A striking view of how a flagship might look
Cadillac's Ciel concept convertible highlights the future of Cadillac design and hints at a potential flagship model, the brand's design boss said.
The four-seat, all-wheel-drive Ciel -- French for "sky" and pronounced see-EL' -- sits on a 125-inch wheelbase, about 12 inches longer than the CTS sedan and nearly the same as the Mercedes-Benz S500.
"We wouldn't be showing it if we didn't have any intentions of doing anything with it," said Cadillac global design director Clay Dean after the Ciel's debut here at the Concours d'Elegance classic car show.
GM executives long have felt that its luxury brand needs a big halo vehicle to truly compete with the top-range offerings of rivals, such as the BMW 7-series and Mercedes-Benz S-class sedans.
Yet development of a Cadillac flagship has ebbed and flowed for much of the last decade, ever since the V-16-powered Cadillac Sixteen concept wowed onlookers at the 2003 Detroit auto show.
Dean said the Ciel was conceived as a dramatic imagining of what the luxury car customer might want from a large flagship car.
"We need to evolve the language of Cadillac, and here's one point of view," Dean said.
Under its runway-sized hood is a twin-turbocharged version of General Motors' 3.6-liter direct-injection V-6 engine paired with a hybrid system using lithium ion batteries.
The Ciel follows in the lineage of striking Cadillac concepts, including the Sixteen and more recently the Provoq and Converj. Last week GM said the Converj would go into production as the plug-in hybrid ELR, using technology similar to that in the Chevrolet Volt.
Dean said the four-door Ciel -- with its suicide doors and no top -- is unlikely to go into production. "The car wasn't conceived to do that," he said.
Design details seen on the concept will appear on future Cadillac production vehicles, Dean said. Those details include the car's deep purple paint job and rich wood and earthy leather-tone interior design cues.
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