Yahoo Autos Is Cadillac Planning on Building a Street-Legal Hypercar?
Cadillac has been around for more than 120 years. Its history as a performance brand, however is just a couple of decades old. The process of ramping up has been slow, but General Motors's luxury division now builds one of the best sport sedans ever, races in the top class at Le Mans, and has plans to go to Formula 1 in 2028. But it seems the company's ambitions don't stop there: according to a GM design executive, Cadillac wants to build a hypercar.
GM global design chief Michael Simcoe recently told Australia's CarSales that the car is a real possibility — although he stopped just short of confirming an ambitious new Cadillac contender in the high-profile, low-production segment. Simcoe goes as far as to suggest that one might already be in development, asking (and answering) his own questions: “Could [Cadillac] build a hypercar? Yes. Would we like to build one? Yes."
"Are we building one? That would be giving too much away."
If Cadillac did build a hypercar, it would be the first for General Motors in its long, storied history. The company got closest when it showed off the Cadillac-branded Cien concept in 2002, a sharp-edged mid-engined exotic packing a V-12. The car was meant to celebrate 100 years of the brand, but in spite of rumors and hopes, it never entered production. Instead, Cadillac began selling the XLR, a re-designed variant of the C6 Corvette, as its first dedicated performance car.
Simcoe also suggested that the car may not necessarily be an electric vehicle. If the car is tied to Cadillac's new life as a racing brand, a hybrid based on or similar to the brand's current LMDh racer (seen at the top of this story) or future Formula 1 entries would make the most sense. That could be an up-market take on the concept GM has already explored in the C8-generation Corvette E-Ray.
While Cadillac does not build a sports car, a supercar, or a hypercar now, it will finally re-entered the world of ultra-luxury when the Celestiq EV begin production. That car is a $300,000 bespoke creation meant to compete with Rolls-Royce and bring Cadillac back to the "Standard of the World" branding that made the badge so famous. That car would have been fine to continue in GM's plans to make Cadillac an EV brand by 2030, but the company is now less firm on that deadline anyway and could fit a non-electric hypercar into its lineup early in the next decade if necessary.
Cadillac has no formal plans for this proposed hypercar, but the next step in Cadillac performance is coming relatively soon. A concept called Opulent Velocity will be revealed at some point in 2024, setting the stage for Cadillac's performance EVs as the Celestiq did for the brand's luxury electric products.
Via CarSales.com.au
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