The All-New 2003 CTS: An Original Cadillac For The 21st Century

The All-New 2003 CTS: An Original Cadillac For The 21st Century

Pebble Beach, Calif., -The Cadillac division of General Motors Corp. has a history unlike that of any other automaker. Cadillac's past is rich with the tradition of excellence and status, and its very name has become ingrained in the American lexicon as a synonym for simply being the best.

As Cadillac enters its second century, it is poised to enhance its reputation in the United States, and to take its tradition of American excellence to the world stage. The first vehicle to carry Cadillac's revamped Art and Science philosophy of design and engineering excellence to the global market is the new 2003 CTS sport sedan, unveiled here at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance.

CTS, to be assembled in Lansing, Mich., will be sold in markets in Europe and Asia. Its bold styling reflects the glories of Cadillac's past, and foreshadows the designs of all future Cadillacs.

"CTS represents the first production vehicle created from our vision of Art and Science and fashioned from our new design form vocabulary, seen in recent concept cars such as Evoq, Imaj and Vizon," said Mark R. LaNeve, Cadillac general manager. "It's the latest in a 100-year history of head-turning, trend-setting designs from Cadillac."

Cadillac: Putting Design and Engineering Excellence Hand in Hand from the Start Cadillac founder Henry Leland laid the foundation for CTS' heritage with the first Cadillac model in 1902, a variable-valve, single-cylinder, liquid-cooled 10-horsepower, runabout with steering by a rack and pinion gear. His 1905 Osceola, built to test the feasibility of a closed-body car, was a precursor to the modern idea of a concept car.

When Leland imported a set of Johansson gauges (Jo-blocks) from Sweden in 1907, he paved the way for mass production by making it feasible to manufacture precise automobile components with standardized dimensions. For demonstrating the interchangeability of its standardized parts, Cadillac received the prestigious Dewar Trophy from the Royal Automobile Club of Great Britain in 1908. Little more than one decade old, the fledgling automobile industry already looked to Cadillac as the "Standard of the World."

Cadillac won its second Dewar Trophy in 1914 after becoming the first company to adopt a sophisticated Delco electrical system for self-starting, ignition and lighting in 1912, an innovation that eliminated crank-starting and made the automobile accessible to many more drivers, especially women.

Over the decades, Cadillac's pioneering spirit produced major innovations such as the first mass production water-cooled V8 (1915), the first V-type 16-cylinder engine for passenger-car use (1930), the modern overhead valve V8 engine (1949), America's first transverse-V8/front-wheel-drive automobile (1985), the 32-valve Northstar V8 (1992), and the evolution of the Northstar System with its integration of performance, control and StabiliTrak (1997).

Some of the Most Dramatic Designs in Automotive History
Along with these technical achievements, Cadillac has been a noted design leader beginning with the 1927 LaSalle, the first U.S. car to be designed by a stylist. Earlier, wealthy customers would buy a car and ship it to a coachbuilder to be styled. Designed by Harley Earl, working as a consultant to Cadillac, the LaSalle's light, flowing lines won overwhelming approval from the public. Shortly after, Earl was hired to head up General Motors' new Art and Colour department.

The coming decades saw Cadillac styling at the forefront of automotive design, a trend-setter and innovator, blazing the path the 2003 CTS boldly follows today.

Just a few of the landmark designs:

• 1933 Cadillac V8 Series 355C. This sedan was the epitome of period luxury, its passenger compartment decked with silk curtains, and real wood trim with German silver inlays. The car featured "suicide doors" and aircraft-inspired design, particularly in the stylized headlamps, the streamlined, skirted fenders and the "Vee-ing" of the radiator grille-a feature echoed in CTS today. This was also the first time an automaker had installed wing windows or vent windows, called "draft-free ventilation" at the time, which remained an automotive staple for a generation.
• 1941 60 Special Fleetwood. The egg-crate horizontal grille, included on CTS and long a staple of Cadillac heritage, traces its roots to the '41 60S, the last of the great pre-war Cadillacs. The car's exterior sheet metal is streamlined and flowing, while the interior exudes classic American art deco style, seen in the stylized door handles, seat trim and roll-top rear ash receivers. For the first time, the pontoon front fenders extended into the front doors, lending a look of flowing speed and strength. That flow starts at the headlamps, which are fully integrated into the leading edge of the fenders.
• 1948 60 Special Fleetwood. The '48 60S ushered in a new era for automotive design with another trend born at Cadillac-the tail fin. Although the fins were modest in size compared to the dizzying heights to which they would rise on many later American cars, they caused an immediate splash, and remained on Cadillacs until 1964. They were inspired by the Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter plane, with its twin vertical stabilizers. The plane also inspired the mock radiator ducts on the sides behind the quarter windows. Almost lost in the uproar over the tail fins were two other significant design features: the new drum-type instrument panel (the 'rainbow dash'), with its driver-side hooded dash design; and the stylized, vertical tail lamps, a Cadillac trademark seen on the new CTS.
• 1957 Eldorado Brougham. The Brougham was conceived as a limited-production, ultra-luxury sedan of uncompromising quality and convenience. The long list of innovations included a brushed stainless steel roof, memory seating, automatic trunk opener and closer, transistor radio with automatic antenna, automatic door locks, quad headlights with automatic high-beam dimming, polarized sun visors and chrome-plated aluminum bumpers. One look at the stylized tail fins and the pillarless four-door design shows the art, and as for science, there was a 325-horsepower V8 and a revolutionary air suspension system.

These celebrated automobiles, among others, helped cement Cadillac's reputation as a trendsetter in automotive design, and an innovator in automotive engineering. They sowed the seeds of Cadillac's current vision of Art and Science that bears its first fruits today with CTS.

"Art and Science, as a vision for the future, is rooted deep in Cadillac's past," said LaNeve. "The storied vehicles Cadillac produced over the years were a direct result of the fusion of design and technology. That's what we wanted for CTS, to create a vehicle like past Cadillacs that really made a mark on automotive history, yet one influenced by future designs and advanced technologies. It's an original Cadillac for the 21st century."