You Have To Respect The Bold Use Of Escalade Taillights On Whatever The Hell This Is

I realize that most of the references to this particular car online are treating it with a mixture of amazement and contempt, an emotional cocktail I’ve been served many, many times. And, really, I don’t think that’s fair. Sure, this particular car isn’t to everyone’s taste, and, arguably, may only be to the taste of whoever put in the considerable time and resources required to make such a thing. But I think it’s an impressive achievement, especially because it uses one of the hardest elements for the DIY auto-customizer to integrate into a design: the wildly tall taillights of a Cadillac Escalade.

Look, say what you will about this thing, but whoever made it had a vision, and they executed on that vision, which puts them in the upper 1% of vision-havers worldwide. That vision seems to be the urge to take what appears to be a second-gen (1999-2001) Acura TL and transform it into something that feels like what an aspiring car designer in 1940 might have predicted for what cars would look like in the future after eating a huge, sweaty fistful of hallucinogenic mushrooms.

As I noted, I think the punctum of this build has to be the massive Escalade taillights, integrated into what may be simultaneously the tallest and yet stubbiest tailfins ever crafted by human hands.

Here, just look at it, via this ex-Twitter account’s post:

Help pic.twitter.com/cng2PKWf9t

— Torx ????⛽ (@Spottyroo) May 29, 2025

Man, just look at it: the bulging fenders, the oddly squared-off trunk, the minimalistic bumper, and, of course, those taillights. Everyone three counties away will know when this car is braking or about to take a turn, and I salute that. You’re not just turning on your brake lights in this car: you’re broadcasting your braking plans to the world.

It looks like the car has been spotted before, in a state prior to it being finished and painted, which gives some interesting insight:

So they finished painting it… ???? pic.twitter.com/RzJZ4Ma5yt

— Ely ???????? ???? △ (@ely_sec) May 29, 2025

The front end is puzzling as well; what exactly is going on there? I did a little digging, and was happy to find that pictures of the front end do exist online:

Those pictures seem to be from a car show in January, and the photographer has a nice full 3/4 front view of the car:

Wow. It does not disappoint. The inspiration of that front end feels a little different from the rear, though, which feels like a late 1950s fever dream. The front end reminds me more of a car from the late 1930s or early 1940s, like this 1939 Dodge:

Sure, there are differences and more modern touches, like that pair of nostril-lights, but in overall form, this feels like a late 1930s/early 1940s front end. With the rear feeling like something out of the 1950s and the relatively untouched center greenhouse section retaining its late 1990s/early 2000s look, we have a car that literally spans 60 or so years of automotive styling.

So maybe it’s not exactly coherent; who among us is? Personally, I believe this Acura owner was inspired to build this thing one day while stuck in traffic behind an Escalade:

Maybe they saw those twin scarlet towers and felt somethings stir inside them. A challenge, of sorts. Why should this boxy SUV be the only car that gets to have taillights with the same proportions as a highway streetlight, or maybe a very subtle and elegant boomerang? It shouldn’t! And they accepted the challenge, and set out to transform their trusty but boring-looking Acura into something truly memorable.

Is it all based on that Acura TL? I mean, I think so, though it is rocking Silverado wheels and that lower sill sure is thick. Is it on some kind of GM truck chassis? I don’t think so, the suspension looks more Acura than Silverado, doesn’t it?

A lot of effort and skill and time and resources went into this thing, and while it may be many people’s first instinct to jeer, I’m going to suggest a different path: celebration. Someone is having a fantastic time with their car, and in doing so, they managed to tame the mighty and unruly Escalade taillights, and I believe that deserves our respect. And maybe fear.