Whatever happened to princess Mona’s monstrosity?

We’re not sure whether Lebanese princess Mona Al-Solh led a happy life. She is the daughter of the first prime minister of Lebanon after the country's independence, and once-wife of the Saudi prince Talal Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. According to Wikipedia the marriage between Mona and Talal collapsed in 1962, while they remained separated until their divorce in 1968. Talal married four times, had a grand total of fifteen children and passed away in December last year.

What happened to Mona? We don’t know. But remarkably, a message of her being given one very unusual car by her husband Talal, slipped through in February 1965. According to one press agency, she had then just become the owner of what they called a ‘Rolls-Cadillac - the only car of its kind in the world'. The release stated that the car’s price was kept secret but it must have been a huge sum, considering the costs of the Italian coachbuilder plus those charged for the cooperation of both motor manufacturers.

We have two pictures, too, showing a real monstrosity of a car with Rolls-Royce front mated to an American car. A Cadillac? We’re not so sure about that as the lines do not fit the Cadillac Fleetwood or Cadillac Calais four-door models of the time. Who knows what that body is? And speaking about fitment: the Rolls-Royce front is clearly quite a lot taller than the American rest of the car. The Italian coachbuilder (who on earth could that have been? Ghia? Vignale? - Note squarish badge seen on the car's wings) must have had some real perseverance (or was offered serious money?) to make something out of it.

Apart from these questions, we also wonder if the thing could survive? Although being a real atrocity it wouldn’t be something to throw away, would it? So… could Mona’s monstrosity still be hiding somewhere in a Lebanese barn or bunker..?

(Words editor, picture Autokampioen)

Published:

Tuesday April 9th, 2019

George Giese

14 April 2019, 14:12

This is the second Rolls/Cadillac chimera that I've seen, the first was about 50 years ago in Burbank, California. A body shop on Olive Ave just one block west of Buena Vista took a 1949 or 1950 Cadillac Sedanette fastback and adapted a Rolls-Royce grill to the front. To my 15 year old eyes it looked pretty good. And speaking of American cars with Rolls-Royce grills, don't forget the series produced "Custom Cloud" which was based on the Chevrolet Monte Carlo.

Jeroen Booij

10 April 2019, 20:32

Thank you gentlemen. It does indeed look like a de-finned '61 Cadillac!

Steven Aronsky

10 April 2019, 01:19

Actually it looks to be based on a standard 1961 Cadillac Fleetwood. The roofline, chrome spears towards the rear and the wheel covers would all be found on a production car.
The small plaque behind the front wheels would say “Fleetwood “.

Larry A. Lewis

09 April 2019, 19:41

The main part of that monster looks to be a 1963 Cadillac. 1961-2 & 3 all had the horizontal creases in the body. There were Pininfarina bodied Cadillacs of this era, this may be one of them but one would think they would have better taste than to build this thing.

Whatever happened to princess Mona’s monstrosity?

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