Cadillac Wants To Make A Roadgoing Hypercar

General Motors’ design chief says the company would like to build a high-performance halo car, but didn’t confirm nor deny if one was in development

Mike Bartholomew

05 Jun 2024

Cadillac has spent a lot of time and money this century trying to shake off its Florida retiree image, and with multiple motorsports projects on the go and the fire-and-brimstone, manual gearbox Blackwing saloons in its current repertoire, it’s doing a reasonable job. It seems it wants to go further, though, and could produce an ultra high-performance roadgoing halo hypercar in the not-too-distant future.

The report comes from CarSales, which was part of an Australian media roundtable with General Motors’ head of design, Michael Simcoe. Asked if Caddy’s ongoing motorsport involvement could spur the development of a roadgoing hypercar, he was surprisingly forthright: “Could we build a hypercar? Yes. Would we like to build one? Yes. Are we building one? That would be giving too much away.”

Cadillac's V-Series.R racer in concept form

While far from an official confirmation, it’s certainly not a denial either and is much more promising than the usual noncommittal answer questions like this receive.

Should it happen, it wouldn’t be Cadillac’s first flirtation with the hypercar genre: at the 2002 Detroit Auto Show, to celebrate the brand’s centenary, it displayed the Cien concept, a mid-engined supercar powered by a 7.5-litre, 750bhp V12. It supposedly came close to a limited production run before GM decided it wouldn’t be worth the cost of selling it given a then-limited market.

With Cadillac having spent a further two decades steadily working on its image, perhaps it’s a case of second time lucky. The brand already runs full-time entries in the top classes of both the World Endurance Championship and IMSA SportsCar Championship, and is on board as a factory partner and engine supplier for Andretti’s prospective Formula 1 effort – should it ever make the grid.

Having recently backtracked on its commitment to going all-electric by 2030, Simcoe also apparently said a potential hyper-Caddy could have an internal combustion engine as part of its drivetrain. Here’s a suggestion, Cadillac: you’re turning 125 in 2027, so why not roll something out then, but go one better and actually build it this time?

The first full sentence spoken by an infant Mike was a review of the ride quality of a Volvo 850. It was “Daddy’s car goes bumpy-bump on a bumpy road,” so would probably need proofreading a bit, but it was a start.