Allante vs XLR
My wife and I also owned a Cadillac Allante - ours was a 91 model. We loved our Allante as well. White diamond with red interior. Sweet. Also true is my opinion that the Allante does not compare to the XLR.
The only similarity is that both are Roadsters that carry the Cadillac emblem. Both were designed to take on the Mercedes SL 500.
When the Allante was introduced, the focus was all about styling. Remember the Italian Pinafarina bodies that were brought to the US in 747s? Remember the movie "Terminal Velocity"? Where the skydiving chick was pushed out of a KC135 locked in the trunk of an Allante? All about style.
After driving the Allante for two years, my squalks were about average performance, very average handling and a chassis that was "flexible". That being said, I believe the Allante is a very important car from a historical perspective.
The XLR is really designed to live on the cutting edge of automotive technology, and push that edge forward. The contrast between cruise and sport handling has to be experienced to be believed! It seamlessly shifts from pussycat to tiger, thanks to the magic of "magnetic ride control". And the Corvette C6 chassis gives the grinning driver that "carved from a solid chunk of metal" feel.
At 320 bhp, the XLR's performance is excellent - not spectacular. It will not keep up with the Mercedes SL 55 AMGs, the BMW M5s, or the Porsche 911s.....yet.
Super-roadsters notwithstanding, the goal of surpassing the "other" world class roadsters has been attained. This includes such rarified company as the Mercedes SL 500, Lexus SC 500, Jaguar XK, and Maserati Spyder.
