Standard Of The World: Hand-Built Cadillac Celestiq

Kleenex. Google. Zamboni. In the corporate world, one knows they’ve made it when a product is so well recognized that it becomes part of the English vernacular. There aren’t many brands in the automotive world which have been elevated to this lofty stature – save for Cadillac, of course.

Saying ‘the Cadillac of’ is, for some people, shorthand for describing something as the best in its class. John Travolta talked about the ‘Cadillac of minivans’ in the film Get Shorty thirty years ago, ace pilots will be more than eager to tell you how the WWI-era P-51 Mustang fighter plane is the ‘Cadillac of the skies’, and the brand has been immortalized in song over generations by everyone from Bruce Springsteen to Ariana Grande.

That’s one of the core reasons behind this new Celestiq, a moonshot halo car for Cadillac set to do battle in the rarified air with the likes of Rolls-Royce. Each machine is hand built at the General Motors Global Technical Center, a space previously only graced by secret concept vehicles and design studies, shuffling between eight independent stations staffed by artisans specially trained on Celestiq assembly.

“The people selected for this work needed to have a passion for automotive, both inside and outside the company,” explains Alex MacDonald, the former

Chief Engineer for Celestiq. “They must be able to speak to the whole car.” Remember, this is a machine whose price point will cozy up against a half-million dollars in our country. We suggested to MacDonald that no living person at Cadillac has ever worked on a project of this magnitude, and he agreed.

“This exclusivity is the challenging part,” MacDonald elaborated. “We look for technologies that work in this price arena. The chassis, for example, is not shared with anything else found at GM. Celestiq has allowed us to find partners such as a casting company which deploys 3D printing technologies.” In fact, six large castings make up the fundamental chassis, utilizing materials like aluminium and carbon fibre not just because of their weight properties but also because the material fits well with the car’s exclusive volume.

In building the Celestiq, its team has looked to the pages of history for some inspiration, landing heavily on a 1957 Eldorado Brougham for stimulus from both design and engineering perspectives. “When they were making the ’57,” said MacDonald, “Only the smoothest V8 engines were chosen. Now, we hand-pick the quietest drive motors for Celestiq.” That two-motor solution cranks out 600 horsepower, by the way. He is proud in being able to say its materials are re-establishing the Cadillac credibility; everything in the cabin that looks like metal is metal and not plated plastic – something which cannot always be said even in this rarified segment.

Erin Crossley is the Design Director for Celestiq, and takes pride in the same. “Nodding to our heritage without being blatantly retro was important,” she explained. Holistically, the main vehicles from Cadillac history from which inspiration is drawn are the 1934 V16 Aerodynamic Coupe and the aforementioned 1957 Eldorado Brougham. “The rare and unique ’34 is considered by many as a pinnacle of design and ushered the winged goddess,” Crossley enthused, before jumping into a conversation about Celestiq’s deep level of customization. “The ’57 had over forty combinations [of design options], which was a ton for the era.”

This follows through with the Celestiq. Buyers will work with a one-on-one concierge and a Cadillac designer to help guide their selections, collaboratively creating what will truly be a custom-commissioned one-of-one. Crossley speaks of reviving the spirit of handcrafted coaches with the Celestiq and given the amount of customization and assembly style, she has a point. Its painting process can take weeks, with steps all undertaken by hand. “Normal production cars have a very specific palette. Here, it can be almost anything.”

The brand is moving away from an alphabet soup of model names and knighting its new machines with actual words, even if they are created by a marketing team with fixation on a particular suffix. Gearheads recognize the allure of a CT5-V but the casual observer may see simple digits and consonants. And it’s clear the Celestiq team love cars. Head engineer MacDonald built himself a Lotus 7 type of hot rod in his garage, a machine which sits cheek-to-jowl with a 2019 Corvette Grand Sport and a ’51 pickup he hot-rodded in his youth. Meanwhile, design guru Crossley counts a 1977 Eldorado, which her great uncle bought brand new off the showroom floor, as one of her most cherished memories.

Cadillac says the Celestiq has availability by waitlist only and plan to make between 100 and 150 units per year; last year, Rolls-Royce comparative flooded the market with its Spectre by building more than double that figure. One could say, then, a Celestiq is the Cadillac of exclusive cars.