Autoblog

Lutz unveiles the Cadillac Sixteen concept at NAIAS 2003 in Detroit

It's official. It's been confirmed: Cadillac is preparing a new V12 flagship. That's straight from the mouth of our favorite man in the business, Bob Lutz. On a recent trip across the pond, GM's venerated product guru confirmed in an interview to the British car magazine AutoWeek that they are indeed working on a twelve-cylinder engine, slated to power a new range-topping, import-beating "Cadillac of Cadillacs," a super-luxury-sedan to rival the likes of the Mercedes S-Class and Lexus LS in the grandest of American style.

The new powerplant is being fabricated from two of GM's 3.6-liter 60-degree V6 engines mounted on a common crankshaft. Far from relying solely on cylinder count, sources speculate the engine will also benefit from such features as direct injection and cylinder deactivation, resulting in a 7.2-liter V12 with somewhere in the neighborhood of 600 horsepower and 540 lb-ft of torque.

And just where is GM testing such a behemoth of an engine? In Australia, of course! As has become de rigeur for American automakers of late, GM is relying on its Australian subsidiary to run the development work on the new flagship engine. Holden is reported to have already begun testing mules, based on a Commodore with a stretched-out engine bay, at its Lang Lang test center near Melbourne. Although the Zeta-based Commodore, (a.k.a. the upcoming Pontiac G8) is being used strictly as a test bed for the time being, it could end up providing the underpinnings for the Cadillac megasedan when the time comes.

Lutz has been pushing for a top-tier Cadillac for years now, and the impetus for its development has apparently come from the feedback received by the Cadillac Sixteen showcar debuted back in 2003. Although the showcase V16 engine was ruled out, apparently the V12 has gotten the green light for development. Shoot for the stars and land on the moon, eh Bob?

Related posts:

• Not so sweet Sixteen: GM says definitely no $100k+ sedan
• Cadillac shores up Ultra Luxury Sedan
• Lutz: Camaro could spawn big Caddy
• $100k+ Caddy a go, again?
  

[Source: Automotive News - subscription required]

Some concept cars are purely for show, but some are built to go. GM Europe took the latter a step further by putting their striking and exciting Chevrolet WTCC Ultra concept to the test on the track. The concept race car made its debut at the Paris Motor Show and is scheduled to make an appearance at the Beijing show later this month. So in between, the Chevy boys took the opportunity to put the car through the paces at Estoril in Portugal.

And it wasn't a private test, either. The event coincided with the European Touring Car Championship (ETCC) race at the Estoril circuit on October 22, so the WTCC Ultra was enjoyed by the spectators at the race as well as the television audience on Eurosport as it made a publicity lap around the track in front of the field of ETCC race cars. GM hasn't released any performance stats from the track session, and we doubt they seriously risked braking what is sure to be a very expensive one-off.

Nicola Larini, a former F1 driver for Ferrari and currently a Chevrolet touring car racer, was one of the lucky drivers who got to pilot the show car around the track, and remarked, "I would have never expected a concept car to be that well executed and performing so nicely at such an early development phase".

Now if only Chevy would build the beast for public consumption.

(Follow the jump for a full gallery of hi-res images of the WTCC Ultra at Estoril)

[Source: GM]