1976 Cadillac Mirage Pickup
When the El Camino and Ford Ranchero failed to satisfy a certain clientele in the mid-1970s, legendary California customizer Gene Winfield provided an answer.
Working with Traditional Coach Works in Chatsworth, Winfield took Cadillac Coupe de Villes (typically supplied new and delivered directly to the shop), cut and widened the rear sections, and grafted in a functional pickup bed.
The result was the Mirage, marketed through Cadillac dealers including Wilshire Cadillac in Beverly Hills and sold as a custom conversion. Evel Knievel famously owned one.
The conversion preserved the Coupe de Ville’s roofline and opera windows, supported behind the cab by a pair of flying buttresses that distinguish the Mirage from cruder commercial conversions. The bed was sized to handle standard building materials and concealed a lockable storage compartment beneath its floor.
Mechanically, Traditional Coach Works left the DeVille drivetrain largely unchanged: the 500 CI V8 (at the time the largest-displacement engine fitted to a regular production passenger car) drove through a Turbo Hydra-Matic three-speed automatic, with the full complement of DeVille luxury equipment intact.
Production ran across 1975 and 1976 only, with estimates generally placing total output at roughly 200 examples combined, though exact figures vary by source.
Source
