercury Cougar with some of their most garish fiberglass parts gave them an entirely new neo-classic to sell to those who didn’t want to build their own car. If you are in search of a Mercury Cougar festooned with thirties luxury car styling gimmicks, this 1984 Tiffany Classic for sale on Craigslist in Dallas, Texas may be the ride for you. Fresh off of long-term storage and benefitting from an extensive renewal of its mechanical bits and pieces, this Tiffany can be yours for a cool $21,750.
Classic Motor Carriages was the 800 lb. gorilla of kit car makers. Based in Miami, Florida, the company was responsible for kit car versions of the Porsche Speedster, Shelby Cobra, Mercedes SSK, a Bugatti racer, and seemingly scores of other copies. Nearly all of their kit cars were built on VW Beetle chassis. Some, like the Speedster replica (called the “Classic Speedster”), were reasonably close copies. Many of the others were almost cartoonish. Yet people ordered these kits by the thousands after seeing advertisements in the magazines of the day. An unbelievable number of these kit cars have survived to this day and collectors of these cars have done an excellent job preserving them and telling their stories.
Classic Motor Carriages was based out of the Miami, Florida area at a time when a lot of money was flowing into the local economy. It was also a time when the car culture in South Florida was at its peak. It was in this climate that the company decided to take its offerings to the next level by using fiberglass body panels to transform Mercury Cougars into neo-classics that could be sold as new cars by dealerships. Several companies were customizing new cars and selling them through dealerships at this time. Most limited their changes to fake Rolls Royche grilles, fiberglass roof caps, gold-plated trim, and the addition of such subtle improvements as chromed wire wheels with a dizzying number of spokes. When CMC debuted their custom creation, nothing on the road compared except for maybe the Excalibur. To help customers forget that they were plunking down big money for a Cougar, the vehicle carried the “Tiffany” name. Any similarities to a certain upper-crust jewelry company were purely coincidental.
This 1984 CMC Tiffany Classic Coupe is a good example of a car you might have seen in the showroom of your local Lincoln Mercury dealer in the early eighties along with a window sticker showing a substantial markup from a regular Cougar. With full-flowing fenders, side-mount spare tires, wire wheels, conventional bumpers, and four horns, more than a few folks succumbed to the Tiffany’s siren song back in the day. The seller is not, however, one of those original purchasers. They found this distinctive car at an estate sale held by the estate of the original owner and decided they just had to have it. The car had sat for 23 years, so it needed quite a bit of refurbishment despite having covered under 20,000 miles.
If you go by the condition of the car, it must have been stored well. The paint still holds a reasonable shine and the interior is that of a fully loaded Mercury Cougar fresh off the showroom floor. To get the car back on the road, the seller claims to have replaced all of the fluids, filters, and replaceable ignition parts. From there, the air conditioning compressor was replaced and the system converted to R134. Both window motors, the battery, all of the drive belts, a new headliner, brake pads, calipers, and a set of four genuine white wall tires round out the spending. We are told that the car “drives amazingly.” It even won a trophy at a local car show for “Best 80’s Car.” That trophy will be included in the sale.
Under the hood of this Tiffany is the fuel-injected 5.0 liter Ford V-8 that was optional in Cougars, Mustangs, and Thunderbirds of the era. It is backed up with an automatic transmission with overdrive. The power front disc brakes, power steering, air conditioning, power windows, power locks, and all of the other Cougar option sheet goodies are present in this car. The seller was also given “tons of paperwork” from the original owner’s estate. These documents will go along with the sale as well. The car will come with a bonded title due to a signature error on the original title, but the required documentation to clear this issue up will be provided.
While the Tiffany you see here may not be everyone’s cup of tea, you cannot say that it is not a distinctive automobile. The automobile aftermarket was kind of like the Wild West during this period. This Tiffany tells a story of how a replica company worked to reach a more mainstream audience in its unique way. Hopefully, this car finds its way to more car shows in the hands of its new owner. Love it or hate it, the CMC Tiffany is part of American automotive history.
Wow… a McLaren, followed by a Tiffany lol 😆 That’s Barnfinds 👌
Perhaps the headline for this should have read “Garishly Garish”… (too bad that you can’t fit that on a personalized license plate for this vehicle).
Ugly as sin, unless your a pimp.
Interesting it has an air clearner between the heads with EFI on it. EFI???? Maybe a throttle body EFI which is still really a carb with electronic injectors on top.
’84 was in fact TBI, so the air cleaner placement does make sense.
Funny, isn’t it? I just don’t get that warm fuzzy feeling like with an Excalibur( BTW, I had a FB “friend request” from none other than Alice Preston) Perhaps if I had a personal connection to these cars, like I did with Excalibur, might be different. Splitting hairs really, which one was better, there were so many, this is just a Ford version, and not in any L-M dealers I delivered paint to in the 70s. I surely would have noticed. No, pre-innernet[sic] GASP,, yep, that’s right, life did exist, and the only way this was seen was in magazines and/or a snail-mail address. I’d bet these remained relatively local. Of course it’s hideous, they all were by todays jelly bean standards, buy in the 80s, it was a different scene. And why no ridicule on the VW turn signals and Farm and Barn tail lights, eh? It’s okay, this is really a cool car. Not a lot of info on these, one site said these sold for almost $60grand new. I don’t know, sounds a bit much when an Excalibur was $37grand. I read only 500-1500 were made, so you’d be justified in saying you never saw one either.
IDK, I like this better than the Excalibur. A side by side comparison would be useful though. The Tiffany seems less kittified. I don’t know if I ever saw one in the wild but it seems well made. It was a different world for sure.
I offered to buy one for my niece several years ago but she wouldn’t have it. She told me outright that this
car was much too girlified for her. I tried to sell her on the fact that not everyone has an automobile that shares their first name, but still no dice. Seems like the only cars she likes are Mustangs and Dodge Chargers like the one I had five years
ago. And she still swears that she’ll
never own or drive a Tiffany. Kids today, who can figure ’em out.
Luckily these weren’t popular where I grew up. I always envisioned this as being owned by someone trying too hard to look sophisticated. It’s the automotive equivalent of the older lady that has had too many facelifts and now has the facial features if a cat.
Steve R
In Europe, we only saw this kind of cars in soap-operas. Personally I don’t find these replicas particularly beautiful nor typically ugly. The only one that caught my attention at the time was the Clenet, developed on the basis of the fabulous Lincoln Continental Mark IV, from which it took the grille. To my taste, it was the “other” Excalibur. You can be dazzled for a few minutes, long enough to understand that these models drew their feeling of false luxury from an ocean of plastic materials.
I always thought they look fun to drive and cool as well and my much younger days. Then I got to drive one oh I got over that love affair really quick and handled worse than anything I’ve ever driven outside of the 1971 Corvette.
To me, the Excalibur was the better of the two cars– especially the ’68 version I saw on Road & Track with Bud Lindeman. With that 375 HP
‘Vette motor up front, that thing really
flew! Sorry Fox Owner, but these did
NOT look like a kit. Their build quality
was outstanding and they handled great too. You want a good punch in
the gut? Get behind the wheel of a first gen Excalibur and go for a drive.
Ain’t nothin’ else like it!
I went for a ride in a Series I Clenet roadster when I worked there. It was really light and built on a modified Lincoln Continental chassis with a standard 460 engine. It was quite fast as well.
This car announces loudly, maybe screams, that you have arrived. Nothing wrong with that.
Except you arrived 40 years too late.
40 years too late. Funny. It’s like driving past a wreck on the highway and being not able to look away.
@Ike Onick
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣💯
Don’t if I’d ever own one, but I kinda like these “neo classics.” There are many out there built on Gran Prix or Riviera bases, Mustang & Cougar bases and lord knows what else. I’m not crazy about the headlights on this Tiffany. They look odd to me. The Cougar interior is nice but I always felt these automakers of neo classics could do more with the interiors.
And I get the “trunk” but make it as wide as the car . It just looks odd.
Unless im totally blind tonight and could be lol i did not see any contact information for seller in barnfinds or craigslist. Have I totally missed it?
Give me a little time, and I think I could design something better. I like
stuff like Excaliburs and cars like them. Were I to design something, it
would be a lot more conservative than this one. These cars were waaay overdone to the point of being
cartoonish. With technology being what it is today, it would be easy to
design and build a really nice car if you can afford it. And were I to actually build one, it would be very
much like a V-16 Cadillac from the
’30s. Much like the solid gold Cadillac Avon buil in 1970. Now THAT was a great car too! Got to ride
in it as well. And to this day, nothing
ever came close to that car. Wonder
where it is now.
I take my hat off to anyone who has the guts to drive one of these on public roads, seriously.
A moment of silence for the donor Cougar, who selflessly gave it’s life so that others may live.