1,000hp What If...

A Super Concept Car 

 1,000 hp What If...

What if this Supercar really came to be? 

In 2003 one of the most coveted luxury car makers in the world unveiled a concept car at the Detroit Auto Show. The intention was to take an ultra-luxury vehicle and stuff an insane unheard of amount of horsepower under the hood. They called it the Cadillac 16. Making a huge splash a t the auto show it took home “Best In Show”. An excellent piece of machinery the Cadillac 16 actually exceeded developers expectations in several key areas such as performance handling and a few more.

What surprised both designers and developers alike was the overwhelming consumer reaction. Initially the 16 was built as only a prototype. Something the engineers at GM had toyed around with and actually got to work! Stacked with 1,000 hp it was something for the brave to put on the company test track. Then a few months later a magazine ran a small article on the Cadillac 16. Nothing super just pointing out a few features, mentioning a few specs and showing a few photos. But to GM's total surprise they received more then 130,000 orders from consumers for the Cadillla16 even though it officially didn't even have a price yet! With such an unexpected yet high demand serious talks started about mass production on the 16. All the big wigs gathered in one room and discussed the reality of mass production. The developers, designers and engineers met and went over the numbers, did the research, performed the equations. Then everyone had a meeting. Unfortunately just too many barricades existed and all through out. Research had showed that the “Ultra-Luxury” car market was currently overpopulated and had been for years by very well established names within the industry. Timing was also a key factor as the planet was turning Green and everyone was addressing the “Global Warming” issue at the time. Conservation was gaining momentum at the time, America was looking to save fuel as well as find alternatives. So you could see how especially from a consumer relations standpoint it would not have been on GM's best interest to mass produce such an Ultra-luxury super fuel consuming behemoth of a vehicle. Which also explains the last factor, pricing. At that time this was a recession torn country. So introducing a new model with a 6-digit price tag may not have went over too well then.

Ironically pricing was one of he main “In-House” reasons the 16 never came to market. GM could not find the proper pricing range for such a perplex vehicle. They simply didn't know what to charge for it. Pricing fluctuated from $120,000 up to $500,000 respectively. With such a price tag this was well above anything they had ever produced before so again GM was stuck with a dilemma. Where exactly would they place this vehicle within the segmented marketplace? As I said before the “Ultra-Luxury” Car marketplace was very well established and was at capacity in 2003-04.

Rock solid research showed that consumers at this level are “extreme” loyalist and very seldom if ever change brands. Meaning this is tradition this is a family line. Not only me but my father drove this brand vehicle is the logic. It has more to do with tradition than anything else. The proverbial nail in the coffin was struck when when data within the numbers proved that true Cadillac loyalist ironically could NOT afford the Cadillac 16. It's still nice to contemplate what if...what if we could have had 1,000 hp to do as we pleased.

The End