Filed under: Concept Cars, SEMA, Sedans/Saloons, Cadillac
SEMA 2007: Cadillac CTS Sport Concept in the metal
click above image to view live high-res pics of the Cadillac CTS Sport
The new Cadillac CTS already has enough angles to get an A in geometry. If you take all those angles and sharpen them up Reventon-style, then sneeze some carbon fiber at it, you get this: the Cadillac CTS Sport Concept. This is the kind of exercise that could tip over into "whoa," but all thanks be to GM that it doesn't. Well, except for the 20-inch dubs and yellow brake calipers, but we can let a little excess slide -- it is SEMA after all.
Carbon fiber makes copious appearances on the altered front and rear fascias and trims things like the fender extractors. LED beauty is the order of the day, with LED trim in the headlights, a beautiful set of export taillights (and why don't we get those?), and LEDs in the brake ducts in the lower front fascia. And there are two words for the OnStar antenna: land shark. Go-time comes courtesy of the 304-hp 3.6L engine with a cat-back exhaust blowing out 3.5-inch square, chromed apertures. And check out that rear diffuser. Hot.
Inside sources tell us that you're basically looking at the body of the forthcoming CTS-V here, so soak it up in the high-res gallery below.Gallery: Cadillac CTS Sport Concept
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
MJL 2:16PM (10/30/2007)
I can't tell you why we DON'T get those tail lights, but it finally dawned on me a while back that Europe gets them (they look great on the SRX!) because their laws state that cars must have colored rear turn signals, whereas America is one of only a few countries where red is still allowed.
Interestingly, Cadillac decided to take advantage of this requirement and design something new: the smoked-out lenses you see above. Note that they could have done an orange lamp masquerading as a brake light, a la the latest Saab 9-5 or the 1996-1999 Mercedes-Benz E-Class.
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TBlueMax 2:22PM (10/30/2007)
From the orange stand display sign:
Clear tail-lights (future accessory)
Recaro sport bucket seats (future accessory)
Nice options to have.
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Gooch 3:35PM (10/30/2007)
Maybe it's the color of the car, but it just doesn't look right to me.
I think the CTS is a beautifully styled car, but this is a bit overdone. Then again, it could be the color. And I really don't like the taillights.
It could be the color that floors me.
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why not the LS2LS7? 3:35PM (10/30/2007)
American cars must reflect orange and the front and red at the back when viewed from the side.
Whereas in Europe, the car simply must reflect red at the back when viewed from the back (I don't know about the front, but it could be similar).
Because of this, taillights and turn signals are usually placed on the corners of the car, so they can reflect from the front, back and sides.
In Europe, to put taillights like this on, they simply add additional red reflectors elsewhere on the back of the car. You can see these above the exhaust pipes on this car. However, there are no red reflectors on the side of the car at the rear, so this taillight combination is not US legal.
The european-style SRX taillights look even better, I saw them in China.
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Harrity 3:39PM (10/30/2007)
I love the CTS, and it looks really sharp in this color. Those wheels, however, are too much.
The current production CTS on 18s looks better.
The seats in that car look pretty serious...
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MasterCKO 3:52PM (10/30/2007)
This car looks sexy. It's taken a while, but the overall CTS design has definitely grown on me. This is more of the same (awesomeness).
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naggs 4:10PM (10/30/2007)
id rather have a stock one
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Gregg 4:13PM (10/30/2007)
Gawd...the car deserves better than dumpy people and saggy man boobs. Where are the models??
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mk 5:33PM (10/30/2007)
I thought this was a bit over-wrought... I am backing away from that, just a bit.
I think it could have been done a little less boy-racer-ish, still, but the details are nicer than my initial impression.
the rear diffuser with the integrated tail pipes and reflectors is slick. The tail lights look great. The headlights look fantastic, and I love the CF grille. Even the front air dam is growing on me. I still don't like the rear deck spoiler that droops down on the sides of the third brake light. A more gracious design can be found, possibly replacing the third brake light with another wide one in the spoiler. I do like caddy's wide third brake lights, and vertical tails.
Color. I still don't like slate gray. Never have. And it needs at least one piece of chrome. Lower window line, translating into the fender vent could be the single chrome, or black-chrome swipe on the car.
Otherwise, the car needs to be some sort of a color, even pearl white would be better. Red or Blue would be fantastic. That Solstice monoposto concept has a nice red.... With a black roof/sunroof and tinted side and back glass, it would be very slick. The window frames need to be gloss black, as well.
I would still go with some classier wheels than the mirror-chrome dubs on there now. Piaa's 'hypersilver' Forged Mesh wheel would look particularly nice, IMHO. I would also go with black-chrome mesh in the grille and rear-diffuser, to better suit with the carbon fiber, as well.
Supercharged or turbocharged Northstar DOHC V8, a manual or automated manual transmission, and rear-biased AWD, and that would be an american sport sedan to set a really good standard, where American sport sedans have been nearly non-existant until now.
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Thanh T. 9:13AM (10/31/2007)
I like the new Cadillac CTS sport concept. Sweet lines!!!One of my cousin and his best friend both purchased previous models. If my cousin was still alive he would have love it. (He pass away in a senseless drive by shooting earlier this year-May 2007 case still under investigation...)
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