By: Jesse Adams
Last week we brought you a fun little piece about the world’s smallest cars, a shortlist of diminutive dinkies so cute and cuddly it could make Hannibal Lecter giggle like a little girl.
What's the dinkiest car of them all?
But this got us thinking about the flipside. What are the world’s biggest cars? It’s a tricky question to answer, not only because of grey areas between proper assembly line-built vehicles and limited runs of special coachbuilt editions, but also because there’s always some crazed Texan or gazillionaire Sheikh who’s willing to commission a one-off custom in his quest to grace the pages of Guinness’s World Record book.
The term ‘production vehicle’ is fuzzy to define because all cars are produced, even if there is only one ever made. It’s impossible to categorically say that one car is officially the longest, and another is officially the tallest, or widest, or heaviest, because there are just too many specialised brackets and sub-tiers of vehicle types out there.
But here is a list of some notably large cars, some in series production and some far from it.
BIG DADDY CADDY
In the early 1970s Cadillac went on a superlative harvesting mission with its hilariously huge Series 75 Fleetwood sedans. The 1974 model in particular, at 6406mm long, was (and still is) the longest factory-built Cadillac made, and some consider this the longest true production car in history with sales of between 1500 and 2000 units in that year alone.
This American cruise liner for the road came in two guises: a nine-seater sedan or as a limousine with a glass cabin divider and lounge suite seating arrangement. Its 8.2-litre V8 engine was also the biggest ever from Cadillac, though the 1974 version came with an especially weak output of 157kW and 520Nm thanks to power-choking smog laws. Huge in size but pathetic in performance, this hulking Caddy tipped scales at 2 800kg and came with a three-speed automatic transmission.
MODERN MAYBACH
At 6499mm long, the new Mercedes-Maybach S600 Pullman is too long to fit inside a standard sea freight shipping container. Sail one into the yacht-club parking lot, and the Pullman will jut out of its dock half-a-meter further than a long-wheelbase Rolls Phantom, and a full metre from Bentley’s Mulsanne or a standard Merc S-Class.
As far as most internet sites are concerned this gargantuan German gentleman’s club on wheels is officially the longest production car in history, even if only handful will be made and delivered to the world’s richest plutocrats.
Inside is a standard 47cm TV screen which raises out of a centre partition, quilted pillows, motorised curtains, and a herd’s worth of leather applied not only to the seats, but also the entire roof liner.
AMERICAN DREAM
Still, this 6.5 metre-long stretched Mercedes has nothing on the American Dream – a 100 foot (30.4 metres) Cadillac Eldorado with 26 wheels, a swimming pool with diving board, a helipad, a king-size waterbed and a jacuzzi with a sun deck.
The American Dream was built by Californian car customiser Jay Ohrberg in the 1980s for use as a promotional vehicle or for use in television or movies, and it’s made to split in half for transport as it’s impossible to drive a car nearly five Maybach Pullmans long on the street. Unfortunately this once famous car was eventually left to rot in an abandoned warehouse, and is now in near irrepairable condition.
DON’T FORGET THE ‘BAKKIES’
Not mentioning American trucks in a story about extra large vehicles would be like forgetting the Big Mac in an article about hamburgers. Officially speaking, Ford’s current F-750 Super Duty is the world’s longest production bakkie at 7137mm long, but, off the showroom floor it’s not actually a pickup at all.
The F-750 is sold as a commercial chassis cab only, intended for further customisation into heavy-duty tow trucks, flatbeds and dumptrucks. But then this is America we’re talking about, where everything comes super sized, and a number of custom body shops are in the business of building seriously badass bakkies and SUVs on F-750 platforms.
One such company, Dunkel Industries based in Texas (of course), built the mother of all pickups called The Upper Deck – a nearly 10-metre long, 3.7-metre high, 2.6-metre wide, four-wheel-drive expedition vehicle on an F-750 chassis with a load bin big enough to carry a four-door Jeep Wrangler.
There’s also space on top for two quads, and inside is a bathroom, shower, full kitchen and sleeper loft. There’s a saying – everything is bigger in Texas.
Star Motoring