The race-prepared Cadillac V-Series.R hypercar – known during its development as the Project GTP Hypercar – is a consistent frontrunner in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar championship. Of course, that vehicle isn’t street legal at all, but the marque is considering building a roadgoing hypercar that would fit the bill.
In a recent conversation with Australian media, GM Senior Vice President of Global Design, Michael Simcoe, said that a street legal Cadillac hypercar isn’t out of the realm of possibilities. In fact, it’s being heavily considered, according to a report from CarSales, especially as the luxury marque continues its quest to break into Formula One racing. Incidentally, a new trend has emerged where F1 automakers release high-performance hypercars to capitalize on their open wheel racing efforts.
Cadillac Project GTP Hypercar
“Like the Blackwing and the work in [sports car] racing right now, Cadillac is committed to performance. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be having the conversation around Formula 1,” Simcoe said when asked if Caddy’s inevitable entry into F1 could result in the production of a hypercar. “Could we build a [Cadillac] hypercar? Yes. Would we like to build one? Yes. Are we building one? That would be giving too much away.”
At this time, it’s not clear if the potential Caddy hypercar could take after the Cadillac V-Series.R, or if it would go in a different direction entirely. However, earlier this year, the luxury marque hinted at the Cadillac Opulent Velocity Concept, which is an ultra-high-performance electric vehicle designed to “celebrate the past, present and future of Cadillac and its performance brand, the V-Series.” It’s possible that a street-legal hypercar could be based on the Opulent Velocity, especially as the luxury marque continues to head toward an all-electric future, though slightly less rapidly than before.
Cadillac Opulent Velocity Concept
The last time Caddy considered bringing a hypercar to market was back in 2002, when it unveiled the Cadillac Cien concept car at the Detroit Auto Show. To the dismay of many, the Cien never made it to production.
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Frank Ricciardi
Sounds like another dumb Cadillac idea to me…right up there with the Celistiq, I bet they’ll sell almost as many Hyper-Cars as Celistiqs. Cadillac should focus on products they can actually sell, like a US version of the CT6 and a revised version of the CTS and a next-gen XT5 and XT6. And maybe even a hybrid sedan or SUV.
Steve
I agree the CT6 was one fine 4 door sedan, roomy, efficient, powerful, state of art technology (for its time), well styled, beautiful interior, spacious. Too bad Mary Barra (CEO) killed off the sedan.
Tim jasmin
Poor shift programming. Resulting I. Liw sales of the top tier model ct6. Led to poor reviews in every car mag,and killed sales.
Steve
Cadillac will probably make a derivative of the C8 Corvette platform as the “next” Cadillac Hypercar. That concept will likely be the opposite of the 2005 C6 Corvette platform that became the Cadillac XLR in 2004. Plus Cadillac has a History of vehicle Blunders (Cadillac V8-6-4 1980’s, Cimarron 1984, Allante 1989, Catera 1999, Early CTS circa 2003 with the [2.0L Catera engine] etc).
GM Owner
There are too mamy naysayers here posting against Cadillac projects. Let Cadillac build that supercar, since Ford has the GT and many imports have them, too. Give the weathy a domestic choice.
Rick H
While Cadillac is at it……build a rocket ship too. Something only Elon Musk and Bill Gates can afford.
Steven B
I remember the Cien as one of the most beautiful sports cars ever designed. I understood it to be only a design study, but one Cadillac/GM should be proud to have created. I am a GM shareholder and I know these projects are expensive. I doubt the companies recover their costs except in hard to measure ways like publicity. Funny thing is that the wealthy people who buy those cars (mostly from Ferrari, Porsche and the like) generally end up making profits selling them after not very many years. The companies that created them don’t see that money, the dealers/owners/speculators do. That was true for GM in the past few years with the C8 Corvettes, particularly the ZO6s that often traded at 25% or higher premiums over MSRP. Even though it is hard to measure value, I hope Cadillac decides it is worthwhile to give the world another art object like the Cien, or even turn it into a real purchasable vehicle.
Chris Cummings
^^^^This.