The Cadillac 16 - A Perfect Combination Of Past and Future

 The Cadillac 16 - A Perfect Combination Of Past and Future

In so many ways Cadillac has defined American Automotive Luxury  by not only meeting but consistently exceeding our expectations as drivers . Built purely as a "concept car" a Cadillac prototype is all that was intended. The 16 looked alike any other prototype on paper.

Concept to Prototype - A decision was made to take it off paper and bring it into reality. Shortly after a prototype were built and sent to select GM dealers for research marketing purposes. The reaction was both amazing and overwhelming. General Motors received over a dozen orders for the Cadillac 16 even though it had not set a price.

That was ten years ago and yet the mystique surrounding the 16 is still at fever pitch today, the reason is simple. It was truly a car before and ahead of its time. A once in a life display of art deco created from both the past and the future, an instant classic. Spearheaded by then GM vice president Bob Lutz in his attempt to recapture the  elegance and mystique of the foregone 1930's. 

The Cadillac 16 wasn't just a shot on the dark it actually has close ties to the Cadillac past. The name itself is in reference to the original Cadillac V-16 model line of the 1930's. The V-16 was in introduced in 1930 as Cadillac's top of the line automobile. Production ran for a solid decade from 1930 to 1940. Is was Americas first automobile produced with a V-16.

Limited Edition - For such along production run only 4,076 were ever built the majority, 2,108 were built in the initial year 1930. All 4,076 were built specifically to customer orders. 

Power and Design - In a perfect marriage the design team was able to merge the 1930's V-16 power with a futuristic design and countless the amenities that only Cadillac seems to come up with.

Design - The majority of the design elements were actually brought into existence by an in-house design competition created Bob Lutz. The design was based on the mid 70's El Dorado Fleetwood taken a lot further.
Power - Equipped with a Cadillac proprietary-developed 32-valve V-16 engine displacing 13.6 liters which was exclusive to the Cadillac 16 model, mated to a four-speed electronically controlled automatic transmission responsible for transporting passengers both quickly and comfortably in this 5,000 pound machine in seamless silence. 

Back in 2003 the dream of produced a limited number of 300 annually went unfulfilled. For whatever reason it didn't make it to production it wasn't for lack of interest. Introduced ten decade ago in 2003 the Cadillac 16 back then successfully merged the 2 elements of time, Past and Present then presented it perfectly here in the 3rd the present. This is Cadillac, a higher standard of transportation a Cadillac standard.

The mystique has yet to go away so maybe one day I'll see an actual 16 on the road, who knows...