Design and concept cars
Rüsselsheim. A new form for a new era; the CTS reaffirms Cadillac as a styling supremo among carmakers. It is the first production vehicle with the bold, new form vocabulary - exactly 100 years after the Model A became the very first Cadillac to leave the factory gates in September 1902. "Cadillac has always stood for bold, trend-setting design," emphasizes Wayne K. Cherry, General Motors vice president of design. The numerous technical innovations were accompanied by a stylish, elegant and futuristic look, making the Cadillac models design trendsetters from one era to the next. "The design of the CTS builds on this heritage in a bold, new way that is both dramatic and refined," says Wayne K. Cherry. The exterior of the sporty sedan is marked by sheer forms, sharp edges and crisp intersecting lines. An unmistakable design that will join the form vocabulary of its predecessors in the annals of automotive history. Other milestones in Cadillac design included the elegant La Salle models of the Twenties and Thirties and the extravagant cruisers of the post-war era with their distinctive tail fins. The exciting concept vehicles from Cadillac - which also have a rich heritage - always provided a glimpse of the future, to the design trends and technical ideas of tomorrow. Designer classics: the elegant La Salle models (1927 - 1941) Harley Earl (1893 - 1969) began his career making Roman chariots and rococo coaches for the Hollywood film industry with Los Angeles custom body builder Don Lee. After this entertaining start to a meteoric career, the creative Cali-fornian would go on to define the futuristic styling of Cadillac for decades and invent classic design features such as the tail fin. In 1927 Earl designed the elegant La Salle Series 303 - the first commercially available American car created by a stylist and the beginning of Cadillac's reputation for top-quality styling. With its narrow radiator and slim front section, this vehicle looked far slicker than the somewhat portly American automobiles of the time, and was now available with a two-tone paint job for the first time. "Before 1927, Cadillac was a good, solid, substantial car," stressed the later GM styling and Opel design director David Holls (1931 - 2000). Earl brought about the turning point: "After 1927 the cars had style and elegance." La Salle was created to fill the gap in the General Motors range between the favorably-priced Buicks and upper-market Cadillac models. The marque rapidly emerged as a design trendsetter and had a lasting influence on the styling of its parent marque, Cadillac. In 1934, for example, Harley Earl created a further design icon in the Series 50 models; with its "pontoon" fenders, the disk wheels and harmonious details like the round portholes in the hood, the convertible coupe was miles ahead of its time. In 1941, the last of 205,000 La Salles came off the production line. In 1927 Harley Earl established the new "Art and Colour Section" - the first independent styling department of an automobile manufacturer - before rising to become GM Vice President for design in 1940. A series of concept cars like the 1953 Le Mans models (see page 6) bore his signature and featured styling elements that would appear in later production models. In 1958 Earl went into retirement - after more than 30 years of creative excellence for Cadillac and General Motors. Fins up: the era of the cruisers (1948 - 1964) The imposing cruisers of the Fifties and Sixties bore names like Eldorado or de Ville. These huge, chrome-plated Cadillacs are still today as much a part of the image of America for most people as fast food or American football, cowboys or Coca Cola, westerns or skyscrapers. Head designer Harley Earl had already invented an essential stylin-g element in 1948 together with his assistant Julio Andrade - the tail fin. Inspired by the design of the Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter plane - Earl perfected his research by visiting the Selfridge Field airport - the Cadillac Sixty Special was the first model to feature the characteristic tail fins that were to define automotive design for decades in America and beyond. The '48 models, the first to be aerodynamically perfected in the wind tunnel at the GM Proving Ground in Milford/Michigan, had relatively timid fins. But the fashionable design caught on so well that some dealers would park their demonstration models overnight with the rear up against the shop windows and switch on the taillamps in order to give evening strollers a fitting view of this new eye-catcher. The supplier industry even offered rear fins for fitting on to older models! The fins grew in height year for year. In 1959 they reached their absolute ma-ximum - measuring 97 centimeters, the Cadillac fins were the highest ever on the American car market, just 40 centimeters lower than the roof. Candle-shaped lamps further emphasized the jagged form of the fins. The cars did not just grow wings - they also became covered in chrome in this era. At the same time, the front bumper horns grew larger and larger. They soon became known as "Dagmars" - a reference to the artist name of voluptuous TV actress Virginia Ruth Egnor (1921 - 2001), who owed her popularity to appearances in the series "Jerry Lester's House Party." Together with the "Dagmars," the 1953 Eldo-rado also premiered the panoramic windshield and the chrome front headlamp covers (known as "cadet vizors"). Transcontinental: partnership with Pininfarina since 1931 Anyone in the last century for whom an off-the-peg Cadillac was not exclusive enough could have a body builder tailor-make an individual body. Countless carmakers and renowned designers created exclusive Cadillac-based automobiles; among them are well-known names such as Henri Chapron (France), Fleetwood (USA), Ghia (Italy), Gläser (Germany), Heuliez (France), Franco Sbarro (Switzerland), Van den Plas (Belgium), Vignale and Zagato (both Italy). A now over 70-year-old partnership with another body maker - Pininfarina - began like a tale from the 1001 Nights; in 1931 Italian body maker Battista "Pinin" Farina designed and constructed a stunning-looking Spider with a boat-tail for the Maharajah of Orccha, based on a V16 Cadillac 452. Three concept cars were created between 1958 and 1962 - the "Starlight," "Sky-light" and "Jaqueline." The first large-scale orders for Cadillac were completed by the Turin company in 1959 and 1960, in which time Pinin Farina made exactly 200 units of the super-luxurious Eldorado Brougham model, whose elegant form was also his work. After the chassis units arrived in Italy by boat, the cars were shipped back to the USA. Although a logistically complicated operation, it was nevertheless topped by the two partners in the late Eighties; Sergio Pininfarina, son of Battista, designed the sporty and elegant Allanté two-seater convertible, which Cadillac decided to have built exclusively in Europe. This time, transportation was via an "air bridge"; jumbo jets flew the chassis units and over 100 US-made components (from the instrument panel to the air conditioning) to Turin. The runway at Caselle airport had to be specially extended so that the 747s could land there. Pininfa-rina unified the body and chassis at the San Giorgio plant and fitted the luxurious interior. Finally, 56 Allantés at a time were flown back to Detroit Metropo-litan Airport. This complicated production process resulted in over 22,000 Allantés between 1987 and 1993. The convertible - the successful fruit of a cooperative venture of two renowned partners - has already become a much sought-after classic. More recently, Cadillac has been working with the designers from Italian luxury jeweler Bvlgari, whose standards and target groups are at a comparably high level to that of the American luxury marque. An obvious visual example of the cooperation was in the Vizón study's instrument panel. Visionary: the concept vehicles from the Osceola to the Cien (1905 - 2002) The fact that new technologies and state-of-the-art design have traditionally been among Cadillac's strengths is illustrated by the large number of sensational concept cars. These studies anticipate elements of future production models and test the initial response from potential customers. "There was a time when we in General Motors styling felt we had to hold back on some of our design ideas because the public wasn't ready for them yet," recalled Harley Earl in 1956. "But the concept cars showed us that the public's thinking was ahead of ours. More than two million persons saw our experimental cars each year in the Motorama. They talked about them and said what they like about them - and what they don't like. And we listened very carefully." The study cars are still today not an end to themselves, in fact enabling real conclusions to be made about the design of future series models: "The Evoq, Imaj and Vizón are not just pure design studies, nor simple technological finger exercises - the complete concept is what counts," explains Simon Cox, Concept Vehicle Design Director at the GM Concept Design Studio in Birmingham, England. A concept that has been transferred from the motor show stand to the street; the progressive form vocabulary of the three study vehicles - sharp edges contrasting with flat geometric areas - are premiered in the new Cadillac CTS. And the US launch of the Cadillac XLR in 2003 will see the arrival of the production equivalent of the Evoq luxury roadster study. The fact that the Cadillac studies have always been characterized by the tension between the eccentric, the visionary and the rational and were often ahead of their time is illustrated by the following list of the most important and spectacular concept vehicles. 1905 Osceola Cadillac founder Henry Leland had the two-seater Osceola specially built to determine the feasibility of building a closed-body car - a precursor to modern concept cars. It was named in honor of the Seminole native American chief and, considering its 2.08-meter length, the car measured an impressive 2.21 meters high. Leland used the Osceola for decades and was an extremely assertive driver. "One morning, he had a collision with a streetcar on his way to work, and in the evening, on the way home, he then collided with a coal truck," recalls Cadillac engineer Bill Foltz in his book 'The Master of Precision.' "His daughter often came to me and asked me to somehow make the 'Osceola' slower." 1933 Aerodynamic Coupé This streamlined model with an all-new sloping tail section was Cadillac's star at the Chicago World's Fair. The marketing slogan: "This car is so different and so new, that the members of your country club will turn round and want to touch the car [...]" A total of 20 Aerodynamic Coupes were built by 1938. 1950 Debutante The furs of exactly 187 Somalian leopards were sacrificed for the interior of this special Series 62 Convertible Coupe. The one-off model with a mother-of-pearl finish debuted at the "Mid-Century Motorama" in New York's fashionable Waldorf Astoria Hotel. The instru-ment panel and ignition key were gold-plated. 1953 Le Mans Exhibited at the Motorama, this study could easily have been mistaken for a production model; a series of features, such as the panoramic windshield, the lower window line or the exhaust pipes integrated into the rear bumper horns were soon adopted for regular models. The roof that automatically closed when rain fell would remain utopian for the time being. 1954 Park Avenue, La Espada, El Camino Three concept cars at a single stroke; the Park Avenue in fact provided a preview of the Eldorado Brougham launched in 1957. It featured a hand-brushed aluminum top. The fiberglass-bodied La Espada and El Camino two-seaters likewise hinted at future production models with their flat, quad headlamps, low front section, exaggerated front bumper horns and towering tail fins. 1955 Eldorado Brougham This chameleon-green model was a technological showcase; the exclusive features included air suspension, automatic "favorite position" seats, air conditioning and a self-opening and closing trunk. 1955 La Salle These sporty two-seaters with their breathtakingly beautiful fiberglass body and the 2.5-liter V6 engine with fuel injection could have launched the rebirth of the La Salle marque. Both the roadster and coupe, however, were to remain one-offs. 1959 Cyclone The Cyclone looked more like a jet aircraft than a car, its two fenders resembling rockets. The two flat door segments could be slid back. The revolutionary design was matched by the radar-sensing crash avoidance system and the Plexisglas bubble-top that automatically closed when its sensor detected rain. 1988 Voyage This luxury sedan had all-new computer-controlled all-wheel technology hidden under its streamlined body; the front axle was automatically engaged when rear-wheel slippage was detected. The Voyage was equipped with ABS, an electronically controlled five-speed automatic gearbox and a voice-activated telephone system. Its orthopedically-designed seats included more than 20 pneumatic and mechanical adjustments, three memory positions plus cushion massage. The Seville CTS adopted a number of the Voyage's styling cues when introduced in 1991. 1999 Evoq This roadster study was the first representative of Cadillac's new "Art & Science" philosophy, debuting at the Detroit Motor Show. The design of future models is evident in styling features such as the vertical headlamps and taillamps, the distinctive wedge shape and the sharply tapering front section. The Evoq was the first Ca-dillac to bear the updated marque emblem. Powered by a 4.2-liter supercharged V8 engine, the convertible also had a lot to offer on the technological front. Features include a keyless entry system, the Communiport info-tainment center including voice-activated navigation system, a head-up display and NightVision infrared technology. 2000 Imaj The dynamic and at the same time elegant exterior of the sedan conceals a weight-saving but particularly rigid space frame construction made of extruded aluminum components. The so-called "Forewarn" system uses radar and ultrasonic sensors to monitor objects in the vehicle's proximity. Sensors detect where other road-users are going. Audio and visual alert signals inform the driver of potential dangers. Three cameras replace the side and rearview mirrors. 2001 Vizón "The Vizón is a genuine alternative to conventional sport-utilities and wagons, unifying the best features of both vehicles," says Wayne K. Cherry, General Motors Vice President for Design, of Cadillac's first hybrid study. The car-based all-wheel-drive model boasts a unique trunk; its floor is power-operated, sliding outward for easy loading or raising straight up to create a second load shelf that remains above the floor. Safety is enhanced with the Adaptive Cruise Control System. It monitors traffic ahead and automatically adjusts the car's speed accordingly. As in the Imaj, Cadillac was able to enlist luxury jeweler Bvlgari to add its exclusive touch to the Vizón's instrument panel. 2002 Cien "Cien" is Spanish for "hundred" - a reference to the centenary birthday of the Cadillac marque this year. After its world premiere in Detroit, the latest version of the super sportscar was introduced to the European public in Geneva. The aerodynamic design of the sleek racer is breathtaking; crisp edges and geometric lines provide an engaging contrast to the tinted blue windows and headlamps. The body and chassis of the Cien are made of carbon fiber, and video cameras replace the side and rearview mirrors. |