CadZZilla is a custom hot rod car built by custom car builder and legend Boyd Coddington and designed by Larry Ericson. This fantastic yet classic car is based on a 1948 Cadillac Series 62 Sedanette and was bought or built for rocker Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top. The name consists of 3 words: Cadillac, ZZ Top, and Godzilla. Even the license plate says "I8TOKYO" ["I ate Tokyo" - a reference to the famous Godzilla movie]. This hot rod is known as "The Eliminator" in ZZ Top videos. This customization cost around $900K at the time.
Conceived in 1989, CadZZilla is a customized Cadillac built for Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top. Jack Chisenhall and Larry Erickson designed the car's appearance. It is acclaimed as one of the great expressions of automotive customization. Drawing inspiration from the lead sleds and Mercury Eights of the 1950s, it was different from anything that had gone before it. CadZZilla attracted considerable attention. Hot Rod's Gray Baskerville called CadZZilla "the most incredible transformation he'd ever witnessed." In their "History of Hot Rods & Customs," the auto editors of Consumer Guide praised it as "the first new type of custom since the heyday of the 1950s". Coddington's team, led by body man Craig Naff, started with a 1948 Cadillac Series 62 Sedanette; it went from mild, as initially proposed by Gibbons, to wild. The first sketches were done on a bar napkin.
The top was chopped. The hood and front fenders were sectioned and combined into a tilt nose. Headlights were frenched and late-model Cadillac taillights frenched into the rear fins. The front bumper is fitted with high-mounted dagmars, with a Moon tank between them in the grille opening. The engine is a 500 cu in (8 l) Cadillac V8 with custom-built Holley fuel injection, mated to a Currie 9-inch rear axle. The exhaust pipes exit through the rear bumper. Springs are Koni coil overs with a steering box from a 1985 Corvette. The wheels are a 22 in (560 mm)-diameter billet aluminum design by Coddington. The exterior was finished in deep purple from House of Color.
CadZZilla cost Gibbons about US$900,000. CadZZilla is also available as a Hot Wheels car.
Source: www.amcarguide.com
Images: thegearheadskeptic.com; justcustomz.com; www.hotrod.com; okamigrey.deviantart.com
