Report: Cadillac Wants to Build a Hypercar to Rival Mercedes-AMG One
If you had “Cadillac mulling a hypercar” on your 2024 automotive bingo board, kudos to you—we sure didn’t. Speaking with Australian automotive media during a brand briefing event for Cadillac, which launches in the Australian market later this year with the Lyriq EV, General Motors global design chief Michael Simcoe left a few breadcrumbs that, if you squint, may point to a potential high-performance hypercar coming from the luxury brand.
“Could we build a hypercar? Yes,” Simcoe told members of the Australian motoring media, including carsales.com.au, where this report comes from. “Would we like to build one? Yes. Are we building one? That would be giving too much away,” Simcoe said.
The topic, according to carsales.com.au, was addressed after Simcoe, a Melbourne native, was asked about Cadillac’s desired involvement with Formula 1 with Andretti Global—which has hit a roadblock within the soap opera that is F1—and whether involvement in the pinnacle of racing could spur development of such a car. (Recall that the Mercedes-AMG One is essentially the automaker’s current Formula 1 powertrain transplanted into a limited-run, ultra-high-performance road and track car.)
Perhaps more interestingly, Simcoe also reportedly admitted that such a hypercar may yet retain some element of internal combustion, despite the brand’s intention to go all-electric by 2030. “No, [the hypercar] wouldn’t have to be [electric], but it could be,” Simcoe said. “Whether it’s ICE or whether it’s EV, Cadillac is committed to performance.”
Keeping some form of internal combustion as part of the potential powertrain for the hypercar would make sense, as F1’s impending technical overhaul in 2026 will still retain some element of internal combustion for those power units as well.
Our minds went in another direction, however, and we immediately thought of the brand’s GTP cars that race in IMSA. Imagine that bellowing 5.5-liter, race-bred V-8 attached to the rear end of a road car that looked as good as the GTP car. Hey, dreaming is free, right?
It’s all just rumors and speculation for now, but that’s half the fun of it. Let’s cross our collective fingers and hope that Cadillac shocks the world with a hypercar in the near future.
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It is simply astonishing to see how General Motors wants to abandon their customer base and also destroy their cash hoard to develop cars such as this and the Cadillac Celestiq. Alfred Sloan would never approve of this strategy to go after smaller and smaller markets while the volumes keep decreasing. It is short sighted. It is ego driven. And we have seen plenty of corporations fall as their executives fail to innovate and stay head of competitors like Eastman-Kodak, Ericsson, Nokia, General Electric and Nike.
Cadillac has other things to work out before a Hyper car.
If they base it on a Corvette they will be faced again with a cheaper car that is as good. Corvette still has a 1000 hp Zora coming.
The XLR was good but slower and more expensive than the C5 or C6.
And it an automatic.
Hey, Cadillac! Don’t bother. You are totally irrelevant to “normal” American car enthusiasts now. The only interesting cars you have ever built (CTS-V, XLR, Blackwings) were dropped too quickly, and you have been trying too long to figure out who your audience might be. Take the hint. The game is over.
Irrelevant.
That’s the word I was looking for.
A Cadillac hypercar? Yeah I agree don’t bother. Work on getting your brand in order. We need a some V8’s in the future on something we can buy.
I don’t see Cadillac as a hyper car maker, but there could be a niche for them to fill with an all electric sports car as a luxurious performance alternative to the ICE Corvette. Btw, I don’t think of Cadillac as irrelevant when it comes to enthusiast cars. I have a “plain” 2016 2.0 liter turbo AWD CTS that is really a great handling sports sedan (especially on the original, run flat tires). It is a lot more nimble than you might expect from a Cadillac while still being quite comfortable.
Please note my comment is – “irrelevant to “normal” American car enthusiasts now”. Folks like me who can’t chug on down to the Caddy dealer and toss down $125K for a Blackwing CTS-V. If I did have $125K in my sock drawer to spend, I’m not sure the Cadillac would be my first choice. That is why I used the term “irrelevant”. I also noted they have produced a number of cars I would have been very happy to drive.
Cadillac is a great car company with history of excellence I have own numerous Cadillacs with absolutely no issues whatsoever in my driving experience with this car company. If they build a hyper car it is not for me it is to make a car for history. I owned a XLR and I didn’t care that it wasn’t as faster as a corvette it was very cool caddy that I loved driving